Yes, multimodality gets tricky with assessments. Ideally, you would set core standards or outcomes achievable through both modes. Not always easy to accomplish. Good on you for trying!!!
A way forward has to be multimodality & possibly choice of output. This works more in the year groups which don’t have essay-based, high stakes exams to prep for. If the assessments moved away from essays and writing - in my subject at least, English - as the ONLY acceptable form of assessment then teachers and students alike would be freed up from the need to examine full essay provenance. Plus, of course, they can get an answer from AI on one screen then type it out. Long winded but kids are nothing if not inventive in circumnavigating systems when they have left it to the last minute!
I set my yr 9s (13 yr olds) a choice of output for a short written homework recently.
Without AI - so handwritten or typed with a reflection, or, with AI + process disclosure (ie they handed in at least 2 versions, plus their prompts, plus a reflection, plus a load of other ‘processy’ things)
Most chose to just write the thing, unsurprisingly, as I’d made the “with AI” a bit of a faff, kind of deliberately to be honest.
Then, my marking became weird.
I realised that for one lot I was evaluating their creation and the other lot their process. I need to think about this a bit more carefully… all suggestions welcome!
Thanks for this. I'd just add that asking students to document their progress is - for me at least - more about them learning how to learn and less about checking everything or giving them the feeling of watching their every move. I do trust them to be able to follow my guidance and instructions. Some abuse that trust and try to trick me :) It's a fine line of course, between trust and checking their process. I just glance at the documentation. My priority is for them to make their thinking and reasoning visible.
Thanks Alicia. Good to hear from you. Yes you are surfacing a critical tension. We must observe to evaluate. But monitor to me denotes a shift in intention, no?
My aim is to help them be honest if that makes sense. I have 14 year old boys - so I have to watch a few very closely. They‘re in a phase at the moment. :) The girls are fine. No need to check them too much.
I‘d also say we are all learning to use these tools so we‘re experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t. Perhaps I won‘t need this in a few years as the students get used to working with AI. But for now I‘m frankly curious to see how they‘re working with the tools. It depends on the relationship ultimately. My class knows I respect them and want them to succeed. I want to give them as much free rein as possible. So I watch to see if I can loosen or if I need to tighten with a few.
Don’t know if that makes sense. For my age group I feel it works.
Thank you for such a thoughtful post. I love how you write! You crafted a wonderful tone throughout that is challenging yet empathetic and shows how scholars frame our arguments with eachother. We need more productive arguing like this!
Yes, multimodality gets tricky with assessments. Ideally, you would set core standards or outcomes achievable through both modes. Not always easy to accomplish. Good on you for trying!!!
Excellent as ever: thank you so much.
A way forward has to be multimodality & possibly choice of output. This works more in the year groups which don’t have essay-based, high stakes exams to prep for. If the assessments moved away from essays and writing - in my subject at least, English - as the ONLY acceptable form of assessment then teachers and students alike would be freed up from the need to examine full essay provenance. Plus, of course, they can get an answer from AI on one screen then type it out. Long winded but kids are nothing if not inventive in circumnavigating systems when they have left it to the last minute!
I set my yr 9s (13 yr olds) a choice of output for a short written homework recently.
Without AI - so handwritten or typed with a reflection, or, with AI + process disclosure (ie they handed in at least 2 versions, plus their prompts, plus a reflection, plus a load of other ‘processy’ things)
Most chose to just write the thing, unsurprisingly, as I’d made the “with AI” a bit of a faff, kind of deliberately to be honest.
Then, my marking became weird.
I realised that for one lot I was evaluating their creation and the other lot their process. I need to think about this a bit more carefully… all suggestions welcome!
Another excellent post, Nick, that gets right to the core themes of what education is all about, even in the AI era.
Do you have any plans to put all of your individual essays together into some kind of book/e-book?
Thanks for this. I'd just add that asking students to document their progress is - for me at least - more about them learning how to learn and less about checking everything or giving them the feeling of watching their every move. I do trust them to be able to follow my guidance and instructions. Some abuse that trust and try to trick me :) It's a fine line of course, between trust and checking their process. I just glance at the documentation. My priority is for them to make their thinking and reasoning visible.
Thanks Alicia. Good to hear from you. Yes you are surfacing a critical tension. We must observe to evaluate. But monitor to me denotes a shift in intention, no?
My aim is to help them be honest if that makes sense. I have 14 year old boys - so I have to watch a few very closely. They‘re in a phase at the moment. :) The girls are fine. No need to check them too much.
I‘d also say we are all learning to use these tools so we‘re experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t. Perhaps I won‘t need this in a few years as the students get used to working with AI. But for now I‘m frankly curious to see how they‘re working with the tools. It depends on the relationship ultimately. My class knows I respect them and want them to succeed. I want to give them as much free rein as possible. So I watch to see if I can loosen or if I need to tighten with a few.
Don’t know if that makes sense. For my age group I feel it works.
How about just notebooks and pencils?
Thank you for such a thoughtful post. I love how you write! You crafted a wonderful tone throughout that is challenging yet empathetic and shows how scholars frame our arguments with eachother. We need more productive arguing like this!
Thanks so much.
Thanks, Mark! I don’t have anything in the works. Maybe I should?