Faster can be better for learning and assessment

I was recently reminded about a YouTube video posted by @ShellTerrell, which featured an interview with best selling author Seth Godin. While I didn’t agree with Godin’s statement "school is a complete failure," I was intrigued by his view that testing is not the way "out of" the problems with our education system. Instead he said we "need to essay our way out of it . . . debate our way out of it."



These words brought to mind my own final years of high school in Ireland. At my Irish school, assessment in almost all my subjects was essay based. All my class lectures involved discussion, and contribution to new ideas, and this ensured that we had explored various angles before even getting to our essay assignments.



This, interestingly enough, was the Irish way of teaching to the test, as the government-issued final exams for college placement were essay questions. As the essays were timed, an ability to write legibly at high-speed was very important. This resulted in scores of Irish seniors hitting the local stores in search of pens with the fastest flowing ink and the most comfortable grip. After all, it didn’t matter how much you had learned if you couldn’t get it down on paper in time.



Last week, I was reminded of my Irish exams, when a timed writing assignment in a history class left my hand aching and the last few paragraphs of my essay almost illegible. It made me wonder how different an essay test would be if one could type instead of write the answers out by hand.



I have often heard students in my college classes comment that they take notes on their laptops because they can type faster than they can write. For proficient typists, this is usually the case. According to customtyping.com, a website for typing tutorials, a good typing speed is three to four times faster than your handwriting speed. Typing three to four times faster than my ability to write would allow me to record three to four times the amount of information in the same amount of time. The ability to record my thoughts immediately as they occurred, would have allowed me more time to organize my exam essays, to compose them, and to edit them once they were complete. Needless to say, the neatness of my handwriting would not be an issue either.



I feel as access to computers becomes increasingly common, that students should be required to learn how to type, just as they are required to learn how to write. While the importance of being able to write by hand goes without saying, the ability to record ideas at a faster rate offers tremendous benefits, and should not be overlooked in assignments and assessment.



As more students have computers and online access, homework assignments could consist of a timed debate or discussion in a chat room. This type of activity would enable students to make new connections to the material, while practicing persuasive writing skills in a pressure-free and informal context. Chat responses would also be a more complete assessment of each individual’s contributions and personal progress than simple, fill-in-the-blank worksheet answers could ever hope to provide.