Type vs. Script

Personally, do you write better using script on paper or typing on a computer?

Is it different for every person, or are we (as technologically challenged adults) different because we grew up learning how to write first on paper?

I think we misplace the fact that computers were not writing tools when we were first educated. I remember having a computer lab in my elementary school, but we used the lab to play educational computer games. The computers were old school macs with no mouse and ran slower than we had time in the period. Now, I see computers in classrooms that can transfer information within minutes. My cousin who is in elementary school types her homework on her own personal laptop. The youth are learning writing skills on laptops.

This whole idea occurred to me when I was reading a live chat on Education Week. One person asked: "Has the use of computers to write meant that students are writing better? worse? no difference?"

Answer: "I think students are writing both worse, and better. On the worse end, teachers complain that students cut-and-paste from online sources or simply repeat or paraphrase information without thinking critically about it.
On the better side, researchers who have studied student writing since the 1980s have found students feel more motivated when writing with computers and they produced papers that are neater, somewhat longer, with fewer spelling and grammar errors. The quality of the style and content is about the same, researchers have found.
But researchers have also found that students who normally use computers to write perform better on writing assessments when they use computers, rather than pencil and paper. That's a logical finding, but it has implications for standardized testing, which today offers both paper and computer versions of writing assessments."

I don't know if this answer is really this cut and dry. I think students today have a more difficult time connecting with writing on paper because they are so used to transferring their ideas via keyboard. Writing on paper has now become associated with worksheets or mindless activity, like copying down a phone number (but even that can be punched into a cell phone). Allowing students the ability to write in both atmospheres seems to be ideal for me, but I think most of the long-term writing projects should be focused towards a computer.

Students will be working and writing on computers, so we should have them writing a lot on them. We (the older generation) have adapted to writing on this machine, but we must think about how this practice is completely natural to students. They are comfortable on the computer typing a mile a minute to their friends on AOL instant messenger. You want to get them interested? Type something. Paper is old news to them.