At Cornell University, German instructor Grit Matthias Phelps has her students complete assignments using vintage manual typewriters, an analog exercise she began in spring 2023 to counter reliance on generative AI. The assignment forbids screens, spell check,and delete keys, forcing students like freshman Catherine Mong and computer science major Ratchaphon Lertdamrongwong to write slowly and deliberately. According to the source report, the exercise is part of a broader national trend toward pencil-and-paper exams and oral tests to prevent AI misuse .

How Cornell German instructor Grit Matthias Phelps began the analog assignment in spring 2023

Phelps, frustrated by students using generative AI and online translation to produce grammatically perfect work, decided to eliminate digital tools entirely. As reported in the source, she sourced old manual typewriters from thrift stores and online markets, creating what her curriculum calls an "analog" assignment. The exercise started in spring 2023 and has since become a recurring feature of her Introduction to German course. Phelps even brings her two children, ages 7 and 9, to act as "tech support" and ensure no student has a phone in sight.

The mechanical lesson: why a missing delete key forces deeper thought

Without a delete key or spell check, students must think before they strike each key. Lertdamrongwong noted he was "forced to really think about the problem on my own rather than delegating it to AI or a Google search." The manual typewriter's bell signals the end of a line, requiring the user to manually return the carriage—a moment that prompted one student to exclaim , "that's why it's called return." The slower pace , as Phelps describes, means "everything slows down.. It's like in the old days when you really did one thing at a time." The physicality of the machine—students discovered their pinkies weren't strong enough—demands a level of intentionality that screens rarely require.

Computer science major Ratchaphon Lertdamrongwong on the social side of typewriting

Lertdamrongwong, a sophomore in Phelps' class, found that the absence of screens forced him to interact with classmates for help. "While writing the essay, I had to talk a lot more, socialize a lot more, which I guess was normal back then," he said in the source atricle. The lack of internet dictionaries and immediate answers pushed students to collaborate, a stark contrast to the typical laptop-and-phone classroom. Freshman Catherine Mong, who had a broken wrist and typed one-handed, initially struggled with the messy output but ultimately appreciated the focus. "I realized the difference in writing on a typewriter isn't just how you interact with the machine but how you innteract with the world around you," Lertdamrongwong observed.

A national trend: pencil-and-paper exams and oral tests as AI countermeasures

According to the source, the Cornell typewriter exercise is part of a wider movement in education. Schools across the United States are returning to old-fashioned assessment methods—in-class paper exams and oral tests—to circumvent the ease of AI-generated work. Phelps' analog assignment is one of the more extreme examples, but it echoes a growing skepticism toward technology in the classroom. The trend raises questions about how to balance the benefits of digital tools with the need for authentic student work.. As the source notes, the typewriter is not yet making a comeback beyond Cornell's campus, but the pedagogical shift is real.

The scalability question: can analog assessments work beyond one classroom?

What remains unaddressed in the source report is how replicable Phelps' method is. Procuring and maintaining dozens of vintage typewriters may be impractical for large universities or underfunded schools. The exercise also relies heavily on one instructor's passion and her ability to enforce a no-screen rule for a single assignment. Critics might argue that the typewriter is a gimmick,not a solution, and that the underlying problem—students' over-reliance on AI—requires structural changes in assessment design. The source does not explore whether the exercise measurably improves language proficiency or long-term writing habits.. Without such data, the analog assignment remains an intriguing but isolated experiment.