"Life In The 21st Century"

Here's the next big thing coming out of Michigan...
Mich. to grade essays via computer Here's a blurb from the eSchoolNews article, "Essay tests soon could take a high-tech twist in Michigan classrooms: State education officials want to launch a pilot project this school year that would use a computer program to grade students' essay exams. "

• Details of Michigan'spossible essay-grading pilotMichigan education officials hope to start a pilot program that would use computer software to evaluate some essay answers on student exams this school year. Here are the early details:
• Sixth-grade classrooms, most likely those already participating in a state program that provides laptop computers to individual students, would be chosen for the pilot program.
• Students would take their essay tests on a computer, so their answers would be typed in.

I like the idea. However, I also know that there's a piece missing when it comes to grading and reading essays. Myself, I have graded thousands of essays and each one has the human element that only a teacher can foster and relay back to the student...the emotion, if you will. On the brighter side, if this Michigan method can help prevent the "copy and pasters" that's reason alone to buy the software. Personally, I would leave the grammatical critiques for the computers to make and the comments for the teacher to state upon grading papers. It's certainly something we should keep our eyes on and be open to.