If One Laptop Per Child believes technology can save third-world education, then why are gadgets prohibited from use during school exams? An Australian school is exploring that question by allowing students to freely use cell phones and internet-equipped devices during test taking.
Sydney Presbyterian Ladies' College is test driving a trial program, which allows ninth-grade English literature students to phone their peers, surf the web or listen to podcasts during a 40-minute exam. The teacher then challenges the students to discuss the test topic -- for example, Martin Luther
King's "I Have a Dream" speech -- and evaluates them based on their ability to accurately cite sources and avoid persuasive language.
In short, it's essentially a new-age approach on education, as if to test students on how quickly they can absorb and disseminate information accurately. It's practically what we bloggers do as a job, only it's in a classroom setting. If schools caught on to this method, imagine our next generation of bloggers; it probably wouldn't even be called blogging anymore. Intriguing stuff.
Aussie school trials use of gadgets in exams [Register Hardware]
(*Photo credit: heyitsphilip/Flickr *)
