Thursday, October 4, 2012

NoRedInk

I really enjoyed the webinar on NoRedInk, the website that offers engaging, effective grammar activities for teachers and students. Created by English teacher Jeff Scheur, a U of M alum, the website takes grammar practice out of the realm of the mundane. One of the cleverest things about it, I think, is that the activities are tailored to individual students' interests. They can plug in the music, books, or movies they like - they can even list Facebook friends - and the website will generate sentences about this subject matter. The sentences will contain errors, and it is the students' job to correct them in a fun, interactive way, by moving around words and punctuation marks on the screen.

One thing Jeff pointed out is that by using this site with their classes, teachers can easily differentiate instruction - they can choose to assign certain quizzes only to those who really need them, for example. This makes me think about the power of technology, in general, to help us meet the varied needs of our students. Technology has brought an incredible amount of personalization to the work we do and the activities we engage in, and teachers can take full advantage of this.

I was heartened to hear what Jeff had to say about "autograding." Someone in the webinar raised the concern that technology would ultimately take over grading entirely - that all essays would one day be graded by machines. Jeff pointed out that we write not just for a grade, but "for an audience," and it's vital that teachers maintain the personal connection to students that comes from actively engaging with their writing. Sites like NoRedInk, he argues, allow teachers to deal with some of students' lower-level errors more quickly, so that they have more time to spend on higher-level thinking.

It's inspiring to see all of the ways that technology is reshaping education, and I am particularly gratified to see former U of M students doing such innovative things in their field!

1 comment:

  1. Have you heard that Pearson has an essay auto-grading program that is supposedly as reliable as human grading? Yipes - we have met the future and it is here!

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