Glorified Typewriter?

This discourse relates back to assessment one, though focused on the English discipline more specifically, and having it in a separate post serves to separate the ideas a little more efficiently. It seems that the majority of what I discuss in this Blog is either critical of technology or out right negative. I wish to point out that this is not the intent, rather, I feel it is necessary to highlight the potential 'complications' or 'challenges' that ICT poses in its practical application, rather then just focusing on its potential gains.

In English computing technology is most often used for word processing, mostly in the form of essay and assignment finalisation. While there is often a drafting process included in this final outcome, students often view the drafting process as more of a 'hurdle' to drag themselves through to get to the real task. The problem I see with this is that two of the common issues that we encounter with students, particularly in the middle years, is poor handwriting and spelling. These same students will often demonstrate a capable grasp of the English language when the task is to use a computer to produce a piece of work. The conclusion that I can't help but draw from this is that students who come to rely on word processing applications do not develop in their handwriting and come to rely on the program to handle their spelling for them, so therefore have little or no grasp of how to actually spell the words that they are using.

Is this a problem? If the students can still produce a piece of work that is both conceptually complex and sound in all other aspects in the final piece then aren't they demonstrating higher order thinking and we shouldn't worry about the rest? The issue I have with this is that we assess our students in a method that is handwritten to a time limit and where there only spelling or grammar assistance comes from a dictionary, something which most students do not use except in exams now.

So, are we not preparing our students adequately by allowing them too much access to ICT or are we assessing them incorrectly? Personally Im not that sure, though I will say this in terms of the assessment: Blooms taxonomy dictates that the levels of thought are cumulative, however word processing programs such as word actually serve to undermine that. We can have students who demonstrate higher order levels of thinking such as creating and evaluating, but have no proper understanding of the words or language that they are using. This, in my mind, is a problem that needs to be addressed somehow. Though, it does beg a further question: Is conceptual knowledge to be referenced over procedural? Does it matter that a student doesn't know how to spell a word as long as they understand what it means and how it is used?