We might be surprised at the progress made in every field of study, but the methods of testing a person’s knowledge and ability remain as primitive as ever they were. It really is extraordinary that after all these years, educationists have still failed to design anything more efficient and reliable than examinations. For the claim that examinations test what you know, it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact opposite. They may be a good means of testing memory, or the knack(窍门) of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell you nothing about a person’s true ability and attitude.

As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the marks of success or failure in our society. Your whole future may be decided in one fateful day. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t feeling very well, or that your mother died. Little things like that don’t count: the exam goes on. No one can give his best when he is in mortal terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do. The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of various competitions where success and failure are clearly defined and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of ‘drop-outs’: young people who are written off as failures before they have even started a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students?

A good education should, among other things, train you to think for yourself. The examination system does anything but that. What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus(教学大纲), so the student is encouraged to memorize. Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but to restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive(剥夺) the teacher of all freedoms. Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects, they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques. The most successful candidates are not always the best educated; they are the best trained in the technique of working under pressure.

The results on which so much depends are often nothing more than a subjective assessment by some anonymous examiner. Examiners are only human. They get tired and hungry; they make mistakes. Yet they have to mark piles of hastily scrawled (潦草的) scripts in a limited amount of time. They work under the same sort of pressure as the candidates. And their word carries weight. After a judge’s decision you have the right of appeal, but not after an examiner’s. There must surely be many simpler and more effective ways of assessing a person’s true abilities.

The Assassin’s Creed series has been about building immersive (沉浸) and accurate historical worlds. As their newest game releases Assassin’s Creed Origins, they have also released their Discovery Tours. These tours give players a chance to walk the streets of ancient Egypt, explore Alexandria and the pyramids, and learn about wildlife and geography. For students, experiencing the ancient world in this interactive way can be more interesting and effective than just reading a textbook or watching a documentary about what they are studying.

Assassin’s Creed is not the only game series that can be educational either. What is important about the role of historical games is the level of choice. When watching a film, students are passive receivers of the content. However, when playing a game, students have an active role to play in history. A focus on choices and consequences is an important element of teaching and understanding history, so historical games can be a valuable teaching tool even if they aren’t completely historically accurate. They have the power to immerse students in faraway worlds and allow them to think critically about the cause and consequence, think about why historical events unfolded in the way they did, and even think about possible alternative outcomes. All of these are critical for historical thinking processes. No longer do students need to rely only on reading textbooks or on instructors for knowledge.

When carrying this out in your class, remember that not all students enjoy playing video games, but they can still be a valuable leaning tool. The instructor also needs to be an active facilitator (促进者) and take note of teachable moments. A video game is not going to teach a class; it requires an awesome instructor to make everything come together. With the power of video games, ancient worlds no longer need to be limited to the pages of a textbook.

Everything from essays to exams is threatened by advanced artificial intelligence like ChatGPT, which can produce clear answers to complex questions. Educators are particularly concerned about students turning to AI tools like ChatGPT with their homework. One suggested solution is to make students write exam essays using pen and paper. 【小题1】

To stay competitive through their careers, students need to learn how to use AI writing tools properly to gain output. 【小题2】 As professionals working into the 2060s and beyond, they will need to learn how to deal with AI systems effectively.

In addition to the sound reasons for treating ChatGPT as an opportunity and not a threat, there are practical ones. It simply isn’t possible to effectively ban this technology. Many students can’t help using AI assistance while writing. 【小题3】 While there are tools aimed at judging text produced by AI, future versions of AI will get better at emulating (模仿) human writing-including the style of the particular person who is using it.

【小题4】 Some students, who use ChatGPT despite the ban, would avoid being found cheating in their writing, through luck or thanks to careful editing. Worse still, some students would be falsely charged with using ChatGPT, causing great stress and even leading to wrong punishment.

Writing is a skill worthy of great respect. But most students don’t have the desire to become professional writers. Instead, they are preparing for careers where they will write to further goals beyond the production of writing. As we do today, they will write to communicate, explain, request and persuade. 【小题5】