Using a pen rather than a keyboard is far more versatile in terms of the types of note-taking styles that it will support. One aspect of using a pen and paper that does have an advantage over computers is not the ability to handwrite but instead is the ability to draw. So even though handwriting lecture notes may confer some short term advantage in comprehension, students are compensating for this in their studies. The latter research by Mueller and Oppenheimer is commonly brought up when defending the benefits of handwriting even though generally, there hasn't been a decline in the overall grades of students leaving our universities despite the dramatic increase in the use of computers for all aspects of their education. The arguments will cite research that suggests that handwriting skills improve reading and brain development in general and more specifically, makes it easier to remember lectures when used to take notes.
Of course, mention that it is time to move on from handwriting and the arguments start that society will lose too much with the change. This type of testing has been shown to provide much better accuracy of scores for students of differing abilities.įor subjects like computer programming, being able to present students with an environment that allows them to demonstrate their real understanding of a computer language and how to achieve certain objectives is far better than the compromises that have to be made when administering the tests on paper. Computers allow for questions to be adapted depending on the abilities of the student. Difficult as it may be to provide computers for exams, it is not impossible, and one could argue that given how much of a student's future depends on exams, it could be considered unfair not to allow students the best possible chance of succeeding.Ĭomputers in exams would also allow for different mechanisms of testing to be used. There is the issue of the number of computers needed to manage all of the students taking exams in addition to issues like having the computers configured to prevent cheating. The only reason that universities do this is because it is logistically too hard to use computers in an exam situation. In exams, students are already in a stressful situation and they are then asked to handwrite for several hours with very little practice during the coursework that led to the exam.
0 kommentar(er)
