The development of strong writing skills is a critical (and somewhat obvious) goal within the classroom. Individuals across the world are now expected to reach a high level of writing proficiency to achieve success in both academic settings and the workplace (Geiser & Studley, 2001; Powell, 2009; Sharp, 2007). Unfortunately, strong writing…

This paper aims at proposing a technique for students learning English as a foreign language when they collaboratively write an argumentative essay in a wiki environment. A wiki environment and collaborative work play an important role within the academic writing task. Nevertheless, an appropriate and systematic work assignment is required in…

Schools are scrambling to prepare students for the writing assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards. In some states, writing has not been assessed for over a decade. Yet, with the use of computerized grading of the student's writing, many teachers are wondering how to best prepare students for the writing assessments that will…

This article explores the power of English language learners' digital stories as student-centered projects and offers practical suggestions for language teachers interested in trying digital storytelling. The article explains pedagogical practices and digital storytelling in the context of contemporary scholarship on inclusive pedagogy,…

The impacts of computers on writing have been widely studied for three decades. Even basic computers functions, i.e. word processing, have been of great assistance to writers in modifying their essays. The research on Automated Essay Scoring (AES) has revealed that computers have the capacity to function as a more effective cognitive tool (Attali,…

Describes the three most promising approaches to essay scoring by computer: (1) Project Essay Grade (PEG; E. Page, 1966); (2) Intelligent Essay Assessor (IEA; T. Landauer, 1997); and (3) E-rater (J. Burstein, Educational Testing Service). All of these proprietary systems return grades that correlate meaningfully with those of human raters. (SLD)

Developers of the Intelligent Essay Assessor claim that it saves time in evaluating college students' essays and improves the assessment. This and the growing number of other automated grading programs use the same technologies that make computer-based tutoring possible. Many academics remain skeptical of grading technologies, citing the…

This article presents results of a study that compared critical thinking in two writing samples (essays) from gifted adolescents who attended a residential school. The essays were written at the beginning of the junior year (when students were admitted to the school) and at the beginning of the senior year. All students in the study composed their…

Describes Apex (Assistant for Preparing Exams), a tool for evaluating student essays based on their content. By comparing an essay and the text of a given course on a semantic basis, the system can measure how well the essay matches the text. Various assessments are presented to the student regarding the topic, outline, and coherence of the essay.…

Focuses on how the Internet has been used in the social studies at North Hagerstown High School (Maryland). Relates what works in the digital classroom and describes examples of student essays to cross-disciplinary units published on the Web. Discusses how students' web sites are assessed and the down side to using the Internet. (CMK)

The authors of this article provide a forum using Louis Owens's novel "Wolfsong" as a collaborative reading project which aims to gain experience teaching Native American literatures and to explore the effect of bringing an author directly into the classroom discussion. The following sections reflect the structure of the project: (1) Reflective…

This paper outlines an e-Learning services architecture offering semantic-based services to students and tutors, in particular ways to browse and obtain information through web services. Services could include registration, authentication, tutoring systems, smart question answering for students' queries, automated marking systems and a student…

When students take their first upper division mathematics course after an introduction to proof course, they are often overwhelmed by the prospect of writing in a mathematics course. In mathematics, unlike other disciplines, students are very seldom asked to respond via writing to a reading assignment, to write an essay about a topic they have…