Have you ever wondered about the effects of increased usage of computers on students' handwriting ability?
How might this affect them in exams (such as the IB Diploma) which are all hand-written? Muscle cramp? Lack of fine-motor stamina? Illegibility?
What cognitive processes are involved in handwriting compared to typing on a keyboard?
How important is handwriting these days?
Nick Alchin asked me to start exploring these questions -- and Frazer Cairns from Dover sent us a couple of articles to get the ball rolling.
What a good, small topic to demonstrate a few of our research tools.
First of all, the National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore has three major database collections aimed at educators - which are free for us to use.
For an amusing blast from the past, read the article below from 1966 bemoaning the poor quality of high school students' handwriting - and putting the blame partly on teachers not modeling good chalkboard script - while also acknowledging the "day-long writing needs" of students, something which has definitely changed.
How might this affect them in exams (such as the IB Diploma) which are all hand-written? Muscle cramp? Lack of fine-motor stamina? Illegibility?
What cognitive processes are involved in handwriting compared to typing on a keyboard?
How important is handwriting these days?
Nick Alchin asked me to start exploring these questions -- and Frazer Cairns from Dover sent us a couple of articles to get the ball rolling.
What a good, small topic to demonstrate a few of our research tools.
First of all, the National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore has three major database collections aimed at educators - which are free for us to use.
- Education Full Text - WilsonWeb - EBSCOHost The WilsonWeb journals database crafted to meet the unique information needs of education students, professionals, and policy makers — now delivers full text contents from Springer, plus full text information from the classic library trade magazine, Wilson Library Bulletin. The recent additions expand on the database's coverage of an international range of English-language periodicals, monographs, and yearbooks.
- Educator's e-Collection - Gale Cengage Available on the Gale PowerSearch platform, this collection provides resources in the field of education covering virtually every educational specialty, latest technologies, developments, instruction and coaching breakthroughs as well as information relating to administration, funding, policy, child health and development. The database covers multiple levels of education from preschool to college.
- ERIC - the Education Resources Information Center - EBSCOHost ERIC - the Education Resources Information Center - is an online digital library of education research and information. The database available here via the EBSCOhost Web service provides access to indexed bibliographic records and full-text documents.
For information about how to search the NLB databases (as well as ones we subscribe to), see our Library Research Guides, e.g., on Professional Learning for Teachers: Magazines/Journals or Databases Overview.
Searching those NLB databases for "handwriting" and "technology" and "teaching" produced a number of results, which I collected using Zotero, the free online referencing and bibliographic tool, which all our IB Diploma students are using for their Extended Essays. (If you're interested in trying it, see our library guide on Information Research & Fluency: Zotero for links to get you started.)
Click here to see the results of my "Handwriting" search in our UWCSEA East group in Zotero. (And feel free to join the group and add more to the "Handwriting" Folder. That's what groups are for - joint collection and sharing of resources.)
You can read the articles by clicking on the URL of items in the library. I uploaded the PDFs in Google Docs and made the sharing available to anyone logged into a @gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg account.
The beauty of Zotero is you can produce reports and bibliographies in any desired referencing format. Here is the "Handwriting" Folder exported in MLA format:
Anonymous. “As Cursive Wanes, Educators Wonder What Is Being Lost.” Education Week 29.5 (2009): 10. Print.
Berninger, Virginia Wise. “Strengthening the Mind’s Eye.” Principal 91.5 (2012): 28–31. Print.
Berninger, Virginia Wise Wise. Past, Present, and Future Contributions ofCognitive Writing Research to Cognitive Psychology. Psychology Press, 2012. Print.
Bloom, Adi. “Not so mighty any more.” The Times Educational Supplement 4963 (2011): 28. Print.
Enstrom, E. A. Handwriting: The Neglect of a Needed Skill. The Clearing House, 1966. eric. Web.
Furner, Beatrice A. Handwriting Instruction for a High-Tech Society: Will Handwriting Be Necessary? 1985. eric. Web.
“Increased use of Technology leads to handwriting difficulties amongst Chinese youth.” Digital Learning Apr. 2010. Web. 2 Dec. 2012.
Judkins, Jason, Holli Dague, and Steven Cope. “Handwriting in the Schools: Challenges and Solutions.” Early Intervention & School Special Interest Section Quarterly / American Occupational Therapy Association 16.1 (2009): 1–4. Print.
Lee, Hye-Jung. “Evolutionary Change of Communication in e-Learning: in the era of synchronous e-text communuication.” Global Science and Technology Forum, 2011. 1–6. SOURCE: ProQuest Central - NLB. Web.
Medwell, Jane, and David Wray. “Handwriting--A Forgotten Language Skill?” Language and Education 22.1 (2008): 34–47. Print.
---. “Handwriting: What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Know?” Literacy 41.1 (2007): 10–15. Print.
Mogey, N. et al. “Students’ Choices Between Typing and Handwriting in Examinations.” Active Learning in Higher Education 13.2 (2012): 117–128. Print.
Sülzenbrück, S. et al. “The Death of Handwriting: Secondary Effects of Frequent Computer Use on Basic Motor Skills.” Journal of motor behavior 43.3 (2011): 247–251. Print.
Supon, Vi. “Cursive Writing: Are Its Last Days Approaching?” Journal of Instructional Psychology 36.4 (2009): 357–359. Print.
Tucha, Oliver, Lara Tucha, and Klaus W. Lange. “Graphonomics, Automaticity and Handwriting Assessment.” Literacy 42.3 (2008): 145–155. Print.
Zubrzycki, Jaclyn. “Experts Fear Handwriting Will Become a Lost Art.” Education Week 31.18 (2012): 1,. Print.
For an amusing blast from the past, read the article below from 1966 bemoaning the poor quality of high school students' handwriting - and putting the blame partly on teachers not modeling good chalkboard script - while also acknowledging the "day-long writing needs" of students, something which has definitely changed.
