Author: raypalin

Evaluating Large Language Models as AP Essay Scorers

raypalin

My history students recently tested the potential of several leading large language models (LLMs) to do the work of Advanced Placement U.S. History essay graders. The models were provided with College Board scoring guidelines and were prompted to score sample College Board U.S. History exam responses. For each essay, the models made decisions on awarding… Continue reading Evaluating Large Language Models as AP Essay Scorers

Using Big Data to “Hack” the High School Research Paper

raypalin

This post introduces Digital APUSH: Revealing History with Chronicling America, a web project I built with the help of fifteen AP U.S. History students in 2016. The project was recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities, winning the K-12 prize in the agency’s nationwide historic newspaper data challenge. Besides traveling to DC with a… Continue reading Using Big Data to “Hack” the High School Research Paper

Defending @notrealTomJeff

raypalin

I got the blowback I anticipated when I shared my students' most recent digital history project, "If Jefferson had Used Twitter, and if Jefferson were Trump." More than one teacher said the project, in which students text mined Thomas Jefferson's papers and President Trump's tweets in order to tweet as @notrealTomJeff, was politically biased and… Continue reading Defending @notrealTomJeff

Statistically, 1919 Was a Very Bad Year

raypalin

"Was 1968 America's Bloodiest Year in Politics?" That question, the subject of a web article at History.com by George Washington University professor Matthew Dallek, became the focus of an end-of-year digital history project for my Advanced Placement history students. In attempting to answer the question, they set out to determine, quantitatively, what years within 20th-century… Continue reading Statistically, 1919 Was a Very Bad Year