Post by @deborahh@cosocial.ca

2026-09-23 16:02 UTC

I was astonished, yesterday, talking to a friend in Ottawa. Me: "wait! Did you just say your daughter uses … a pencil? At high school?" 😵‍💫 Friend: "oh yes. The teachers are bringing pencil and paper back to counteract [other educational trends]." 😯 I admit, I didn't expect that. Bravo! 💐 "As AI use rises, some profs go back to pens and paper" Sorry, paywalled … Ottawa Citizen https://ottawacitizen.com/news/pens-and-paper-carleton-professors-students #noAI #education

Replies (2)

@nxskok@cupoftea.social 2026-09-23 16:20

@deborahh@cosocial.ca we (a math-stats-cs university dept) went back to handwritten exams as soon as we could after covid, because that was the way to check whether our students could actually demonstrate any knowledge themselves.(*) When we were online, the cheating was fellow students or tutors, but of course now it's LLMs. I still have marks for assignments (completed outside of class), but I don't know how long that's going to last, even though I don't want to go to (supervised) quizzes instead. (*) Oral exams is another way, but our classes are too big to make that practical.

Open ##5267803
@mpjgregoire@cosocial.ca 2026-09-23 17:16

@deborahh@cosocial.ca Why did classes ever drop pen and paper? They seem like an obviously better way to learn and test than with computers.

Open ##5267804