In a final English exam, Australian students were “asked to compare an SMS message, ‘how r u pls 4giv me I luv u xoxoxo O:-),’ with a famous Keats love letter, ‘You fear, sometimes, I do not love you so much as you wish’,” reports The Australian.
And the 46,000 Victorian students who sat the three-hour VCE exam were also asked to analyse a Dilbert cartoon on the modern dilemma of email and write a letter to the editor of Woolworths magazine Australian Good Taste.The test of English skills also included analysing more traditional texts from Shakespeare and Henry Lawson to Graham Greene.
But it also quizzed students on popular films such as sci-fi flick Gattaca, Australian drama Lantana and classic Breaker Morant.
Students sat the paper, set by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, six weeks after the same body was accused of trying to “dumb down” Year 12 English.
hevvin 4fend.
There have been a number of articles about the state of Australian education over the past couple of years:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/20/1042911326462.html
Australia needs to think again about its unis
January 21 2003
Increased participation rates in tertiary education have coincided with a drop in standards - and we all lose, writes Kevin Donnelly.
—-
Australia seems to have many of the same problems the US does. One common factor seems to be the sorts of people who end up teaching in EdSchools.
ETS is coming out with a internet technology-based standardized test, which among other things will include email manipulation (sorting by sender, date, and opic), search engine usage, and instant messaging. This IS NOT a joke, they are supposedly testing the test at a limited number of colleges this year and plan to offer it as a formal assessment in a couple years.
Of course, once they set the standards for the test, they get to offer workshops for the new field of education and sell all sorts of educational aids.
> ETS is coming out with a internet
> technology-based standardized test,
> which among other things will include
> email manipulation (sorting by sender,
> date, and opic), search engine usage,
> and instant messaging.
Sigh …
“ETS is coming out with a internet
> technology-based standardized test,
> which among other things will include
> email manipulation (sorting by sender,
> date, and opic), search engine usage,
> and instant messaging.”
I don’t know how to IM (never used it, never want to). Does that mean I’m unfit to teach?
And - what exactly are they having them FIND using search engines?
Although the Internet can be a valuable tool, I don’t think its usage rises to the level of being something students should be tested on. (besides, for most of today’s students, testing them on e-mail usage and websurfing would be kind of like testing them on eating and breathing..)
I don’t see why everyone’s upset. Based on this description, I can’t tell how good the exam is. What matters is how it’s marked. Do they take marks off for grammar mistakes? Do they have an agreed system for assessing the quality of students’ arguments in order to ensure consistent grading?
The article appears to assume that analysing a popular movie is less demanding than analysing a Shakespeare play. Of course Shakespeare is a bit more difficult as the language is quite different, but if the questions for the popular movie are harder than the two can be equal. Or the Shakespeare question could be used to separate out the top students from the semi-top.
From this description, I couldn’t say that year 12 English was being dumbed-down. I think that modern literature and movies have a place in English class as much as 17th century playwrights.
And comparing the text message to Keats’ love letter strikes me as a very good way to encourage appreciation of the immense quality difference.
> Although the Internet can be a valuable tool
The Internet itself is just a “transport layer”. The WWW is the “content” layer. There are quite separate entities.
> I don’t think its usage rises to the
> level of being something students
> should be tested on.
Testing people on how to IM is rediculous, of course. However, the issue of data networking as an national (and personal) communications mechanism is another kettle of fish. I’ve been mulling over suggesting that some sort of data networking course be taught in the public schools. The “NET” has become ubiquitous, and people need to learn basics, and then some advanced topics — such as encription and digital signatures.
When I was in 7th grade, we learned how to fill out a check. The “NET” has raised the bar a bit.
A lot of this material could be taught via distance learning techniques — just as the testing for keyboarding, IM and EMAIL could all be done on the computer. The test, its evaluation and and explanations could all be delivered via test software.
> I don’t know how to IM
Why not download the Yahoo IM module, install it and give it a whirl. It’s just another “window” which allows point-to-point communication with someone who’s online at the same time you are.
I helped a college student in London complete her senior computer science course work via an IM window a couple of years ago. (Not the best tool for that job, but we got the job done.)
Yahoo IM allows instantaneous chat, file transfer and has a voice module which allows you to speak to your correspondent. You will need someone to IM with, tho.
If you IM with someone under 21, you will need to be good with sound-symbol substitutions .. IC for I see, U There? for Are you There, B4 is Before .. and so on.
IM has created some problems in Korean culture, as the kids have run afoul of their more structured parents and grandparents. Korean characters are basically straight lines (with a cirle or two thrown in for good measure). Characters are “stroked” in a specific order. If the sequence is not correct, then the character is considered “wrong”. Older Koreans don’t seem to like the “freedom” that the kids enjoy IMing.