When handwriting becomes torture

Adam Shlomi is a sophomore at Georgetown University. Self-judging is a good student, but Adam Shlomi admits one area he can't pass: taking notes by hand during class. From the time he was studying at Florida State High School, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Adam Shlomi always went to class with a laptop. So he was surprised to learn that many professors at the prestigious Georgetown university in Washington, D.C. Do not allow students to bring laptops into class.

"Sea" of laptops in the lecture hall

Christ Seeley, a senior in economics and politics at the University of California at Berkeley, says he can endure an hour of writing by hand, but when the class lasts up to two hours like the current semester is going on. is torture. "My hand is extremely painful" - he lamented after taking the last exams.

Professors are extremely worried when standing in front of a "sea" of laptops on the lecture hall. They do not understand the faces that are looking at the screens, glowing for the lecture or for something else. Are their students taking notes or are ordering a pair of discount sneakers on Amazon, or are doing something similar?

Concerned that students did not focus on the lesson in part, other lecturers said that using the laptop to take notes too quickly also made the learners become machines, they simply copied the text of the lecture without thinking think or have critical thinking.

"I was really tired to see them sitting there with computers and doing their own thing without caring about me," said Carol Holstead, associate professor of journalism at the University of Kansas, said. Since three years ago she has banned students from wearing computers during her "Visual Storytelling" class. Currently, she always has to remind students to bring pen and paper to record important points of the lesson. Of course many students complained that professors "refused to understand" how hard it is to copy the paper by hand.

In the US, although some public schools require written instruction, the Common Core educational standards (roughly translated as "Core Standards" include the entire set of standards adopted by state leaders. in the kindergarten through 12th grade school system in the US) does not emphasize the importance of handwriting.

Handwritten learn better

In April 2016, researchers at Princeton University and the University of California in Los Angeles published the results of their research related to the problem of hand-copying. The team found that students taking notes by hand had better study results than those taking notes on computers. Compared to those who type at the keyboard, scribes by hand have better results, memorize information longer, and have new ideas.

In the article titled "Can clipping hands make you smarter?" of WSJ newspaper, author Robert Lee Hotz has also summarized many studies on the same topic and confirmed that handwriting helps students focus more on lectures, accordingly, learning outcomes are also better.

Susan Dynarski - professor of education, public policy and economics at the University of Michigan - agrees with the results of that study. She is also the one who prohibits students from using all kinds of electronic devices such as laptops during class time as well as during seminars.

Missing the handwritten test?

In September 2017, according to the Independent newspaper, Cambridge University of England announced that it was considering eliminating the compulsory handwritten tests and allowing students to take the test on laptop or iPad. The announcement came after teachers complained that students' handwriting was so bad they could not read. If this were decided, it would put an end to a more than 800 year tradition of a form of examinations in schools in England. And maybe it could become a precedent for other schools?

Shock

In the US, many public schools also encourage students to work on computers, some places provide machines for students. This leads to many children being "shocked" by the regulations banning laptops when entering university.

Some schools reported exceptions for students with disabilities. However, the research also has public opinion that this rule is not applicable to students with disabilities in the manner that can not see such as dyslexia or inability to write coherently ...

According to D.Kim Thoa

Source: Tuoi Tre Newspaper - No. 71/2018 (8967) dated 20.03.2018