Blair Barr
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Presentation Evaluating Writing in the Age of Artificial Intelligence more
Sat, Jul 19, 15:10-15:35 Asia/Tokyo
AI presents new challenges to evaluating writing that must be addressed critically. Language teachers are now encountering AI-produced submissions to an increasing degree. Although there are some benefits to gain with a critical eye and a trained ability to focus on language forms corrected by AI, AI tools have also raised teachers' concerns about academic integrity, particularly AI-facilitated cheating. This presentation will highlight one approach that can foster favorable outcomes for their students' development as language learners. To ensure students remain focused on their own personal growth as language learners, the presenter’s grading scheme for written assignments has evolved to prioritize students' abilities to produce presentation plans in writing. The evaluation of this assignment has also evolved to focus more on the writing process and the students' deliveries of their final presentations. In this way, students can more honestly produce level-appropriate reports that can be presented with confidence. Also, AI-produced presentations that are too difficult for the students to present confidently will be poorly evaluated. Throughout the presentation, discussions will also be opened to the audience to explore how everyone's approaches to evaluating writing have evolved with the development of AI tools.
Forum Learner Development SIG Forum: Feedback and Autonomy more
Sat, Jul 19, 17:00-18:00 Asia/Tokyo
The three presentations in this Learner Development SIG forum will explore how technology can be used to both give feedback and also support the self-directed development of students’ language learning skills. In the first presentation, Katherine Song focuses on providing EFL students with feedback on their speech output through computer-generated transcripts of their audio or video recordings. By uploading their speeches to the learning management system (Microsoft Teams), transcripts are generated rapidly, accompanied by worksheets to guide self-evaluation and improvement plans. The presenter would appreciate an opportunity to share how this technology has been valued by the students in her Japanese university EFL classes. The second presentation, by Blair Barr, reviews student appreciation of the feedback they receive from online tests as homework. However, the presentation highlights the advantages of distributing online tests through a school’s learning management system rather than with external platforms like Google Forms. Students are significantly more likely to complete tests accessed through the school's system, suggesting that ease of access is a crucial motivator for many Japanese EFL students. Despite challenges of deadlines and question formats, the students indeed recognize the benefits of the feedback provided. In the third presentation, James Underwood introduces a classroom-based Self-Directed Learning (SDL) course supported by a website that is used in place of a Self-Access Learning Centre. Students choose a language skill, set SMART goals, follow a four-week learning plan, and track their progress using shared Google Docs with teacher feedback. All presentations underscore technology's role in empowering students with accessible tools for self-improvement and learning efficiency.
