Over the last few years, I've noticed many changes going on in my and my peer's education. The biggest of these is technology.
It has got to the point where, nearly halfway into term two, my new English book has about three pages filled. From the whole year. That's it.
In our class, we have seven monitors, about five or six laptops, two iPads, and nearly a dozen Chromebooks. I think. A handful of us bring our own devices as well. If you were to walk into our classroom right now, you'd see every single person in the classroom typing on some form of a computer.
My question is; is this a good thing?
All year, pretty much all the writing and reading work I have done was on a computer. Last year wasn't as bad, and I did get a lot out of my English book, but since I have come to TAI, my handwriting has become much worse. I don't like this 'let's go paperless' approach from the teachers. I was really quite attached to my handwriting. I had spent ages getting into the habit of writing my 'f's, 'a's, 'y's, and 'g's in different styles, and even more time getting out of that habit. I still do my 'a's with a little curve over, like on the keyboard.
My point being, my handwriting is unique. It's a huge part of my individuality. But when you type everything, it's exactly the same as everyone else's. Now, my writing is messy and basically the same as when I was in year 3. The only difference is I can spell.
Sure, it's more efficient, faster and everything, but does it actually help our learning?
I learnt to read out of the books they gave us in school, not off a screen, and I want the next generation to be the same. I learn to write by spelling my name in chalk on the patio, not by typing things out. And to this day, when my teacher sends me stories to read for our reading work, I find it harder to comprehend than when it was printed off and handed to us. I can't type my ideas on a screen either. I can really only properly brainstorm on paper.
My peers and I are learning just when technology is changing the most. We were spelling 'cat' at the age future generations will be at a computer. Right now, we've adjusted to writing on a computer all the time, but we learnt to write before smartphones were invented. We had pencils and those workbooks that have half the page blank so you can draw a picture as well. We felt privileged to use an eraser, we were proud when we were allowed to write with a pen instead of a pencil. Future generations will have none of that.
Right now, workbooks are laptops. Pens are keyboards. Copy and Paste has replaced cut out and stick in. Highlighters are B, I, and U. I, personally, think it was better the way it was. The teachers, apparently, do not agree with me. I think it's a shame we weren't learning handwriting the way our grandparents were. I would have loved to learn joint handwriting, to have used it every day. I used to love the joy of writing letters, of receiving them in the mail. Are emails really the same thing?
I used to take pride in my handwriting. Computers have ruined that for me. It was a unique part of me. Typing is just letters on a screen, but the different ways I did my 'y's were something I found joy in, just by adding the extra loop. I used to have beautiful handwriting, but since I came to intermediate it's just a messy scrawl.
Every time I read my old workbooks, I'm saddened by the fact that my handwriting was neater at age 9 than it is now. Every time I look through the work on my USB stick, it's just a memory of when only the 'good kids' got to publish their work by typing it out. Not only did writing used to bring joy, typing did too. Now, it's just something we take for granted. It used to be a privilege. Now, it's just a boring way of putting, not pen to paper, but fingers to keys. I just want to do as much writing as I used to want to type.
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