BBC News Education reports : “As the government announces plans to modernise the exam system, various experiments are going on with innovative ways of assessing what students know. How about using your mobile phone to answer questions read out by a robot, for example?”

Fourteen-year-old Charlotte found it somewhat strange, talking to a machine.

“It’s a bit nerve-racking because they don’t tell you how you’ve done,” she said”.

The starting point is that currently, assessment does not take sufficient account of youngsters’ familiarity with various media.