Oct 26, 2017 01:05 AM
https://undark.org/article/rewarding-bul...classroom/
EXCERPT: Picture this: you have written an essay. You researched the topic and carefully constructed your argument. You submit your essay online and receive your grade within seconds. But how can anyone read, comprehend, and judge your essay that quickly? Well, the answer is no one can. Your essay was marked by a computer. Would you trust the mark you received? Would you approach your next essay with the same effort and care?
These are the questions that parents, teachers and unions are asking about automated essay scoring (AES). The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) proposes to use this program to grade essays, like persuasive writing questions, in its NAPLAN standardized testing scheme for primary and secondary schools.
Algorithms don’t know whether a text has any worth or relationship to our world at all. ACARA has defended its decision and suggested that computer-based marking can match or even surpass the consistency of human markers.
In my view, this misses the point. Computers are unable to genuinely read and understand what a text is about. A good argument has little worth when marks are awarded by a structural comparison with other texts and not by judging its ideas. More importantly though, we risk encouraging the writing of text that follows “the script” but essentially says nothing of worth. In other words, the writing of BS...
MORE: https://undark.org/article/rewarding-bul...classroom/
EXCERPT: Picture this: you have written an essay. You researched the topic and carefully constructed your argument. You submit your essay online and receive your grade within seconds. But how can anyone read, comprehend, and judge your essay that quickly? Well, the answer is no one can. Your essay was marked by a computer. Would you trust the mark you received? Would you approach your next essay with the same effort and care?
These are the questions that parents, teachers and unions are asking about automated essay scoring (AES). The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) proposes to use this program to grade essays, like persuasive writing questions, in its NAPLAN standardized testing scheme for primary and secondary schools.
Algorithms don’t know whether a text has any worth or relationship to our world at all. ACARA has defended its decision and suggested that computer-based marking can match or even surpass the consistency of human markers.
In my view, this misses the point. Computers are unable to genuinely read and understand what a text is about. A good argument has little worth when marks are awarded by a structural comparison with other texts and not by judging its ideas. More importantly though, we risk encouraging the writing of text that follows “the script” but essentially says nothing of worth. In other words, the writing of BS...
MORE: https://undark.org/article/rewarding-bul...classroom/