-------- Original Message --------
Subject: FW: Monthly Meeting -- March 18 -- Natural Language Processing
for Automated Evaluation of Student Writing
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 10:55:51 -0500
From: John J. Beck Sr. <jjbeck@...>
To: Rich Byrne <rfbyrne@...>



Rich,

Please forward this meeting announcement to all NJCC e-mail addresses.

John
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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-acm_members@...
[mailto:owner-acm_members@...] On Behalf Of DO NOT REPLY
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 9:08 AM
To: acm_members
Subject: ACM: Monthly Meeting -- March 18 -- Natural Language Processing for
Automated Evaluation of Student Writing

Our monthly meeting will be held

March 18, 2004, 8 PM, at Sarnoff Corp. in Princeton

Speaker: Jill Burstein and Claudia Leacock, Educational Testing Service
Topic: Natural Language Processing for Automated Evaluation of Student
Writing

There is an increased use of educational applications based on natural
language processing for both largescale assessment and classroom
instruction. This has occurred for two primary reasons. First, there has
been a significant increase in the availability of computers in schools.
Second, there has been notable development in computer-based educational
applications that incorporate advanced methods in natural language
processing that can be used to evaluate students' work.

Applications that automate the evaluation of essays use text-based NLP
techniques that employ feature extraction and statistical machine learning.
Such applications are commercially available, and are being used
internationally by thousands of students. We will discuss these writing
evaluation capabilities in the context of a deployed application,
CriterionSM Online Essay Evaluation Service. Criterion has two complementary
applications. The first, e-rater, is an automated essay scoring system. The
second, Critique Writing Analysis Tools, is a suite of programs that detect
errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics, The two applications identify
discourse elements in the essay and recognize elements of undesirable style.

-------------------------------------
An abstract and details for this meeting as well as other chapter activities
is available at http://www.acm.org/chapters/princetonacm/

This meeting is free and open to the public. Students, and their parents,
are welcome -- and refreshments are served. Doors open at 7:15 pm -- come
early to network with your colleagues.

-------------------------------------
The remaining activities for the 2003-2004 season are

# Thu 15 Apr - Why Technology Policy Really Really Matters, Barbara Simons,
ACM # Sat 1 May - Sun 2 May - 28th Annual Trenton Computer Festival, Raritan
Center, Edison, NJ # Sat 8 May - Digital Media Bootcamp: Technology and
Applications, Douglas Dixon, Manifest Technology (Annual Professional
Development Seminar) # Thu 20 May (tentative) - The Architectural Evolution
of Computers, George Trimble (Annual Dinner Meeting)

We will hold an organizational meeting during the early summer to elect new
officers, solicit additional volunteers for the chapter board and plan the
2004-2005 season. Please bring suggestions for the coming year to the
attention of the officers or send an email message to jmatey@....

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A pre-meeting dinner will be held at Ruby Tuesday's on US-1 (southbound
side) just north of the Harrison Street entrance to Sarnoff. Dinner starts
at 6:00 pm.
If you plan to attend the dinner please send us a note --
mailto:princetonacm@... -- so that we know how many seats to hold. If
you arrive from the south, you will need to go past Ruby Tuesday's and turn
around at the next intersection to the north.

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