Here is a letter I wrote to Daniel Cohen regrading an article he wrote with Roy Rosenweig for the February 24 2006 isue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i25/25b00601.htm A subscription may be required.

It deals with how cell phones and web search engines may render the use of multiple-choice tests in history courses impossible. Many comparisons with the use of calculators in mathematics courses are made. 

From msulliva (at) math.siu (dot) edu Mon Feb 27 21:43:40 2006
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 21:43:38 -0600 (CST)
From: Mike Sullivan 
To: dcohen (at) gmu (dot) edu
Subject: your Chronicle article

Dan,

Your blog site invites comments so here's mine.

(1) You can knock out the cell phones with a jamming device.
I'm a theoretician these days, but as a high school electronics
student I managed to jam all the TV's in our house. While I
share your disdain for multiple-choice tests as a major part of
a course grade, I do not think their demise is forthcoming.

(2) We mathematicians have pushed back hard against indiscriminate
use of calculators because their unrestricted use has indeed caused
much cognitive harm. In our calculus finals we ban the high 
powered ones and I often have tests sans calculators.  (In science 
classes it is different, and should be.) My nieces in Leesburg VA 
had to learn their times tables and do long division!

http://galileo.math.siu.edu/~msulliva/Education/dallas.html
http://galileo.math.siu.edu/~msulliva/Courses/1100UNT/
http://galileo.math.siu.edu/~msulliva/Education/LawrenceHS.doc

(3) I think one needs facts in mind to think well about history.
A few years ago I was talking to a student who said he was
against affirmative action. One of his reasons was that the
"Civil War happened hundreds of years ago." He really thought it
was 3 or 4 centuries years ago. Reasonable and well informed people
can have differing views of a.a. But, you cannot reason without
some starting facts. Abstract knowledge is built on concrete
knowledge. (The student was at Northwestern University.)

The program H-bot does sound cool and programs like it may well
become valuable tools, as calculators are now. A chainsaw is
a great tool for cutting down trees, but not for plucking flowers.

Best wishes,
Mike

PS: This is a general site on math ed issues:
http://www.mathematicallycorrect.com/