Printing out homework

[Arran]

A friend who is a few years older than me owned a computer and a dot matrix printer whilst he was in primary school. The teachers refused to accept homework that was printed out and insisted that it was all hand written.

Did anybody else regularly print out homework rather than write it, or did they attend a school where the teachers would not accept printed out homework?

[Richard1978]

Re: Printing out homework

I had the use of a computer for most of my time at secondary due to a learning disability & didn't have any problems with handing in printed work.

[Arran]

Re: Printing out homework

My school didn't have regular written homework assignments until KS2 and the teachers accepted it without any problems if it was printed out. Ink jet printers were fairly commonplace in homes in the late 1990s and were used in lessons at school.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Printing out homework

Written all the way. While I was at school few people had access to printers. It was only when I got to university and people started getting word processors that we started printing out assignments.

[darren]

Re: Printing out homework

Im certain i never printed out homework.
I think its better to write it out properly altho printing it is neater certainly in my case it would be.lol

did they have printers in 1979 when i started school.:d

[Arran]

Re: Printing out homework

I can imagine that in the mid 1980s, when mechanical typewriters and stencil duplicators were still regularly being used in primary schools, some teachers would be a bit bemused if one of their kids submitted a homework assignment that was printed out rather than hand written. More so if it was in that unelegant but highly distinguishable typeface produced by dot matrix printers. I wouldn’t be surprised if teachers (and classmates) of kids who submitted printed out homework who didn’t know much about computers themselves became suspicious that the computer had actually done the homework for them. In other words, the kid had cheated! It was not uncommon to find teachers during the 1980s who were vehemently opposed to using school computers as word processors as they believed that they should be used as a teaching aid integrated into existing lessons and work hand written.


Dot matrix and daisywheel printers were commercially available in 1979 but almost nobody had a computer at home that year to use one with. Around 1990 it was possible to buy dot matrix printers that could print in a script typeface that looked like handwriting. Did any kids ever use it for their homework assignments? By the mid 1990s TrueType fonts had taken over pervading Arial and Times New Roman into everyday life. In the second half of 1990s dot matrix printers were superseded by ink jet printers in homes and classrooms which could print in colour. Kids loved them despite colour ink cartridges being quite expensive to buy.

[80sChav]

Re: Printing out homework

Never, no (though my Mum's Job was a Typist/and Short Hand Typist in my School Years) and I often used to make pretend Football scores on her Typewriter at home - but no the idea would never have entered my head - though I also had a Computer for playing Games on around 1985/86 but the idea never entered my head! if it had I am sure all my School's would no way have accepted the Homework (unless it was to do with Data etc for Computer Studies - which we fleetingly studied in the the First Year/Year 7)

80sCha

[Mulletino]

Re: Printing out homework

Nah, I left school before most people had Home Printers as it was still the 8-bit phase of Home Computing.

However, when I was doing my apprenticeship we used to have day release and one evening at Engineering College, where we did CAD and stuff. I printed all my own project stuff out at home on my Amiga.

[zabadak]

Re: Printing out homework

I'm afraid my homework (except for Uni) pre-dated home computers...

[Arran]

Re: Printing out homework

I forgot to mention that you could buy thermal printers in the 1980s that required special thermal paper like that used in fax machines and for cash register receipts. They were generally cheaper than dot matrix printers but the print quality wasn't very good and the paper curled up and darkened if left in sunlight or next to radiators.

My friend owned an Amstrad CPC6128 and the Tasword word processor in 1986 whilst in Year 5 at primary school. He continued using it for homework until 1992 when he moved up to a PC with Microsoft Word version 2.

[80sChav]

Re: Printing out homework

Nah, I left school before most people had Home Printers as it was still the 8-bit phase of Home Computing.

However, when I was doing my apprenticeship we used to have day release and one evening at Engineering College, where we did CAD and stuff. I printed all my own project stuff out at home on my Amiga.

Even at College doing this we'd have probably been in "nearly" as much trouble as at School

Fair play to you here though Mulletino!

80sChav

[big kid]

Re: Printing out homework

all the homework we did had to be written out.

[zabadak]

Re: Printing out homework

There no printers when I were a lad!

[80sChav]

Re: Printing out homework

all the homework we did had to be written out.

Same here - but i wish I had "dreamed up the idea lol - that would of been awesome I think - to be frank

I recall that on Grange Hill in 1992 when Robson gave Dennis and Andy lines - they did this (allmost in the same vain as Freddie's PE Kit Reminder Service) by priniting it out on Computer!

It is strange to think - that thinking back that 1992 was modern times (with the Internet and Computers in the full throttle of really getting going) I think at leasrt as I got to know the Internet 6 years later in 1998!

80sChav

[Twocky61]

Re: Printing out homework

We were allowed to print out homework

Either on a typewriter or more recent; a PC printer

Nowadays a lot of schools wont accept it as the homework could be copied from the internet