The article, "What Can Automation Tell Us About Agency?," firstly discussed the notion that we could be seeing even more automated grading in our school systems. For more than a decade, automated grading has been making strides in K-12 and higher education. This grading system has allowed for quicker turnaround times in grading. Automated grading has been able to take a written document or speech and give the student instant feedback. I think that there are many positives that come with automated grading, but I think there are also negatives. Automated grading I think can work very well for written documents. They allow for faster grading between papers, instant feedback, and a leveler field for all students. Where I think automated grading doesn't work is in giving speeches. The whole point of public speaking is to give our speech in front of an audience. Automated grading doesn't allow for the personal touch that giving speeches does. A respondent of a survey said, "Similar to written communication, speeches are used to express one's idea to other people. Computer assessment cannot be made sensitive enough to truly distinguish how a message is received by human beings (#S11)."
Beyond giving speeches and writing papers on an automated system, moving items as such to a digital/virtual platform isn't always the best option.We as a society have changed over the past two years in how we communicate with others. During the beginning times of the pandemic, we weren't able to be with others in a large group setting. We transferred our large group communication over to platforms such as Zoom, Google Hangout, Microsoft Teams. Still, we find many of these interactions to be over these platforms. It is easy to turn cameras off and not be engaged with others who are speaking or presenting. This is limiting our involvement and interaction with conversations happening.
I think about the 2020-2021 school year where a majority of classes were online. I had a heavy course load where all of my classes were via Zoom. The start of a new semester was wearing down and I found myself falling into a habit of keeping my camera off. Taking the idea that having meetings and presentations on a virtual platform, causes a disconnect with those in the same space. Miller's idea of how automation in our society opened the discussion up for how we interact with others. She said "Interaction is necessary for agency because it is what creates the kinetic energy of performance and puts it to rhetorical use (Miller 150)." If we take a step back and see how automation can change a situation, we'll be able to make that connection of how to interact and respond. This is why face-to-face communication is so important.
Miller, Carolyn R. “What Can Automation Tell Us about Agency?” Rhetoric Society Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 2, 2007, p. 150., https://doi.org/10.1080/02773940601021197.
Hello Kristine! I think this article was super interesting, if not a little alarming. In theory the idea of automation when it comes to grading is appealing for teachers, school board members, and anyone trying to maintain a budget for a school system, yet this article did bring up some worrisome arguments. As you said this process does save time and money, but can also limit the experience children get with certain learning opportunities. For example, in the reading there was a grading tool being introduced to public speaking assessments. The point of public speaking is to learn to communicate clearly and succinctly in front of an audience, but how can one learn to do this if they only give speeches to an automated device. If a person cannot practice giving speeches in front of people will they really be able to learn how to overcome some of the more difficult portions of speaking publicly?
ReplyDeleteI think this article is taking a look at something that has been under researched, while being a very prevalent concern. The more rapidly grading tools and devices have been implemented into schools the more rapidly we'll start to see the effects of these changes come into place.
The point you bring up about online classes and covid is important. As you said a lot of us moved our school, work, and social gatherings online. So many people experienced zoom fatigue and the introduction of more and more technology can contribute to this feeling. The lack of interaction the pandemic caused will only be exacerbated by introducing grading tools that limit the time students spend with one another as well as their teacher. While these tools can be useful in certain times and places we'll collectively have to decide what amount of automation we can allow into our daily lives.
Hi Kristine,
ReplyDeleteI also chose to write about this article because I thought it was really interesting and especially relevant to the world we are living in today. I really liked the quote that you used in the first paragraph that talks about how a computer is smart, but not smart enough to be able to distinguish exactly how a message is received by an audience. I would say this is definitely one of the downsides to automation. When it comes to automated grading, I also thought that there were situations where it could be positive and negative. One area that I do not always think automated grading should be used is on math tests. In math, there is often only one correct answer which would be ideal for an automated grading system. But oftentimes, teachers will give partial credit for the work that you show even if the final answer you got is wrong. An automated grading system does not have the capability to do this, it will just mark the question wrong. On the other hand, I can see how useful automated grading systems can be for teachers. It can free up a lot of time for them when it comes to grading and could allow for more lesson planning, teaching, etc. that they did not have before.
If you were a teacher, do you think that you would utilize all that automated grading and other technology can offer? Or would you try to find a balance between automated and human conducted? I think it would be interesting to look into what teachers decide to do based on how long they have been teaching, the school district they teach in, and their own age. I think that older teachers are probably less likely to use these technologies as well as schools that are in lower-income districts. It would be something interesting to look into!