Motivation or Love for the Computer

Summary:
The eSchool News staff published an article titled Technology helps boots student’s writing skills last Tuesday, April 15, 2008. They report that the use of writing software tools could have help students to improve writing skills. During the last five years, State and federal efforts to improve education have been focused on poorly performing students. The Nation’s Report Card 2007 showed that teen for eight to twelve grades have obtained better scores this year. The article talk about four software that teacher are using in many states across the nation. These programs are Writing Matters, Write ToLearn, My Access, and Criterion, and these were produced by non-profit and profit groups. Each program offers a variety of tools and resources to help student to identify their weaknesses, and to help teacher to evaluate students writing organization, structure and grammar. Software designers have used Knowledge Analysis Technologies
(KAT,) artificial intelligence, other sophisticate tools that could analyze meaning, content, and discourse characteristic. These applications also give feedback to student about they writing problems and progress. Nevertheless, some teachers think that these programs need to be use in combination with other effective pedagogical methodologies.

Personal Responses.

It is interesting to know that teacher could use some sophisticate tool to help their student to improve their writing. It is also interesting to hear that poorly performing students are progressing in their academicals performance. As a teacher, I have to recognize that time is the main teacher’s limitation at the moment to help students with their essays or any other writing assignment. 20 students could write at least 300 pages in a month. To read and grade this amount of pages, a teacher need at least eight hour more. If a program could give students feedback right away, teachers could use these eight hours to attend person to person their student. Maybe, the real reason of these changes is those teachers have had more time to teach. It is true, I agree with the implementation of these kinds of instructional technology tool all across the Earth. Finally. As Charles Chaplin said at The Great Dictator, “More that machines, we need humanity,” and “…focused intensely on poorly performing students” is a good sign of humanity, and have more time to attend students need is a big demonstration of humanity.