Bruno J. Navarro
Once each semester, Grit Matthias Phelps, a German language instructor at Cornell University, introduces her students to the raw feeling of typing without online assistance. No screens, online dictionaries, spellcheckers or delete keys. https://apnews.com/article/typewriter-ai-cheating-chatgpt-cornell-ce10e1ca0f10c96f79b7d988bb56448b
College instructor turns to typewriters to curb AI-written work

Once a semester, a Cornell University instructor requires her students to complete an in-class assignment using typewriters — an exercise to help them understand what writing, thinking and classrooms were like before everything turned digital. The exercise started in 2023, as Grit Mathias Phelps grew frustrated that her German language students were using generative AI and online translation platforms to churn out grammatically perfect assignments. The revival is part of a national trend toward old-school testing methods like in-class pen-and-paper exams and oral tests to prevent AI use for assignments on laptops.

AP News
Mar 31 at 12:30pmMastodon for iOS
Show threadPetra van CronenburgMar 31

@bruno_j_navarro This is so weird for me! 😁

I remember my training as a journalist in the midst 1980s and how we hated our boss so much, who made us struggle away on ancient mechanical typewriters that were constantly breaking down. I bought myself an electric Brother back then to spare my finger joints and took it to work with me.

But I can imagine that the experience might be instructive. 😂

Show threadferricoxideMar 31
@bruno_j_navarro

As a kid who liked to write (and had shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitty handwriting), my parents gifted me an old, manual typewriter. While useful, it was almost as much of a chore to use as the first car I got at age 16: it had manual steering. It was such a revelation when I got to high-school and was able to take a formal typing class that used IBM selectrics.

Oddly, in the late 80s, taking a typing class wasn't normally on my highschool's college-prep tack. It was on one of the "vocational" tracks. My aforementioned handwriting combined with knowing I'd want to be better-equipped to churn out papers on the university computers meant that I used one of my highschool electives to take that out-of-track typing class. So glad I did.
Show threadDave MasonApr 1

@bruno_j_navarro

I bet there's a lot of folks here in the Fediverse that learned to type on an IBM Selectric.

(I'm one of them.)