Cornell professor brings manual typewriters into German class to counter AI use

Cornell Professor Brings Typewriters to Class to Combat AI in Student Writing

Grit Matthias Phelps, a German language instructor at Cornell University, has introduced manual typewriters into her classroom once each semester. Students sit at desks with machines that ding at the end of each line, forced to manually return the carriage to start the next one. No screens. No spellcheckers. No delete keys.

The exercise began in spring 2023 after Phelps noticed students submitting grammatically perfect assignments written by generative AI and online translation platforms. She wanted to understand what students could actually produce on their own.

"What's the point of me reading it if it's already correct anyway, and you didn't write it yourself?" Phelps said. "Could you produce it without your computer?"

She sourced dozens of old manual typewriters from thrift shops and online marketplaces, then built what her syllabus calls an "analogue" assignment into her German courses.

A Generation Meets the Typewriter

For students raised on smartphones and laptops, the typewriter is not intuitive. Catherine Mong, a 19-year-old freshman, arrived for class confused. "I'd seen typewriters in movies, but they don't tell you how a typewriter works," she said. "I didn't know there was a whole science to using a typewriter."

Phelps demonstrated the mechanics: feeding paper manually, striking keys with enough force to register but not so hard the letters smudge, and understanding that the bell signals the need to return the carriage. One student had an epiphany. "Oh," they said, "that's why it's called 'return.'"

Most students lacked the finger strength for touch-typing. They pecked slowly with their index fingers instead. Mong, who had a recently broken wrist, typed one-handed.

What Happens Without Distractions

The typewriter removes notifications, search engines, and the ability to instantly verify information. Ratchaphon Lertdamrongwong, a computer science major, noticed the shift immediately while writing a critique of a German film.

"The difference with typing on a typewriter is not just how you interact with the typewriter, but how you interact with the world around you," Lertdamrongwong said.

Without answers at his fingertips, he asked classmates for help. Without a delete key, he paused to think more carefully before writing. "I was forced to actually think about the problem on my own instead of delegating to AI or Google search," he said.

Phelps encourages this collaboration. She brings her two children, ages 7 and 9, to serve as "tech support" and ensure no one retrieves their phones during class.

Messy Pages, Clear Learning

Mong, a self-described perfectionist, initially hated how her work looked. Odd spacing. Misspellings. Phelps instructed students to backspace and type X's over errors-a visible record of the writing process.

Mong eventually embraced the imperfection. While typing a poem, she used the page's visual boundaries to indent and fragment lines in the style of E.E. Cummings. It took several sheets and many mistakes, all of which she saved.

"I'm probably going to hang them on my wall," Mong said. "I'm kind of fascinated by typewriters."

Part of a Broader Shift

Cornell's typewriter assignment is part of a wider trend in education. Schools are adopting in-class pen-and-paper exams and oral tests to prevent AI use on assignments completed on laptops. The goal is to verify that students themselves produced the work.

Whether typewriters make a broader comeback remains unclear. But the exercise reveals something educators are testing: what students learn when technology stops doing the thinking for them.