- 2007.06.12 -
Tip Jar
First published in CUE
BC Newsletter.
As long as there have been students, teachers, and assessment,
there has been cheating. New technology results in new methods of
cheating; online sale of essays has gotten a lot of attention in
the past few years, for example. Reportedly, some cellphone savvy
students text-message questions and answers to one another during
tests.
Recently, though, the media has started reported on some schools
or districts banning iPods, presumably as a result of these popular
music players being used to help cheat on exams. For instance, in
late April, the CBC offered a story, originally carried by the
Associated Press, under the headline "Schools
ban iPods to stop cheaters".
According to the story, "Mountain View (a high school in
Meridian, Idaho) recently enacted a ban on digital media players
after school officials realized some students were downloading
formulas and other material onto the players." The article notes
other music player bans in schools ranging from Seattle to Sault
Ste. Marie, Ontario, to the University of Tasmania.
The story quotes a grade 11 Mountain View student as saying that
some students had recorded test answers, adding the resulting audio
files to their iPod playlists. Other students reportedly used the
music players text notes feature to display test notes.
A grade 12 student who said she used to bring her iPod in order
to listen to music after finishing her test noted that students
were still able to use their iPods despite the ban: "You can just
thread the earbud up your sleeve and then hold it to your ear like
you're resting your head on your hand."
As with too many other media accounts, it's not clear to me
whether there is a real problem here. A school in Idaho, another in
Ontario does not necessarily indicate a widespread trend - too
often if journalist find two examples of something, they proclaim
it "the next big trend".
Still, the issue isn't limited to those few schools; recently,
for instance, staff at Vancouver's Gladstone Secondary debated (but
failed to pass) a motion to ban cell phones and MP3 players from
the school.
In fact, making a recording of yourself speaking your test
notes, saving the audio file, then playing it back during the test
is an awkward way to cheat - it can require listening to a
relatively long file that may be only marginally related to the
actual questions being asked. Saving fragments of text is more
efficient, but frankly it's not clear to me that this is a better
way to cheat than having a note-laden slip of paper in a
pocket.
It's really not about iPods (or cell phones, for that matter).
Tech gadgets are not inherently good or evil. While the University
of Tasmania has, according to the CBC/AP story, banned iPods, the
same story notes that North Carolina's Duke University has been
giving iPods out to students for the past three years as a learning
tool. The news story reports that the university claims they have
been invaluable in subject areas ranging from engineering to music
to sociology - and notes that the number of incidents of cheating
have been declining over the past decade despite the growing
availability of technology, including the university-supplied
iPods.
Tim Dodd, directory of Duke's Center for Academic Integrity
notes: "Trying to fight the technology without a dialogue on values
and expectations is a losing battle. I think there's kind of a
backdoor benefit here. As teachers are thinking about how
technology has corrupted, they're also thinking about ways it can
be used productively."
So maybe it's not really about technology but about clear
expectations - and about supervision during test-taking. Instead of
heavy handed bans, make sure students know that gadgets- cell
phones, iPods, whatever, are not appropriate in testing situations.
And then follow up.
It's not that hard, during a test, to notice students with wires
coming out of their ears, is it?
