A new concept in teaching has just swept the floor at Timpview: AI in teaching. While beforehand, this may have been implemented discreetly into the curriculum for some teachers, there is now an open discussion and usage of AI in teaching at Timpview High School.
You may have noticed that your English teachers have begun using AI to grade papers. Specifically, some teachers are using “WriteGrader” to grade and provide feedback for your papers. Writegrader claims to be an “AI-powered grading assistant” where teachers can select a rubric, upload assignments, and then review and approve each paper. So, in a sense, your teacher will upload your paper and then read through what the AI corrections are and see if they match what they believe about your paper.
In theory, this should provide accurate scoring, save time, provide ample feedback that teachers could never do on their own time, maintain rubrics created from the teacher’s own criteria, and also maintain subjectivity and integrity to the task of grading papers.
On one hand, this resource could save hundreds of hours and provide more time for students to learn about writing and use real feedback to improve their Language Arts skills. Additionally, AI-powered grading assistants can help teachers tremendously improve their own teaching abilities if they are not constantly caught up on grading. Because they have already created the rubric and set expectations for assignments, the use of AI while teaching shouldn’t be something negative. However, on the other hand, this tool can seem a bit threatening for students and also emit feelings of being disconnected from the course.
For me, an avid English student, I have always loved writing essays and then receiving feedback on my writing. However, with WriteGrader, I don’t know what to expect. While it feels subjective, and I can have more feedback on everything that I’ve written, I feel less of a connection to the importance of that feedback. I have no connection to the AI grading system, whereas I do have a connection to my teachers and I value their feedback on my work.
This use of AI in grading English papers also opens the door for other uses of AI in schools. While it makes the most sense in writing-based subjects, there could be program initiatives at Timpview for every subject. This idea and use of resources can be simultaneously cool and terrifying. It also begs the question: how should students be using AI? If teachers are justifiably using AI to help with their job, what is the limit for what students should or can be doing with AI? Right now, it is a grey area, but with the implementation of AI in teaching, there seems to be a push for more AI-based responses in students.
And furthermore, if AI has become taboo within students, why has it all the sudden become so welcoming in the teaching world? These questions are important to ask as AI becomes more prevalent in our everyday lives, and especially in our educations.
