ABSTRACT
This book examines the researchers, policy makers, and educators must adopt a critical stance with regard to software-powered technologies. One consider the debates around rubrics, one must account for the fact that we use rubrics today to generate data and data eventually find their way into software space. NCTE took such a rigorous and public stance on the issue is to be applauded. NCTE suggest investing in online portfolio systems rather than AES software. The report argues that the use of software to automatically assess student writing contradicts sound pedagogy. Whereas some insightful work has identified how AES software can be used well in classrooms, such work does not make explicit the world view of software and the companies who create it. Critically integrating quantitative and literary readings of texts have the potential to expose our students to poetic songs that are as grounded in numbers as they are in the sweet fat of their fleshy selves.
