I went to the website -
http://www.vantagelearning.com/myaccess/I wish I could say that I had hear of this, but I have always wondered if computers could somehow be used to help children learn some aspects of how to write. Personally, I find that being 'corrected' by a spell checker much less emotional than being 'proofed' by a human. I'm glad your teacher turned off the grading option, because it seems very oriented towards writing for state assesments.
Here's their blurb:
At School :: MY Access!�
With MY Access!�, students are motivated to write more and attain higher scores on statewide writing assessments. By using MY Access! in the classroom, teachers can provide students with the practice they need to improve their writing skills. The program's powerful scoring engine grades students' essays instantly and provides targeted feedback, freeing teachers from grading thousands of papers by hand and giving them more time to conduct differentiated instruction and curriculum planning.
I think that it's good for computers to replace the more dull and repetitive parts of "being a teacher" so that the best teachers have more time to devote to things that can't be done by computer, and the worst ones are limited in their ability to hold children back. Sort of an educational safety net? ((Humor Alert)) Now the question is - how long do we Moms have to wait before we get replaced, opps, I mean supported, as well? ((wink))
((raised eyebrows))
Trinity