Trial by ink
Universities continue to champion hand-written exams, a skill with no useful function in the modern world
by Mary Braid The Guardian
referred by alert reader max power

Twenty years after my first degree, I'm back at university, and plenty has changed. Last time, the subject I was studying was a sideshow in what was essentially four years of unadulterated leisure. It's the mantra of the ancient but nonetheless true that if I had known then what I know now, I would have appreciated that fluid, free existence much more than I did at the time.

This time round, university is no hang-out heaven. In fact, it is all about the subject and getting the degree. I attend psychology lectures three nights a week at Birkbeck College, London, and in the day work full-time as a journalist. There's not enough give in my current circumstances for the wasted, alcohol-drenched weekends or endless playtime that full-time, grant-aided, just-turned-18 study allowed. Back then I was often to be found in the library, but seldom actually doing any work. These days, I fantasise about creating enough space for a full day of library bliss.

But my circumstances are not all that have altered. Technology has revolutionised learning. The once laborious business of hunting down books and journals has boiled down to the touch of a few keyboard buttons. The library is filled with PCs with internet access to endless academic publications, and with most of us mature Birkbeck students equipped with PC or laptop at home, it is often not even necessary to physically visit the school.

All this has impressed me. What has shocked, however, is that in the midst of all this high technology, one near-Neanderthal practice endures - exam by ink. Suggest to a lecturer during term-time that you might not word process an essay and expect a hissy fit. That's understandable when you take a quick squint at many students' handwriting. But ask to use a word processor in your end-of-year exams and it's as if you have requested the college fix it for you to win the £21m lottery triple rollover.
[...]
Given that the archaic handwritten exam serves neither student nor marker, it is inconceivable to me that in two decades' time - should I pop back for a third degree - universities will still be insisting on handwriting. That, to me, would be like the Starship Enterprise whizzing forward at warp factor 5, with the Flintstones on the bridge.

Mary Braid is a freelance journalist and psychology student

Mary Braid is also a first class whiner. max power said: "I strongly disagree with this p.o.v. What do you think?" to which I replied:

right now in school, i'm asked to take an exam with pen & paper maybe twice a semester. maybe. so it's not a big deal to me. but i think ink should be kept around for two reasons:

1. what if someone devises a virus that send dire straits in to our environment? crushin corporations with a mild touch? crashes our whole computer system and reverts us to papyrus? then we'll need to remember how to write. upgrade your grey matter, cause one day, it may matter.

2. it's too freakin easy to cheat with a computer. too easy. people look at me in wonder when i can find a printer on a network, so it's not too much of a stretch to think that I could get a canned essay and turn it in.

what do you think?

posted by prof_booty | 02:47 PM