Date: 26 July 2022
Location: University of Sydney
For this hybrid forum, the use of Automated Essay Scoring (AES) in standardised assessments in Australia is framed as a sociotechnical controversy. The AES hybrid forum is based on a technical democracy approach that seeks to bring together multiple forms of expertise, to create collective learning and experimentation about socio-technical controversies. As the name suggests, socio-technical controversies have both social and technical dimensions.
We aim to: i) collectively learn about the social and technical limits of the new forms of technology – such as Automated Essay Marking – that are being used in education sector reform and innovation; ii) examine the usefulness of a technical democracy approach to help us collectively understand and respond to other socio-technical controversies in education; and, iii) identify key issues and recommendations to inform education and public policy-making.
This event is sponsored by the Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC). Professor Kalervo N. Gulson (USyd), Professor Greg Thompson (QUT) and Dr Teresa Swist (USyd) convened the event, which was part of the SSSHARC Education Innovations project and the SSHARC James Fellowship program. Nineteen participants from the following stakeholder groups are contributing their expertise: academia, government, education, and the Teachers Federation.
