Chemical Education Today
Letters “Old” Technology Is Still Useful The paper “Testing, Testing: Good Teaching Is Difficult; So Is Meaningful Testing” by Toby and Plano (1) illustrates the general idea that because a technology is “old” it should not necessarily be displaced by a newer technology that is capable of accomplishing the same result. Scantron technology and even punch cards still have a usefulness in the current educational environment, which is awash with interactive technologies. The latter, clearly, have an advantage, in many cases, over Scantrons. But not, I believe, in the case of homework, a very useful, but often neglected, tool in the teachers’ repertoire. Indeed, “homework time strongly predicts college success” (2), and a successful homework system based on Scantron technology of the kind described by Toby and Plano was used in an Austin high school as reported in this Journal (3). The point is that many “old technologies” are robust and can be manipulated to perform tasks for which they were not originally designed, i.e., mark sense technology, which only permitted a binary decision to be made—yes or no—on a given item, that is, only one of the possible answers for a typical multiple choice question. However, an early communication on this subject in this Journal (4) illustrated the possibilities of simple punch card technology if an image of the card could be captured in, and manipulated by, a computer. This approach, using punch card technology, provided the basis for question types that are truly multiple choice, that is, the possibility of multiple acceptable answers. Clearly, this approach—multiple correct answers to a question posed in a
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traditional multiple choice format—can be used with “old fashioned” technologies as well as in a modern interactive environment. We seem to be caught up in an “old fashioned” method of thinking even with new technologies, as has been described in the FIPSE Lectures (5), that “examinations will be different” because of the impact of digital technology. Finally, the Scantron technology described by Toby and Plano and used by Busboom are still viable options in an interactive educational environment because they require no terminal time, which, in spite of the proliferation of personal computers, is still a precious resource. Homework requires time for students to think about “hard problems;” they do not need to be sitting in front of a terminal to engage in this activity. Literature Cited 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Toby, S.; Plano, R. J. J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81, 180–181. Rosenbloom, J. E. American Educator, Spring 2004, p 10. Busboom, S. J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 1181–1184. Hinckley, C. C.; Lagowski, J. J. J. Chem. Educ. 1966, 43, 575. (a) Moore, J. W. J. Chem. Educ. 1989, 66, 3; (b) Crosby, G. A. J. Chem. Educ. 1989, 66, 4–7; (c) Smith, S. G.; Jones, L. L. J. Chem. Educ. 1989, 66, 8–11; (d) Lagowski, J. J. J. Chem. Educ. 1989, 66, 12–14; (e) Moore, J. W. J. Chem. Educ. 1989, 66, 15–19. J. J. Lagowski Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 78712-0165
[email protected] Vol. 82 No. 3 March 2005
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Journal of Chemical Education
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