An interesting debate in the often controversial world of school examinations: according to this article from the Independent last week, the chief executive of Ofqual – the body responsible for monitoring GCSE and A Level examinations – believes that students should have more opportunities to write exam scripts on computers and that ‘school exams are running the risk of becoming invalid as their medium of pen and ink increasingly differs from the way in which youngsters learn.’

The natural familiarity of the youngest generations with computer technology in its increasingly sophisticated forms is a commonplace of contemporary society, but should we be concerned by this embracing of IT as the main medium of writing seemingly at the expense of (rather than alongside) pen and ink, by those near the top of the education hierarchy?