[3/3] Those insights grew sharper, I feel, because students had to put themselves in my shoes and imagine how *someone else* would view and assess their work.

Several told me afterward that getting outside of their own heads wasn't easy, but it was productive.

[2/3] There's some (intentionally?) comic glazing, of course ("He turned in the best essay I have ever seen in my whole career! He deserves all the extra credit!"), but there's also some astute, honest insights about their own strengths and areas for improvement.

The hard copies also (1) show you who actually has the reading with them in class (although we shouldn't be the police) and (2) cuts down on distractions. I think that this is one of the last opportunities to model slow, focused thinking for students.

I've almost exclusively been using hard copies over the last year, and it's produced good results overall. Beyond the genAI issues, the printed copies also encourage students to develop a system of annotation -- more than just highlighting half the page.