Are Handwriting Exercise Books old fashioned?

The New Year brings with it new opportunities and among them digitalisation is the key word not only in business but also in education. We are being told that paper consumption is at an unsustainable level globally having increased year on year and quadrupled over the past 50 years.The burning of trees for energy,and pulping is the single biggest source of emissions,some statistics say it is 40% responsible for deforestation globally.

Everyone now talks about the paperless society including the signing of documents and declarations with digital signatures that can be emailed between clients and firms.They assure you that it is not only safe and secure but may even speed up business processes and bring about a closer connection through the sharing of documents in quick time.

However, it must be stated that computers nor libraries will never be able to give us the information we want, that other people and living life or experiment  will?                                         

What does paperless mean?

Paper usage in itself as some maintain is not bad for the environment, at least not compared to other materials such as plastic which is why necessarily there has been a trend towards replacing plastic cups with paper cups and plastic straws with paper straws. But the process of recycling,disposing of used paper is not comparatively as dangerous to the environment as recycling electrical items.The latter need to be specially disposed otherwise dangerous chemicals will be released to the environment and damage your health at the same time, besides also harm other living creatures?

The environmental impact of paper use is sometimes exaggerated. Computers and servers are not exactly carbon neutral either, since they all require electricity which today is essentially produced by non-environmentally friendly methods. 

The rise of interconnected technology has made it easier to invade computers through cyber warfare and "capture" or steal private and secure information, even with advanced security measures. Thus keeping a physical copy or backup document is essential.

Why are Exercise Books becoming old fashioned? 

A Headteacher of a Grammar School in England has said exercise books are too old fashioned.Children need to be prepared for the future,not for the past.

Kathy Crewe-Read, Headmistress of Wolverhampton Grammar School has said: "We are trying to prepare our students for a distant future where ultimately,writing and reading might be a thing of the past."

Pupils at WGS aged 9 to 14 use iPads rather than exercise books and textbooks in every lesson where everything is stored digitally on iPads and science experiments and class discussion can be filmed. They also use an "exercise book" if the students want to write in the old fashioned way, but these pages are then photographed, perhaps, scanned and then saved on to iPads. 

But exercise books are reintroduced for year 10 and above as students have to write by hand in public exams.Is it somewhat similar to the argument of teaching students only in the swabasha until year O Level and then doing further education in English.I seems a tall order for a student to fluently communicate in English which now seems a short sighted policy,when students have to learn English to communicate with the rest of the global society or for getting a job in Sri Lanka?

When I was a student in Sri Lanka?

I want to take my readers to the days when I was student in Sri Lanka. It is not to visualise the comparative change, but to elucidate the ease of learning. Like the modern "Slate"internet Tablet, I was familiar with the Black Graphite Slate with a slate pencil. I was able to write down,scribble, doddle,do games and learning on my slate and rub it down at the end of the class, similar to what you can do on an iPad, but which now leaves a footprint.

It is a totally proven fact that the use of educational games was a important and positive effect on the learning process of children. Child psychologists and educators generally agree that educational games reinforce curiosity in children and facilitate their future academic performance. Several studies we are told have shown that this type of games stimulate the cognitive development of children of school age as well as skills and coordination. Likewise educational games can strengthen the memory of children and help them develop their capacity for social interaction. 

All this sounds good, but of course education must evolve and innovate at the pace of technology, but preferably at the pace of the student. 

It is thought now important to be able to transmit knowledge in the language of the student and the language of today is technology.

Victor Cherubim