机考将取代纸质考卷？
More exams are being taken on laptops to save academics from students’ scrawls.
为了避免老师看不懂学生的潦草笔迹，越来越多的考试开始在笔记本电脑上进行。
Rising numbers of students are doing their exams on computers, rather than having to complete handwritten papers, in a move that could spell the death of the pen-and-paper test.
越来越多的学生开始在电脑上进行考试，而不再需要完成手写的试卷，此举可能意味着笔试的终结。
Universities such as Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge are testing the move — but adopting different policies on whether to allow spell-checking.
爱丁堡、牛津和剑桥等大学正在测试这一举措—但在是否允许拼写检查方面采取了不同的政策。
While undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge are not allowed to use the spell-check function during the trial exams, Brunel’s director of learning, Simon Kent, said it tried to make assessment as authentic as possible.
尽管牛津大学和剑桥大学的本科生不允许在试考期间使用拼写检查功能，布鲁内尔大学的学习主管西蒙·肯特(Simon Kent)却说，试考是为了让评估尽可能真实。
He said: “In the real world, students will have access to spell-checkers in their everyday work, so it is reasonable to allow them to use a spell-checker in the examination. ”
他说:“在现实世界中，学生在日常工作中可以使用拼写检查软件，所以允许他们在考试中使用拼写检查软件是合理的。”
“We don’t award degrees for good spelling. Of course if the spelling and grammar become so bad that the answer is difficult to understand, then this would impact on the grade.”
我们不会因为拼写好而授予学位。当然，如果拼写和语法变得如此糟糕以至于答案难以理解，那么这将影响成绩。”
More than 60% of universities have brought in “e-exams” in at least one or two modules, while one in five have introduced it in entire departments, according to a survey by the Heads of eLearning Forum, a network of academics.
学术网络“电子学习论坛”(eLearning Forum)的负责人进行的一项调查显示，超过60%的大学至少在一两个模块中引入了“电子考试”，五分之一的大学在整个院系中都引入了这种考试。
Professor Alan Smithers, from Buckingham University, said he worried the move could lead to “the death of handwriting”.
白金汉大学(Buckingham University)教授艾伦·史密瑟斯(Alan Smithers)表示，他担心此举可能导致“书法的消亡”。
He said: “There is evidence that learning to write by hand speeds up learning the alphabet, is associated with absorbing information in classes better, and helps to develop dexterity.”
他说:“有证据表明，学习手写可以加快学习字母表的速度，有助于更好地吸收课堂上的信息，有助于培养学生的敏捷性。
The trend is set to grow as universities try to reduce their use of paper while also making it easier for academics to mark students’ work without having to struggle to read their often poor handwriting.
随着各大学试图减少纸张的使用，同时让学者们更容易标记学生的作业，而不必费力地阅读他们通常糟糕的笔迹，这一趋势还将继续发展下去。
Undergraduates with English as an additional language and international students are particularly keen on the move, according to research at Edinburgh.
爱丁堡大学的一项研究表明，英语为外语的本科生和国际学生尤其热衷于这项运动。
But concerns have been raised that the end of pen-and-paper exams will mean the further deterioration of handwriting skills and manual dexterity.
但有人担心，笔试的结束将意味着书写技能和手工熟练度的进一步恶化。
A top surgeon warned last week that some students lacked the dexterity to sew up patients because they had spent too much time in front of screens.
一位顶级外科医生上周警告说，一些学生由于在屏幕前花了太多的时间，所以无法熟练地缝合病人。
Critics also complain that allowing access to spell-checking in exams is dumbing down.
批评人士还抱怨说，在考试中允许拼写检查让学生越来越笨。
Smithers added: “With handwritten exams, you can be pretty sure it is the work of the candidate, and not that of a substitute, or imported from elsewhere, or spell-checked.”
史密瑟斯补充道:“有了手写的考试，你可以相当肯定这是考生的工作，而不是替代品的工作，或者从其他地方输入，又或者是拼写检查。”
Brunel University is one of the first UK institutions to move beyond the trial stage and introduce digital exams, encouraging students to use their own laptops.
布鲁内尔大学(Brunel University)是首批走出试用阶段、引入数字考试的英国院校之一，鼓励学生使用自己的笔记本电脑。
The move has not been without its problems, one being that students arrive with uncharged laptops.
这一举措并非没有问题，其中之一就是学生们带着未充电的笔记本电脑来上课。
In one instance, a first-year student began watching a muted wrestling match on screen after the paper was finished, which was distracting for other students.
例如，一名一年级学生在论文完成后开始在屏幕上观看无声的摔跤比赛，这让其他学生也分了心。
Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said losing the manual dexterity developed by handwriting and allowing spell-checking in exams was “de-skilling” young people.
“真正教育运动”的主席克里斯·麦戈文说，在考试中失去手写能力和拼写检查能力会让年轻人“技能退化”。
“We need to break the dependence on, and addiction to, digital technology and encourage young people to remain multi-skilled.”
“我们需要打破对数字技术的依赖和依赖，鼓励年轻人保持多技能。”
“ The future for a monoculture, even a digital one, tends to be extinction,” he said.
“单一文化的未来，甚至是数字文化的未来，都趋向于消亡，”他说。
Oxford said the pilot was “a small-scale exercise in bringing examinations into line with how students learn and will apply their knowledge in the future”.
牛津大学表示，试点计划是“一项小规模的练习，目的是让考试与学生的学习方式保持一致，并在未来应用他们的知识”。
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