pen and ink
I read recently of a proposal to
allow students of a certain university to use laptops in the exam room instead
of writing their answers using a pen and paper.
At first, I could only think of
the advantages such a system would mean for all concerned. I can remember having four, three hour
written examinations crammed over just two days. It took my hands and wrists about a week to
recover, such was the pain endured. And
I dread to think how the examiner actually managed to read what I’d written as
the days wore on.
So, a win win for both student
and examiner then?
But then I thought about the
pitfalls. Cheating of course would be a
major problem. Unless that is the
college provide freshly formatted, standard laptops for each exam. Pricey.
And there’d always be someone able to circumvent any security measures
put in place. A hi-tech alternative to
sneaking crib notes into the exam room in your pencil case.
Then there’s the problem of the
machine breaking down. Imagine that you’re
just finishing off your last question when the dreaded PC freeze happens, the
battery runs out or there’s a power cut and all your work is lost. At least with a pen you can refill it or
switch to a spare, instead of pressing CTRL-ALT-DELETE and starting all over
with 5 minutes to spare.
Finally, and I’ve written before
about how constant PC use reduced my previously lovely handwriting to a scrawl,
think of the generations of people growing up who have never actually had to
write anything by hand. It’s bad enough
now, and I’m having to write daily to try to regain my old skills, so imagine
never, ever having to write quickly and under pressure.
LOL Your handwriting looks like my husband's! I always said he should have been a doctor! ;)
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