Spellcheck on Tests in Oregon and Thoughts on Effect of Technology in Daily Life

This was a comment in response to a Gizmodo Post:

Depresing Newz: Spelcheking During Exams Now OoKay Wit Oragan Schols

Not sure if they have allowed me to comment there yet, they say you have to audition but I do not see anywhere to audition! Oh well, hopefully it will be up there sometime.

If they teach spelling before a test then it doesn’t really matter if they can use spellcheck on the test, it just gives kids a greater of getting that important and state required “A” to pass their class.

Using spellcheck allows the school system to pass along the majority of kids who don’t really care about their education.

If you think about it, we are making a world where technology compensates for peoples lack of motivation to learn things about the world around them, including their technology. This is just a confirmation of those practices. So even though morally it seems wrong, logically, it is acceptable.

How many great video games have been dumbed down, Operating systems “Simplified”, etc. to just a couple clicks here and there or the swipe of a finger. Everything we create has to be simplified for the general public because many of them don’t understand how to read/write/reboot their computer. We live off of bits and bytes of text messages, tweets and updates…has anyone else noticed that when you write a long, important, and well worded e-mail, even in the corporate world, you usually get back a one sentence reply that clearly shows they didn’t bother reading past the first paragraph (as they don’t address the other 5 issues you discuss?) and leaves you wondering what they really thought.

So what is the big deal? It almost seems as if it would be better to teach how to “wrte sml txt msgs in skool”, or at least learn to use a keyboard / input device faster (Like Swype, etc.)

Long and proper english has become more of a courtesy than a requirement with the exception being jobs that require it such as Journalism, etc. But if you are interested, you are going to learn it, right?

It almost seems like somewhat of a social and economical plot/consipracy…the “dumbening” of America into “Good Consumers”. Good consumers rely on their technology for information, read reviews, and get obsessed with the inundation of cool stuff, gadgets,status updates, texts, televisions and commercials that Americans are marketed and exposed to every day.

If they teach spelling before a test then it doesn’t really matter if they can use spellcheck on the test, it just gives kids a greater of getting that important and state required “A” to pass their class.

Using spellcheck allows the school system to pass along the majority of kids who don’t really care about their education.

If you think about it, we are making a world where technology compensates for peoples lack of motivation to learn things about the world around them, including their technology. This is just a confirmation of those practices. So even though morally it seems wrong, logically, it is acceptable.

How many great video games have been dumbed down, Operating systems “Simplified”, etc. to just a couple clicks here and there or the swipe of a finger. Everything we create has to be simplified for the general public because many of them don’t understand how to read/write/reboot their computer. We live off of bits and bytes of text messages, tweets and updates…has anyone else noticed that when you write a long, important, and well worded e-mail, even in the corporate world, you usually get back a one sentence reply that clearly shows they didn’t bother reading past the first paragraph (as they don’t address the other 5 issues you discuss?) and leaves you wondering what they really thought?

So what is the big deal? It almost seems as if it would be better to teach how to “wrte sml txt msgs in skool”, or at least learn to use a keyboard / input device faster (Like Swype, etc.)

Long and proper english has become more of a courtesy than a requirement with the exception being jobs that require it such as Journalism, etc. But if you are interested, you are going to learn it, right?

It almost seems like somewhat of a social and economical plot/consipracy…the “dumbening” of America into “Good Consumers”. Good consumers rely on their technology for information, read reviews, and get obsessed with the inundation of cool stuff, gadgets,status updates, texts, televisions and commercials that Americans are marketed and exposed to every day.