There is Fair and their is "over Fair". As a person with Dyslexia, I know what both of you are saying.
Yes, for an EXAM that will also take in both what you say and how you spell the words is important. You must make it "fair" for all and not giving one group a spell checker if the others do not have one. During "normal" classroom work, as well as homework, having a student have a computer with all of the language aids is helpful. I was in "grade school" before there was any desktops and before they knew about Dyslexia. I was called lazy and worse. I was even called retarded by a teacher in front of the whole class. They did not know about these learning disordered withing the educational field in those years. I ended up as a substitute teacher for a few years, after a stroke and a few bad injuries forced me to stop working in the computer field. I saw what aid the kids, like I was, had to help them with school. I actually help one kid in one of those "extra time" exams. But we must be fair. You cannot give a student a spell checker on an exam or in-class writing assignment when the rest of the class does not have one. That is giving them much more aid than "fair". For one of my college English courses' in-class writing, I hand wrote the assignment and then was given it back to type it so the professor could read it. I have a "bad hand". Back then, desktops just started to come to the market then. What I do not like is the teachers that required 10 year old kids to hand in assignments on computer printed sheets, or they failed the assignment since they no longer would take hand written papers anymore. Those teachers had to know that the poor families could not afford a computer back then, or if they did would not let their kid to use it. That was over 10 years ago. I still know of families that do not have a computer that the kids are allowed to use. On 09/26/2013 01:38 PM, Malcolm Moore wrote: > I just do what the exam officer tells me !! > As far as I know students with the problems you mention get extra time in the > exam and extra help before hand but in the exam itself spell checkersare a no > no > Regards > Mal > > James B. Byrne , 26/9/2013 5:39 PM: > > On Thu, September 26, 2013 11:53, Malcolm Moore wrote: >> I wondered if someone would ask >> We are a school and sometimes students with difficulties get a laptop to do >> exams. Since everyone else is writing the answers the exam boards say the >> spell checker must be disabled in such a way that it is not possible to use >> during the exam so not to give these students an unfair advantage. >> Best wishes >> Mal >> >> > > If the disability has to do with dyslexia, reading or fine motor skills > impairment requiring computer assistance then would not an automated > spell-checker itself be the normal accommodation? Who is making these rules? > > -- > *** E-Mail is NOT a SECURE channel *** > James B. Byrne mailto:byrn...@harte-lyne.ca > Harte & Lyne Limited http://www.harte-lyne.ca > 9 Brockley Drive vox: +1 905 561 1241 > Hamilton, Ontario fax: +1 905 561 0757 > Canada L8E 3C3 > > -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted