Measurable Handwriting Data

I spent some time exploring some of the special interest groups in the area of early elementary education in LinkedIn over the weekend. Who knew there were so many specific niche areas of interest? (Well, okay, the people in those groups, but...)

I was particularly interested in a group called "Edubloggers" and a post there:  Being Responsible means Evaluating the Effect of Technology in the Classroom. 

This article really made me think about measurable data. I've been working with PointScribe now for a while. I can recite (and probably do) our marketing messages and product benefits in my sleep. But this article gave me a new understanding of one of them:  measurable data. 

We are now at a point where the evaluation of technology-based instruction should be mandatory when introducing it into a classroom. To date, this kind of practical work has been limited – especially when it comes to the younger grades. I am at a loss when trying to think of any other field where we introduce new tools without rigorous empirical consideration on their effect. So why would it be acceptable in the only field that directly and indirectly affects each and every member of society – education?

The author of the article calls for accountability and evidence based evaluation. I never realized what teachers of handwriting had to do before technologies like ours to measure not only student progress, but the effectiveness of their teaching methods... in a classroom of say, 25 kids, that's 25 times 26 uppercase letters, 26 lowercase letter and ten numbers to keep track of:  1,550 shapes to monitor, assess and measure. 

Wow. I have new appreciation for the product I've been in love with for three years!