Ravitch’s Dubious Uses of Tech

Diane Ravitch, a member of the research faculty at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, warns us that although use of technologies and the Internet in our schools offer ways to enhance and inspire student learning, the news about how technology is being used in schools is not all positive. In an article in Scientific American, Ravitch points to problems involving standardization, confidentiality, machine assessment of student work, and online for-profit schools.  In an effort to make money, will entrepreneurs overlook the many advantages that technology offers our students?

Online Grading: What’s Your Opinion?

Online grading is a fact in many schools, whether teachers and administrators like it or not. With the speed of technology development, it looks like we’ll be able to track and report everything students do all day long.  There are certainly many positives for schools being able to give parents online access to their children’s grades. No longer are there problems such as students not bringing home test papers and report cards. Parents can see what’s what and team with teachers if help is needed.

I’m all for teachers having online grade books and for report cards being published for parents online, but I’m not so sure that parents should have immediate access to all tests, quiz, and essay grades before students can go home and explain the grades and show their work to their parents. For some parents, such access encourages “micromanagement” of their children’s work as they react to a number rather than the reasons why the grade was received.  There has to be a happy medium here since online reporting of grades takes away any flexibility teachers may have in adjusting grades of students who had troubles at the beginning of the term, but have done much better work as the term progressed. Some teachers complain that their school’s reporting systems take time from their teaching because many have to post assignments and grades, sometimes in more than one administrative program.  —And then, if grades are already online, does this mean that teachers will be less likely to call parents and less likely to request face-to-face conferences?

What Automated Grading of Essays Can’t Do

Although research from the University of Akron found that automated grading of essays can be as accurate as human grading, the conclusions are debatable. Think of those students who are terrific at creative writing but don’t follow normal patterns of writing. If their work doesn’t contain what the robot grader is expecting, too bad. Akron’s leading researcher, Mark D. Shermis, admits that the programs aren’t good at evaluating creativity and should only be used as supplementary resources for teachers who teach the basics of writing. English teacher Renee Moore says that it’s not the grade that’s important on an essay; it’s the learning process that takes place through student-teacher interaction. Automated graders can’t sit down next to students and go over their essays with them. They can’t tell fact from fiction, and according to Les Perelman, Director of Writing at MIT, they can be fooled.