Past, Present, and Future of Automate Essay Scoring
The Past, Present, and Future of Automated Essay Scoring
Posted on January 10, 2009
“No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be …” – Isaac Asimov (5) Introduction Although some realities of the classroom remain constant –they wouldn’t exist without the presence, whether actual or virtual, of students and teachers –the technology age is changing not only the way that we teach, but also how students learn. While the implications of this affect all disciplines, it is acutely evident in the teaching of writing. In the last twenty years, we have seen a rapid change in how we read, write, and process text. Compositionist Carl Whithaus maintains that “… writing is becoming an increasingly multimodal and multimedia activity” (xxvi). It is no surprise then, that there are currently 100 million blogs in existence worldwide and 171 billion email messages sent daily (Olson 23), and the trend toward digitally-based writing is also moving into the classroom. The typical student today writes “almost exclusively on a computer, typically one equipped with automated tools to help them spell, check grammar, and even choose the right words” (Cavanaugh 10). Furthermore, CCC notes that “[i]ncreasingly, classes and programs in writing require that students compose digitally” (785). Given the effect of technology on writing and the current culture of high stakes testing ushered in by the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, a seemingly natural product of the combination of the two is computer-based assessment of writing. An idea still in its infancy, the process of technological change in combination with federal testing mandates has resulted in several states incorporating “computer-based testing into their writing assessments, … not only because of students’ widespread familiarity with computers, but also because of the demands of college and the workplace, where
Posted on January 10, 2009
“No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be …” – Isaac Asimov (5) Introduction Although some realities of the classroom remain constant –they wouldn’t exist without the presence, whether actual or virtual, of students and teachers –the technology age is changing not only the way that we teach, but also how students learn. While the implications of this affect all disciplines, it is acutely evident in the teaching of writing. In the last twenty years, we have seen a rapid change in how we read, write, and process text. Compositionist Carl Whithaus maintains that “… writing is becoming an increasingly multimodal and multimedia activity” (xxvi). It is no surprise then, that there are currently 100 million blogs in existence worldwide and 171 billion email messages sent daily (Olson 23), and the trend toward digitally-based writing is also moving into the classroom. The typical student today writes “almost exclusively on a computer, typically one equipped with automated tools to help them spell, check grammar, and even choose the right words” (Cavanaugh 10). Furthermore, CCC notes that “[i]ncreasingly, classes and programs in writing require that students compose digitally” (785). Given the effect of technology on writing and the current culture of high stakes testing ushered in by the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, a seemingly natural product of the combination of the two is computer-based assessment of writing. An idea still in its infancy, the process of technological change in combination with federal testing mandates has resulted in several states incorporating “computer-based testing into their writing assessments, … not only because of students’ widespread familiarity with computers, but also because of the demands of college and the workplace, where