- Friday, 10 July 2009
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It is always the best policy to tell the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar - Jerome K. Jerome
Students can't write any more
AUSSIE TEACHERS FEAR that keyboard-savvy kids are forgetting basic handwriting skills.
With years 11 and 12 having to sit 15 to 20 hours of hand-written examinations for the Higher School Certificate, teachers are terrified they will fail because they can't scribble down the answers.
According to Associated Press, handwriting has gotten so bad that schools are thinking that they will have to incorporate handwriting lessons.
One senior English teacher at Barker College, on the North Shore, Sue Marks, says she has had top students forced to do remedial courses to get their handwriting legible enough for examiners to read.
The NSW Board of Studies, which supervises the curriculum in all NSW schools is looking at ways to incorporate keyboards and computers in exams. µ
L'Inq
AP
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"The NSW Board of Studies, which supervises the curriculum in all NSW schools is looking at ways to incorporate keyboards and computers in exams."

Err, why?

Shouldn't they be looking at ways to incorporate hand writing into lessons?
...depending on what it is that they're allegedly trying to, y'know, test here, wouldn't it make more sense to find a way to incorporate a keyboard into the testing process? Wouldn't typing everything be easier for everyone, here in the future?
I figured this one out a while ago. I've been out of school for a few years, and I haven't been able to write in cursive for years.

My printing looks like a half-retarded monkey fornicating with a pad of paper. Its gotten so bad that even I have to type and print a two line note to the misses.

On the other hand, she definitely understand all of my stick figure drawings of her with enormous jugs... even though she pretends she doesn't.

There are just so many clay tablets and styli I can put in my school bag. Teachers just can't read my Babylonian cuniform anymore. Guess I'll use this keyboard thing.
much like they will be doing at work in a few years.

Speaking text and then using a text page editor like Write/Word to edit it is how it should be taight. Then everyone will be more productive per hour.

Any notes can also be saved and any information relevant for students to have in the exam can also be on this screen(s). Less change of cheating.

It's funny that we're so slow at moving forward when we have had the technology in our hands for over 10 years.
Frankly, I can hardly care if the next generation knows handwriting or not.
But really, somebody should teach them how to just write (y'know, spelling and all that useless stuff).
I can't operate a pen any more. It rarely comes up. I'll have writers' cramp in about 5 minutes at most and will have barely managed a paragraph. Keyboards are best.

Interested_party, the greatest barrier to adoption of speech recognition is not the technology, that works fine already, it's open plan offices.
"Schools are thinking that they will have to incorporate handwriting lessons." Weren't they doing this anyway? I learned to write in school!
I took handwriting classes in elementary school to learn old-fashioned block letters and then to learn cursive. I did poorly in those classes, not failing, but definitely my worst marks. Still, I prefer writing things out by hand if I am trying to be creative. Crossing things out (but having them still legible if you need to reconsider), making notes, drawing arrows to connect things, all are much easier with pen and paper. I never write in cursive though... even I can't read my own cursive writing.