Author(s): Damien Brooks, Head of Customer Service, Elastik
March 2024
Our team are thrilled to announce the most exciting update to Writemark.ai in over a year. The BRAND-NEW update enables AI handwriting recognition for all teachers using the platform.
This update allows Writemark to seamlessly mark and feedback on handwritten responses. After marking, Writemark provides educators with contextual feedback mapped to the NAPLAN rubric in the same way as digital response marking.
On top of the administrative tasks of marking responses and providing individual feedback, Writemark takes this data and analyses it to highlight gaps and suggest progression topics in your students’ written skill.
I like how when it marks student writing it provides good feedback and specific feedback, taking things the students have actually written and used in their writing.
This update comes at a vital time for our teachers and educators looking to help their Primary students improve their handwriting capabilities in preparation for Secondary school and beyond.
It would seem in recent years that handwriting is undergoing a little bit of an identity crisis. Writing has been removed from the Year 7 Victorian curriculum and now only Year 3 students are tested on it during their NAPLAN exams. Girls are consistently outperforming boys and illegible handwriting has “caused a surge in VCE students seeking special examination arrangements which include typing“.
students in 2018 received special arrangements for exams.
students in 2013 received the same special arrangements.
So, what’s the big deal?
Well, writing has a significant affect on a variety of different skills and, without these early in a child’s education, will have a knock-on impacts on key responsibilities.
For instance, skills such as natural spacing, letter formation, pencil grip and even posture while sitting are all subliminal learned skills with good writing practice.
Good writing ability does not develop naturally and specific practice during a school day is needed to pay attention to this skill area.
The future of handwriting with Writemark
With our latest optimisation, Writemark is now poised to keep the playing field level for students of all backgrounds while keeping the workload down.
We know that, in the age of AI and digital submissions, legitimate student work is difficult to authenticate. Asking students to handwrite responses to writing prompts gives teachers an opportunity to keep an eye on student capabilities away from a computer screen.
With handwriting recognition on Writemark, we are now able to offers users the ability to mark handwritten responses in the blink of an AI while still allowing them to test handwriting skill at no cost to their workload.
This update is the first of many updates to be available to schools using Writemark in 2024. With users in the UK and Australia, our development team are now working towards the next update to rubrics, integrations and UX/UI optimisations.
Be sure to follow our social media channels for both elastik and Writemark to get a sneak peak of the platforms in action.