I do actually find this to be insane. Clearly it's just one further step in ensuring that students don't think, as a computer will only be able to recognise pre-programmed words, patterns and responses. Marks can only be given to those who simply reproduce someone else's thoughts. I doubt very much that a computer could even mark these responses consistently. It seems like it's almost a new heresy to suggest that humans are not rendered entirely redundant by machines. It is a heresy now to question technology.
Well, as someone once said, good luck running your world; it is no longer mine.
“Pre-programmed words, patterns and responses” — this is precisely how schoolwork is marked nowadays. I remember writing an essay in the form of a discussion between the characters from “The Wizard of Oz” (a bit like your Nagai Kafu university dissertation); the teacher glanced at it, and threw it in the bin. This was shortly before I dropped out.
I sympathise. Of course, I imagine you were able to discern from this that the teacher was an idiot. My fear is that, when exams are marked by computers, students will simply believe it’s ‘objective’ and lose all ability to question. I was thinking about this – the reason that essays marked by computers seems acceptable to some, is because of a supposed increase in efficiency and consistency of marking (this seems dubious to me, but anyway) – this is seen simply, I suppose, as the logical next step in exam-based education. I think exam-based education is, itself, the problem – the idea that you can give someone’s intellect marks out of ten etc.
Oh dear. But, I have marked hundreds of exam essays and well, after 20, maybe 10, one does start to mark like a robot.
I’ve marked plenty, too. I don’t think it’s possible to be fair, because a mark out of 100 doesn’t really take into account the different qualities of the students, even in simple exercises, let alone in something like an essay. However, I think it’s possible for a human to be fairer than a robot, because a human is actually conscious and able to assess ability. The robots know far less than the students. How can they mark their work?But, as I say, I think it’s exam-based education itself that’s the problem. I understand why it exists. Society and parents want to ‘asses’ children as they jump through a series of loops that are supposedly making them good employees and so on. It seems inevitable in our current society. But I think society is wrong, too. So… I realise it’s not an easy problem to solve.