Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

You might have picked up on yesterday’s Radio 4 Today programme a short piece on how the Danish government are running a pilot in which students taking final year exams in secondary schools will not only be allowed to use laptops, but have full access to the internet. There is only one simple rule, you cannot communicate with anyone outside the exam room, but otherwise no website is banned or filtered, not even Facebook. It’s interesting to note that while the UK has spent so much money on technology in schools, we still require students to write their answers on paper. In Denmark, students have been allowed to use computers in exam rooms for over ten years, and use of the internet is seen at the latest extension of this. I’m sure in the UK, despite advances, there would still be a ‘hue and cry’ probably led by the tabloid press into the very notion of computer use let alone internet access in the exam room. The nation’s lack of trust in its education system (if it’s easier to access, standards are lower) and mis-trust of technology (if it reduces the barrier of ‘hard graft’ and enables higher order skills) manifests itself in the notion of students ‘cheating’ when using technology for learning or study. In Denmark, their prepareness to take the risk of cheating is tempered by a fundamental belief in the integrity of their students. As one teacher put it, “the main precaution is that we trust them“, which is backed up by the comment of one 18 year old student, “It’s possible to cheat but I think we have so much respect and self discipline, so we won’t do it.” A notion also held by their Minister for Education, Bertel Haarder, who believes, “The internet is indispensible, including in the exam situation. I’m sure that is would be a matter of very few years when most European countries will be on the same line.” The challenge remains the culture in which such ideas do not seem out of place.

Image Credit: Jon Nicholls

Tags: exam, internet, danisheducation, educationculture