Cambridge considers typed exams as handwriting worsens

[James Curran]

Cambridge considers typed exams as handwriting worsens

The increasing illegibility of students’ handwriting has prompted Cambridge University to consider ending 800 years of tradition by allowing laptops to replace pen and paper for exams.

Academics say that students are losing the ability to write by hand en masse because of their reliance on laptops in lectures and elsewhere.

Sarah Pearsall, a senior lecturer at Cambridge’s history faculty, said: “Fifteen or 20 years ago, students routinely wrote by hand several hours a day, but now they write virtually nothing by hand except exams.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... ng-worsens

[James Curran]

Laptops are great, but not if it means the end of handwriting

Students are now so dependent on their laptops for writing that they may soon be allowed to use them in university exams. But writing by hand is still an important skill

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... xams-skill