BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Technology and the death of handwriting
The BBC has a fascinating article on technology and handwriting. As students use text messaging and other technology tools their handwriting often suffers and they struggle to express themselves in written form. Is this just a "sign of the times" or are kids really missing out on an important skill?
I wonder about this issue of handwriting often. Is this just like when people moved from pictorial representations on caves to writing on scrolls? I am sure there were some who thought we would loose the ability to express ourselves through art and storytelling. We have seen a return to this type storytelling with digital storytelling somewhat however.
Is handwriting a critical 21st century skill?
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2 comments:
An interesting post!
I have four kids, in grades 6 to university. Three of them have had assessments indicating that they have 'written output disorder', meaning that they struggle with a pencil (not just that they have problems directing the pencil, but using a pencil slows their thinking). The fourth son has messy handwriting.
We have received a lot of advice from psychologists and occupational therapists about giving the boys laptops and such, but so far, three of them have struggled along in the school system without computers in the classroom, writing their in-class assignments and examinations by hand and doing their take-home work on the keyboard. This was their own choice, has worked out very well for them and their grades at the secondary level and beyond are generally excellent -- although I think a few teachers may have wished for stress leave along the way.
My youngest is a distributed learning student (home learner enrolled in a public school) and he does most of his work on the computer, except math. He received occupational therapy for a year, without benefit. But since he loves math and it's hard to do math when you can't read your printing, his writing is now coming along. In other words, all of them have eventually developed some fluency once they were motivated enough to keep at it.
I don't know whether handwriting will become outmoded or not, and I don't really mind as long as children develop excellent communication skills. How they write (by keyboard or with a pencil) is not nearly as important as whether or not they can convince others with their arguments, move them with their stories, and such. In other words, whatever the future brings is fine with me.
But I would like to share this: Distributed learning (with a keyboard) has enabled my youngest son to write long essays about abstract ideas, keep a blog of his views of the world, and to hand in Flash movies in Japanese for credit, whereas his older and equally able brothers, at the same age, were required to hand pencil-written book reports where most of the marks were derived from tidy printing and coloured drawings. They hated those assignments, especially the requirement to do their drawings in colour. Those assignments increased their dislike of printing and did not improve their communication skills.
And my youngest, who has never been required to illustrate his work in any way for marks, as a consequence loves to illustrate his work (in pencil).
By the way, none of my children have ever received lessons in handwriting, although they have attended several different schools. I was never able to make the workbook-at-home approach work successfully. Perhaps some handwriting lessons in the younger grades would help.
-Maureen (Canada)
Maureen, thank you for sharing your story and comment. I think your story is a great example of how the tools must fit the learner! I have an abacus in my classroom and I have students who love to use it when they are doing math. Who would think that in 2008 you could find a 6 year old who wanted to use an abacus! I don't really think that handwriting is going anywhere or the skill of knowing how to write will degrade to the point where it is not longer valued.
I do think however that as writing via computers become prevalent within the school system at all levels you will see students who were once less inclined to take part in the writing process join in. As students begin to write faster and stream their thought with a computer faster than they ever could with paper and pencil, teaching editing will become more important than ever!
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