…but putting an end to pen-and-paper exams must surely become a priority as the skills of extended handwriting and unaided recall of extensive amounts of facts go the way of the dinosaurs.

Tossing pen-and-paper exams in favour of typing them out on computers is only half-way there. How exams are conducted should be modernised as well.

I don’t see any real value in computerising exams if students are still expected to memorise passages of text for their assessments. Sure exam papers they might be more legible, but if you’re really bad at memorising quotes, whether or not you’re staring at a blank piece of paper or a blank screen makes no difference.

I hope that digitisation of assessments and wider introduction of computers to classrooms doesn’t mean the end of (pen-and-paper) writing as a compulsory skill that should be picked up in school though. It’d be sad to lose something like that and you should have backup plans in case of power failures :p

But while that final exam stays firmly entrenched in 1967 (I think that’s a good year, pop culture changed, from the Beatles ‘I want to hold you hand’, to their Revolver album, yet education has been, generally, systematically, remained stagnet) the teaching will stay directed at that final outcome. Assessment and learning, or learning and assessment needs to change from an early age. Some teachers will not change their methods while the assessment remains the same.

Interesting Paula, “We will (?) need to make sure they can all type at a mimimum speed for faireness…” Do we assure fairness in written exams? I’d prefer portfolio type tasks, with an oral and aural elements, that considers understanding, not just knowledge. I know in my school female students make up about 80% of Advanced English students and generally, males do not write as quickly or as neatly.

While we are looking at the manner in which students undertake the exams perhaps it would be useful to look at the type/style/meaning of this “assessment” that is the final HSC exam. I agree with Darcy – the final exam (why have one?) should have relevance outside the exam hall, the end of school should do more than just pander to the admission requirements of universities (partiuclarly when only about 20% of our Yr 12 cohort go to Uni.

Allowing technology makes it far more real and could put a nail in the most common reason the naysayers are still using.

Paula, we can teach them to type – probably more easily than to write fast. my handwriting has always been appalling so my mother made me learn how to touch type when I was 10 (hated it then, but love it now!)

Bring it on!

We will (?) need to make sure they can all type at a mimimum speed for faireness and of course there are the logistics problems mentioned here but maybe n 4 years time those problems cann be ironed out ready for the first L4L graduates. Her’s hoping…

I would like to first thankyou for supplying us with data on student performance in the High School Education System.

This year we have decided that we no longer require your data. This year we will be personally interviewing students and assessing them on real world criteria including skills, knowledge and attitudes. We have already sent a letter to schools asking students to forgo the UAC forms and submitt a professional portfolio of there education.

Kindest Regards

The Association of Universities

Kelli
Simple economics demand will always control supply. However it is essential that we lobby to make effect from the supply side the critical point for us is that if we call for ‘digital exams’ the answer may just be multiple choice answered with the click of a mouse and the same questions answered with the type of the board. We must call for real world assessment in digital or otherwise.

Just my thoughts

Ben

Is this in the test?

“All this week, all over the country, students have been sitting in serried ranks, crouched over desks, manually driving biros over screeds of virgin paper, to the accompaniment of the stifled yawns and squeaking shoes of invigilators.”

The kind of exams the Western World forces on citizens are so anachronistic that one suspects an uprising could be coming our way.

I agree with your sentiments Kelli, that it is not so much that the exams are not digital but that they should have some relevance to skills needed outside the exam hall.

Love the black and white shot of the inside of our hall at MFHS. Sadly, after the fire, it will ever look that way again.