Principals says online NAPLAN trials confirm Year 3 students lack the required typing skills

IN a time when kids seem to be always on a computer, it’s been revealed that a lack of typing skills is threatening their online NAPLAN results.

YEAR 3 students have produced “very little” in trials of online NAPLAN tests in writing because they lack typing skills, adding weight to concerns SA’s results will slip further behind other states that stick with pen and paper tests next year.

The Education Department had planned for as many schools as possible to switch to online testing in 2017.

It now says it will assess this term’s trials, largely held to determine schools’ IT capacity to run online tests, before deciding “how to progress”.

SA Area Schools Leaders Association president Chris Roberts said the most consistent feedback from schools was concern over Year 3 writing, which can be either a narrative or persuasive writing task.

“Certainly some schools said their kids did very little because their typing skills aren’t up to it, pecking on a keyboard with one finger,” he said.

“It had some principals thinking that their kids really didn’t cope with that form of testing.”

Mr Roberts said some students struggled to register their answers to multiple choice answers in other tests, and some lacked the ability to “drag and drop” onscreen items.

“Schools that choose not to upskill their kids (in computing) are going to see it reflected in their results,” he said.

Mr Roberts said at his own school, Streaky Bay Area School, teachers noticed “wandering eyes” were more of a problem with students sitting close together at banks of computers, than when they were separated under “ideal exam conditions” for paper tests.

The SA Primary Principals Association said the feedback confirmed its warnings of poorer results compared with other states and territories, which all must switch to computerised tests by 2019, if SA takes the plunge first. SA’s results are already among the weakest in the country.

“We don’t believe it’s a real assessment of their writing skills, it’s an assessment of their keyboard skills,” SASPA president Pam Kent said.

Ms Kent said city schools were positive about the smooth technical running of the trials. Mr Roberts said country schools gave mixed feedback — in one case an “absolute disaster” forcing the trial to be abandoned — reflecting the wide discrepancy in internet access across regional areas.

“Some have got access to adequate bandwidth for student learning in their schools, some have restrictions and some have none at all,” he said.

A department spokeswoman said trial outcomes were being considered and announcements about next year’s tests would be made later in the year.