Welcome to the on-line discussion blog for ED 4862 - Technology in Education II. This blog will provide a forum for an on-going conversation of topics in technology in education during the course of the study.
The whole nature of information has changed. Technology has resulted in "writing" being a synonym for "keybording". Should we care? Does cursive writing have a future in our schools and society? What about printing in the lower grades? Your thoughts?
posted by Jeff Whipple at 1:52 PM
Technology Learning Mentor, School District 18; Undergraduate Instructor, University of New Brunswick Faculty of Education; Graduate Student (MEd)
36 Comments:
We must all accept that technology is taking over our businesses, education techniques and everyday lives in one way or another. We don't neccessarily have to care but realizing that it is constantly changing and that it is a major part of society today is important. Our children in the school systems today need to be taught how the computer works so that they can be fluent with the use of computers. Cursive writing should be taught to the children because it is important to them for their futures. Printing in the lower grades should still be mandatory so children can still function writing with a paper and pen.
Cursive writing and printing should be taught in the lower grades because in my experience, my son had never really learned how to write. To this day he still prints and his writing is terrible. I have never seen anything he has written except for his signature. With today's children, they are so used to typing that it is natural for them, my granddaughter is 5 years old and she can easily transfer from small letters to capital letters on the keyboard. She has been using the V-Smile since she was about 2. She is in Kindergarten and is very eager to print names of family members, she is just developing her samll motor skills. It is good that she still can learn to print and use the keyboard.
of course cursive writing is important, i believe that mainly because computers will never be able to replace humans. What if something happened in a situation like what they expected in Y2K?!! or umm with all the world in political unrest and countries on the verge of war, there is a such bomb that could wipe out everything electronic in that country for years and years and we could possibly be knocked back into the days before electricity. If anything like that ever happened and children didn't know how to write then we would be in a very bad place. Learning to write is also a part of literacy and for young children a way of developing fine motor skills. Those are things that are very necessary for the development of young brains...
technology will eventually take over but i believe that writing should still be taught to young children. Not everyone uses technology and not everyone knows how to use it. If you use computers all the time and put all your information on there and if you dont have any back up then you loose everything, but if you write and file your things its even better. My parents have a business and they put their paperwork on paper and in the computer. So its good to have both. My younger children love to print on paper, but they also like to use the computer.
I Cant Really Say Anything About This, Because Me Personilly Dont Know How To Cursive Writing Just My Name. While Going To School They Didnt Teach Us Anymore It Was All About The Computer And How You Print. But I Think That Children Should Be Taught How To Cursive Write And Print At The Same Time.
Personally, I love writing and have dozens of journals covering decades of my life. When posed with the question "Does cursive writing have a future in our schools and society?" I have to stop and think. You can accomplish any kind of writing you can think of on a computer but it still lacks personality and warmth. I often write letters to my two daughters that I then put in their baby books for them to read at a future date I'm sure that they will enjoy a letter that is hand written by their mother than one composed and printed off of a computer. People will see the need for cursive writing diminish as time passes but it will never go completely out of style. My daughter is 5 years old and she loves to write whatever words she can think of and often she will sit with a pencil and paper asking me to spell out words for her to practice writing. The last time I looked classrooms still had chalk boards and chalk and children still have to go up to the board to complete problems and tasks. I hope that when my children reach adulthood they will be educated in all forms of literacy, which I feel includes cursive writing and printing.
Yes I think that cursive writing and printing is important to our society because we can't always depend on technology, maybe some kind of global catastrophe could happen and wipe out technology and then we will have to communicate to each other through writing.
I think cursive writing is important, and I for one think we should still teach it to our kids. Too many children in our school do not know how to do cursive writing, because too many of them do keyboarding when they're chatting on line. They teach themselves keyboarding, but can't teach themselves cursive writing. I think it's very important to keep teaching them, because most of our kids can't even sign their name in cursive writing. It's all a part of school curriculum to me. That's all folks. See ya.
Mary
Personally I think that schools should encourage students to continue writing and printing because it is an important part of the learning process. It gives children an opportunity to improve their fine motor skills and hand eye coordination.
I have to say that everyone leaning towards Cursive Writing is important. I must say I agree with the ladies. That is part of the curriculum, not only are they using their fine motor skills but they will be able to read and understand other peoples writing. I fine our kids nowadays are relying on the keyboarding but we also have to master the skills of writing on paper. This keyboarding is just too easy, it now tells us when we make mistakes people don't bother looking in the dictonaries or checking if the spelling is correct they are depending on the spell check. Kids are not learning proper English they are using more of the computer lingo. Without learning to write they will also not learn to spell or use proper English skills. Children need to understand and read print whether is text or cursive. I find myself already loosing my skills in cursive writing, I am too dependant on the keyboard. Cursive writing is more personal and meaningful specially when you are writing to people.
I really dont think that cursive should be passe. Cursive writing is an important part in a childs development in more ways than one. Like I said in class tonight, what if something did happen to technology, for example the Y2K scare. I feel stongly about keeping it in the school systems. Children still get their technology classes that teach them about the advances our society is making. As well, in any English class, there are always papers that need to be "written," and they are typed on computers ond usually accepted only if they are typed. I also agree with a comment made tonight from one of the other sites, writing is a human skill and its not something that can be replaced. I see it the same as taking away our verbal skills, shoud we have computers talk for us. Its like taking away a form of communication.
The world is evolving, and things are changing faster then we all can comprehend, but just like learning to walk and talk as a baby, learing to write is still a very important skill. Children learn to write before they learn to read...it's all a process, and you can't have one with out the other! Yes, it helps with fine motor skills, but thats not the main thing... it's just one of those basic human needs, we need to learn. Its also a form of communication. Personally, I cant write for crap, and yes I rather type and print out something, instead of writing it,, but just as Tatum said, when I was in school, we really never spent alot of time doing it...and learning how to do proper cursive writing! On the other hand, my boys love to print and write, and I encourage them to practice it... just in case in the future some time... technology fails, and is all wiped out!!!
I think cursive writing will always have a future in our schools and society....and there is always going to be printing in the lower grades too. Even though there is alot of technology in the schools I think it will never take the place of cursive writing and printing. Kids learn how to print in kindergarten and cursive writing just a few years later so everyone that goes through school should know how to do one or the other or both. My son is in kindergarten and just learning how to read and print and his printing is better than his reading. He knows how to run a computer and type on the computer but that will never take the place of his printing. Kids love to just sit at a table and write what comes to their minds. Technology is not everything but I believe it is a big part of our worlds especially now.
I surely hope that cursive writing is never to be passe because when you are writing something down using a pen, I find that to be very enjoyable. To be able to write down your thoughts on paper is so important beause the more you write the better you get at organizing your thoughts and ideas. Also that children need to be able to use cursive writing because it exercises their fine motor skills which is such a crucial part of their learning ability.
I feel cursive writing should still be taught. It plays a huge role in communicating with others, not everyone owns a computer. writing builds higher self-esteem simply by the child having to write out their thoughts and feelings on paper. Whatever will happen in the future if no one writes a love note to someone special in their life or just writing a letter it would be simply be boring in life. That just I think.
just a test
Is cursive passe? well, first of all,it is not yet passe. But i do believe that it can be in the future, depending on whether or not we allow computers to totally take over, whick is something that humanity has control over. The question is are we going to allow technological advancement to advance to the point were people become dependant upon computers to that extent. To my understanding, todays society is suppose to be aiming towards total independance and away from inabilities(or handicaps). I think allowing cursive writing,or the understanding of how to formulate language on paper, to become non-existent would be hypocritical of us. I would say, it would be imposing handicaps on people. Is that the right thing to do? Allowing this to happen would mean much more then the fact that hand writing no longer exist it would mean that our society has become susceptible to allowing our world to become striped from independance in so many different forms.
Secondly,we are not born with owners manuals, nor are we born with laptops or computers, in other words, not everyone has daily access to computers. In today's society i believe that a large percentage of people are on social assistance, and most likely this fact will remain the same in the future. People on social assistance(welfare) can not afford this type of equipment for their homes let alone each person in their household.
Hi there again, it's just me LJ. I thought I would add something again on this topic. My thoughts about computers, young children need to learn through play and also gain Social skills. They will not get that when they are glued to the computer all day long, where is the play? Where is the social interaction? What about their eyes, their hands, fingers they will either suffer from headaches or have severe carpole syndrome on their hands!! What other problems can these young children suffer from?? Today's generation needs to learn to learn from another not hide our heads in technology. Don't get me wrong I am not against computers or technology but I think it's over-rated!! Family is more important and social interaction and physical contact with other people is necessary to relate to other people. Yeah that's me; I hope I didn't stray too far from our topic BUT I think it is still related to the question.
Lokking at our own past a lot has changed. Our school years were a lot different from our children. Another generation of students is on their way into the future.
We all have some resposibility in getting them there in one way or another.We have to keep the fundmentals of learning in school or we will be deining that generation
something that can not be messured.Giving a child self-worth,self-confidence,sence of achievement.This is what printing and hand writing gives our children ,why would we even think of taking that from them.So many children have had so much taking from them already. If your grandchild comes home from school and say look I can spell my name and has so much pride in that whould you not also be proud.You can't honsitly say that pushing a few buttons on a key board is going to give then the same
since of pride.Children have to know that there are things that are still in there control.Computer are a great thing ,but so were T.V.until they became the babysitters. We can not allow the same to happen with the computer.Children grown throw interaction and the only way they can get that is through basic teaching practices.It is well documented
in medical books and studies that child will only develope through human contact and interaction.
Keep the child in children.
Technology is the way the 21st century to accept and to move forward with the world, but we must not forget where we come from, creative writing and printing is still essential in my belief. i agree with rosa, when writing/printing is so personal and comes from you. I think as teachers and parents we should care and make sure our education keeps teaching this important value to our children, especially in the elementary level. Again as like computers, if we don't use them, we loose it. so creative writing should also be used in some of the subjects in higher grades. But again when i rethink about my son that's 20, he does not cursive write, just likes to print, he says it is faster for him. So i think it has alot to do with time, time that is giving in the schools to practice these skills. Also the fast pace we are living in society, we must keep up and fast pace technology will outweigh our cursive writing. So i fear it will soon be not important.
I think that cursive writing should still be taught in schools. Some children do not know how to write their own names. Parents and teachers should care what the children are learning in schools. Children in elementary should be taught printing ,so they can learn their alphabets,numbers, and they will know how to hold a pen or pencil. Their fine motor skills will develop and they will learn cursive writing when they get to higher grades,so they can know how to write letters,fill out forms,etc.
I think we should absolutely care about printing and hand writing. The children in the lower grades need to know where these letters come to be .. that they just don't magically appear once you strike a button. They need to know that you have to make slanted lines, straight line and circles to make these letters. It also enhances their fine motor skills, and it also demands discipline. Remember how hard it was to print and hand write, it took a lot of patience, time and skill. Another thing about hand writing is that they have experts in the police forces that anaylize hand writing and they can determine a persons characteristics like, if your'e a "lefty" or a "righty", they can also determine if your'e a homicidal maniac just by looking at how you cross your t's and dot your I's. I find that very fascinating. I'm no expert but I can tell when a person is a lefty. I wouldn't be able to tell that from a keyboard.
I also think I watch too much CSI :)
I believe that it is important for our children to maintain handwriting and printing, for several reasons. First of all, our handwriting and printing is almost as individual as our fingerprints. So, it defines our individuality and uniqueness from other people. Policing units, criminal investigators and forensics often use handwriting to either identify criminals or identify remains of victims if that is the only means of identifying them. Handwriting and printing are a universal symbol of a culture, most importantly, whether it is the English language, the French language or other languages that may use handwriting or printing. The symbols that are printed or written, are symbols of that culture. If everything was computerized, it would be virtually a loss of culture, as when a language orally spoken is removed from the culture. If everything was computerized, the children would not get the feel of how the symbols are created, how it feels to roll your pencil around them, and to learn to create them, and to be frustrated in trying to make them, but to also feel success when they finally are able to either print or handwrite in their language. If we were to use only a computer keyboard, or memory chips or a Smart board,it wouldn't be the same as taking out a piece of paper, and a pencil, and writing these symbols. Even if we were using pens attached to the computers or smartboards, it doesn't feel the same way writing it. I believe personally that it is best to teach children all they need to know about computers, have all the laptops schools we can have, and integrate them into technology, but do not take away the importance of reading real books, and writing with real pencils in our own symbols, our own languages. Do not take away music, art, handwriting and printing, because these are symbols of our culture. In the future, if everything is computerized, our children will be searching the internet to find out what real handwriting looked like, way back in our time. I mean... where would WE be without prehistoric Man and his drawings on the cave walls. Symbols, and our first languages on Earth.
thank you! Melissa
...(continued from above) I thought I would put one more little comment, printing and handwriting is also to me, like a rite of passage for children. We all learn to print first, then we learn to write, just as we learn to crawl,walk and then run. What would it be like, if children never learned to print, or handwrite, just to type, what emotions would they feel... it would be all so unified and almost robotic to a certain extent. Imagine, "Children, today's lesson will be "asdf" now please start typing." thank you! Melissa E.
I believe that cursive writing is not passe only because technology and the act of keyboarding is not always readily available. It is a skill that is necessary for the everyday happenings of our lives. Cursive is not passe, but it is slowly going out of circulation. Not enough time is being spent on teaching and perfecting it, and that is unfortunate because a lot of what we do really does depend on understanding and appreciating the written language in it's purest form at early ages and beyond. The emphasis on technology unfortunately stresses the need to teach keyboarding before writing.
It allows us to have personalized signatures for security and identification. The executive who is takes notes in a meeting often writes on a pad of paper using pen/pencil to help gather their thoughts. The college student listening to a lecture that is trying to jot down notes that may be important is less distracting than the clicking of a keyboard. Writing out a grocery list of the things you need that week. Journal writing in the classic sense that puts the all too important personal touch to your memoirs. All the little things that we do require actual use of writing tools. Love letters.
Knowing what a person's writing is like puts a bit of that person into the content. Makes it more human. So much more human than a typed up letter or email will ever be.
To answer the question of whether or not writing is passé. I would have to disagree with this statement. It might decline in use but it will not be passe. Students are expected to learn cursive writing in Elementary and then it is a teacher’s personal preference once the student reaches Middle School/ High School on whether to hand their assignments in typed or handwritten. I wonder if these students are aware of the fact that if they type their assignment on Microsoft Word that the spell check with some words are spelled differently in Canada than in the United States. That would be something that would soon be pointed out to them if they were to attend University. I know of one young adult who is going to University who never learned cursive writing he is extremely intelligent but he is unable to write or read cursive writing. He does all of his rough drafts by printing. Personally, I prefer to handwrite my rough drafts and then I will pass in an assignment typed this is my creative process.
An article I had found online that was written by Margaret Webb Pressler titled "The Handwriting is on the Wall" refers to handwritten communication as a form of beauty, individualism and intimacy(www.washingtonpost.com. I would agree with this statement. There was research done all though it was not referenced that showed that children without proficient handwriting skills produce simpler, shorter compositions, from the earliest grades. In the same article there was a recent discovery of a previously unknown poem by Robert Frost written in his signature script, handwritten documents are more valuable to researchers. So hang on to your written communications who knows, they may be worth a lot of money some day. Just out of curiosity I went to www.google to see how many Handwriting Experts and Calligraphers there were. There were 9 750 000 and 22 100 000 that is a lot. Cursive writing might decline for a bit but I do not think that it will be forever lost. I myself plan on making sure that this does not happen by teaching my students cursive writing.
Despite the influence of new technologies, It is in my opinion that the computer should not replace the need to learn how to print or write. Printing and writing is like your own art, it has your own personality and no two peoples (handwriting) are alike. It is important to learn how to print in the early years as this develops your fine motor and cognitive skills, eye-hand coordination, perception skills, ect. In kindergarten is where you finally learn to print your own name. It is not hard to see when children learn how to print their own name how proud they are of it. Then when they enter grade 3 they learn to write their name in cursive writing which is another milestone to become proud of. Look at all the famous writers, their signature as well as their personal writings are worth lots of money, would that be so if it was typed on paper, how would be know if it was authentic? I believe you will always need to write something down on paper. Ever find yourself somewhere when you need to write something down in a hurry and you reach for a napkin and pen. Writing will always be with you and guess what, you don’t have to rely on batteries and power to express yourself.
Rose Levi
It may be a synonym for keyboarding, but cursive writing is an important part of people’s lives. Yes, we should care; learning how to print and write is important part of our education. This gives people an opportunity to develop a unique way to be identified. Like people’s signature. Signature is important, it identifies, it give consents when needed. Printing in lower grades gives an opportunity to develop our fine motor skills.
No, cursive writing should not be passe'. Schools should continue to teach cursive writing to students. A quality education demands that we give our children a comprehensive, unlimited education. We should not eliminate something that is of value and replace it with something else. This would be defeating our purpose as educators. Cursive writing aids us the creative process. When we are putting our thoughts on paper using cursive writing, it facilitates our 'thinking' and 'writing'. If we were printing our thoughts, the process would be much slower and the thinking and writing process would not be 'in sync'. Also since we need time to think and create, with minimal distractions, I don't feel we could do this staring at a machine trying to get inspiration. It would be too distracting. We need quiet time to create and compose. Our children should have the benefit of printing, cursive writing, and keyboard skills and provide them with the option to use any one or all three.
Cursive writing is one important way of communicating with others. It still needs to be part of the curriculum. I don't think we need to spend hours and hours practising this skill daily but... if you were to ask a child what would they prefer. Writing or keybording. We all know that they will choose.
Hi Jeff,
First of all, I would like to say that writing is an important part of everyday life or at least has been for many decades. It was the tool that started history, from the Bible to other historical logs of the world, if it was not for the ability to write then we would not have these events in history logged or remebered. People can express emotion in words through writing rather than through typing, there is no feelings in typing. Cursive writing is a part of our literacy and language. We need this because there may be people that do not have access to computers after school hours. Writing needs to stay as a part of our learning because if it was not for writng we would not be where we are today.
I don't reallt believe that cursive writing will be important or beneficial in the future. Due to the advancement of technology, I believe that there should be more importance geared toward computer skills, rather then cursive writing. Children, of course, are taught how to print, so why the importance of cursive writing? More emphasis should be given towards learning how to use a computer properly. Children will grow up with the proper skills for this computer age. What job out there asks for computer skills? and what job out there asks for cursive writing skills? We need to get these children ready for the real world.
I think that it is essential to learn the basic printing skills because it enchances the motor skills. Personally i prefer printing or handwriting before i type out a report. i think that in this age of time it is also important to learn the basic typing skills, only for career and education purposes. i feel that cursive writing should still be taught in schools, but a teacher should accomadate a child who has some type of disablity , by allowing them to use technology to communicate and participate in class assignments.
I feel that the basic of developing a child's education should always include writing, printing before cursive writing or even any computer skill's mind you I do beleave that computer skill's are important and should be thought but at due time. The child should have other way's to comunicate. Being only thought one style(cursive writing) will leave the child with a disabilitie if anything should happen with loss of computer accesss,on-line service etc.
testing
I think that cursive writing is a natural part of being humun. Ya sure we have different ways of communicating that may be easier for now but will it be easier in the future when the world is full of uncertainties. One thing is for certain is that there is nothing wrong with teaching the basic skills of literacy, and it should not be labeled as old fashioned to pick up a pen and paper.
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