Technology and Talent, Time and Tide
And then there is this, per Associated Press↱:
There is no doubt that particular talent with data technology can be very helpful in translation, but there is also talent in comprehension of nuance that can make all the difference in the world when the software calculates the ifs and thens. Meanwhile, Olivier Knox↱, a senior correspondent for another agency, laments, "I am a million years old." And maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but there is this from Jocelyn Gecker's telling of the tale:
Notes:
Gecker, Jocelyn. "A college instructor turns to typewriters to curb AI-written work and teach life lessons". Associated Press. 31 March 2026. APNews.com. 31 March 2026. https://apnews.com/article/typewriter-ai-cheating-chatgpt-cornell-ce10e1ca0f10c96f79b7d988bb56448b
And then there is this, per Associated Press↱:
The scene is right out of the 1950s with students pecking away at manual typewriters, the machines dinging at the end of each line.
Once each semester, Grit Matthias Phelps, a German language instructor at Cornell University, introduces her students to the raw feeling of typing without online assistance. No screens, online dictionaries, spellcheckers or delete keys.
The exercise started in spring 2023 as Phelps grew frustrated with the reality that students were using generative AI and online translation platforms to churn out grammatically perfect assignments.
"What's the point of me reading it if it's already correct anyway, and you didn't write it yourself? Could you produce it without your computer?" said Phelps.
She wanted students to understand what writing, thinking and classrooms were like before everything turned digital. So, she found a few dozen old manual typewriters in thrift shops and online marketplaces, and created what her syllabus calls an "analog" assignment.
Once each semester, Grit Matthias Phelps, a German language instructor at Cornell University, introduces her students to the raw feeling of typing without online assistance. No screens, online dictionaries, spellcheckers or delete keys.
The exercise started in spring 2023 as Phelps grew frustrated with the reality that students were using generative AI and online translation platforms to churn out grammatically perfect assignments.
"What's the point of me reading it if it's already correct anyway, and you didn't write it yourself? Could you produce it without your computer?" said Phelps.
She wanted students to understand what writing, thinking and classrooms were like before everything turned digital. So, she found a few dozen old manual typewriters in thrift shops and online marketplaces, and created what her syllabus calls an "analog" assignment.
There is no doubt that particular talent with data technology can be very helpful in translation, but there is also talent in comprehension of nuance that can make all the difference in the world when the software calculates the ifs and thens. Meanwhile, Olivier Knox↱, a senior correspondent for another agency, laments, "I am a million years old." And maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but there is this from Jocelyn Gecker's telling of the tale:
"I was so confused. I had no idea what was happening. I'd seen typewriters in movies, but they don't tell you how a typewriter works," said Catherine Mong, 19, a freshman in Phelps' Intro to German class. "I didn't know there was a whole science to using a typewriter."
Like a rotary phone, the manual typewriter appears simple but is not intuitive to the smartphone generation. Phelps demonstrated how to feed the paper manually, striking the keys with force but not so hard the letters would smudge. She explained that the dinging bell signifies the end of a line and the need to manually return the carriage to start the next line. ("Oh," said one student, "that's why it's called 'return.'")
____________________Like a rotary phone, the manual typewriter appears simple but is not intuitive to the smartphone generation. Phelps demonstrated how to feed the paper manually, striking the keys with force but not so hard the letters would smudge. She explained that the dinging bell signifies the end of a line and the need to manually return the carriage to start the next line. ("Oh," said one student, "that's why it's called 'return.'")
Notes:
Gecker, Jocelyn. "A college instructor turns to typewriters to curb AI-written work and teach life lessons". Associated Press. 31 March 2026. APNews.com. 31 March 2026. https://apnews.com/article/typewriter-ai-cheating-chatgpt-cornell-ce10e1ca0f10c96f79b7d988bb56448b