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"Science fiction represents the modern heresy and the cutting edge of speculative imagination as it grapples with Mysterious Time---linear or non-linear time."
- Frank Herbert
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| Machine Test Scoring | ||
| A device that scans a specially prepared grade sheet and determines a student's score. |
In the story, Margie has a mechanical teacher in her house, like every child old enough to need schooling. She must present homework in a particular form so the machine can read it and grade her work.
| The part Margie hated the most was the slot where she had to put homework and test papers. She always had to write them out in a punch code they made her learn when she was six years old, and the mechanical teacher calculated the mark in no time. |
| Technovelgy from The Fun They Had,
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Children's Magazine in 1951 Additional resources -
|
Punch cards or tape have been in use for a long time; the Hollerith 1890 census tabulator is a famous example. Most students today are familiar with the Scantron system, which combines machine-readable test papers with a reader/tabulator. I don't know how old mechanical test grading is.
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Science Fiction
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'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
