Ah, poor kids. Life's tough, isn't it?

With plagiarism as endemic as it is for hand-in assignments, projects and essays, unassisted written tests are THE superior method of evaluating a student's knowledge of the subject matter.

Sure, there are a small number of students who have test phobias, or are "challenged" in some way, but they are a minority, in most cases. For the rest, do a pen and paper exam, to be graded objectively and fairly.

What happened in all those previous generations, without mechanical or electronic devices? Students then shone and left a legacy. Shakespeare, Oscar Wiilde, the astronauts, the cosmonauts, Einstein, etc. did not have 'devices' to help them in exams.

Polohay, plagiarism can happen with hand written essays at exam time. No system is 100% fool proof, someone will always find a way around it.

You are saying it's a small number but I'm wondering where you get that number. There are students who don't go to school because of the obstacles. Are you just thinking of the ones that are currently going and struggling?

So, would you be happier if the students who have identified problems are the *only* ones to have access to a dummy terminal based exam opportunity? I would be fine with that.

xperiweb,

I am a university student and I absoulely agree with your thesis. My generation was not raised on the pen and is much more comfortable with a QWERTY keyboard. To force us to use antiquated tools and conform to past ideals is oppressive and could easily be compared to a teacher in the 1960s refusing to allow students to use a manual typewriter.

It sounds as if you and polohay actually have the same ultimate goal: you both want students to express themselves as best they can. The only difference lies in the medium through which they express their ideas. Now, forgive my audacity, but I think we can all agree that the effeciency and effectiveness with which we can communicate and organize our ideas is optomized when we are using the tool that we are most comfortable with.

Essentially, this means that students should not be forced to use a pen, nor should the be forced to use a computer - it should be a personal choice. I think that this is a fairly reasonable argument, as only the individual can truly know what is best for his/her style of writing.

Now, one last thing.

For this test-taking concept to be accepted, we will need to clarify the semantics of the argument. In the exam context, we can all agree that pens, paper, erasers, etc. are nothing more than mere tools. In addition, as the typing machines used by students will be severely limited in their capacities, I see these computers also as nothing more than tools.

In the end, allowing students the option of using a typing tool will allow ideas to be expressed more freely and for thoughts to flow faster and in a more organized fashion.

In fact, allowing a student to type their exams will artificially help the student no more than the pen and quill "helped" the writing of Shakespeare.

I am a Teacher. In my classes, students are allowed to use their own laptops to write tests and exams under 2 conditions. First, the class size must be small enough that students can be seated with their backs to a wall and spaced apart. Next, students must use my custom Live Linux distribution that boots and runs from a CD-ROM.

This CD boots a GUI and the student is presented with a version of the test. The student completes the test and in a specified amount of time, the test sends itself (Ethernet / mac addresses / auth required) to a central server.

While this is a very technical solution, I have refined the process and spend no more then 15 min preparing a test. Also, marking tests takes considerably less time as I can programmatically grade multiple choice questions.

I have never had a case of plagiarism and students prefer to write tests in my classes this way.

Stay at home, email it in.