Schools Banning iPods To Beat Cheaters

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Schools are having to ban iPods because kids are using them to cheat on exams. Makes you wish they could just ban the cheaters, not the iPod.

A teacher at San Gabriel High School in West Covina, Calif., confiscated a student's iPod during a class and found the answers to a test, crib notes and a definition list hidden among the teen's music selections. Schools in Seattle, Wash., have also banned the devices.
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What happened to the days of writing the answers on your pencil? or on the sides of your shoes? or in the brim of your hat?
 
I think public schools should have banned iPods (especially during class) ages ago. Anybody listening to a music device during class is being immensely disrespectful.
 
Interesting, and to think our state is going to give every school child an iPod. :rolleyes:
 
Mark_Warner said:
I think public schools should have banned iPods (especially during class) ages ago. Anybody listening to a music device during class is being immensely disrespectful.
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You ban things from class time, not from school. Why should anyone not be able to listen to music during lunch, between classes, during free time, or after waiting on your ride?

And if your banning ipods to stop cheating, you might as well ban pencils, pens, all forms of paper, watches, sleeves, pockets, and place cameras above every desk becuase banning an ipod from school isn't going to stop a god damn thing.
 
I'd record class lectures and class notes to my iPod and fall asleep listening to them. Wonder if that would work. Would probably be the closest we'll get to knowledge diffusion for awhile.
 
Kristofff said:
You ban things from class time, not from school. Why should anyone not be able to listen to music during lunch, between classes, during free time, or after waiting on your ride?

And if your banning ipods to stop cheating, you might as well ban pencils, pens, all forms of paper, watches, sleeves, pockets, and place cameras above every desk becuase banning an ipod from school isn't going to stop a god damn thing.
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A better solution is to expel the cheater from school. Zero tolerance. maybe then they will get the message.
 
Simple:

Those who are taking exams, must leave all possessions at the front of the room. The only things allowed are writing instruments (that are checked so that nobody has cheating notes written on them), and simpler scientific calculators (again, checked to make sure that no cheats are on them).

Nothing else was allowed. I still remember when some people who screamed "unfair! This goes against my rights to listen to my Walkman!" and all I could do was just frown in digust at those people. The teachers simply gave the ultimatum: ditch the Walkman, or you won't be taking the test, and get a 0.
 
InorganicMatter said:
Say WHAT?! I must have a link to this...that sounds unbelievably stupid. :eek:
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http://www.macuser.com/ipod/let_them_have_ipods.php


Well it was so unbelievably stupid that people went into outrage, as we have the worst crime, worst roads, and one of the highest unemployment in the states... but yet they proposed ipods for every student. Oh did I mention we have a sick over debt too?


Yeah, to say the least, now they deny that it was even proposed, but I can remember how it was all the outrage here.
 
InorganicMatter said:
Say WHAT?! I must have a link to this...that sounds unbelievably stupid. :eek:
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http://www.macuser.com/ipod/let_them_have_ipods.php


Well it was so unbelievably stupid that people went into outrage, as we have the worst crime, worst roads, and one of the highest unemployment in the states... but yet they proposed ipods for every student. Oh did I mention we have a sick over debt too?


Yeah, to say the least, now they deny that it was even proposed, but I can remember how it was all the outrage here.


Oh here is the bill they tried to push it on:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007704060315
 
Unabomber said:
Simple:

Those who are taking exams, must leave all possessions at the front of the room. The only things allowed are writing instruments (that are checked so that nobody has cheating notes written on them), and simpler scientific calculators (again, checked to make sure that no cheats are on them).

Nothing else was allowed. I still remember when some people who screamed "unfair! This goes against my rights to listen to my Walkman!" and all I could do was just frown in digust at those people. The teachers simply gave the ultimatum: ditch the Walkman, or you won't be taking the test, and get a 0.
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thats all a little too police statey for me, i always sort of saw schooling as a tom and jerry game in school uniforms, you did what you could to outsmart the faculty. the ingenuity is not in the regurgitated standardized and worthless tests in schools, but in the fact that the kid thought to put it on his ipod and use the resources available to him to succeed

and before you ask i graduated in the top %5 of my private high school. and i didn't cheat, however i felt many classes a waste of my time until college, where i started seeing non standard class structures and tests i couldn't cheat on if i wanted to.
 
Mark_Warner said:
I think public schools should have banned iPods (especially during class) ages ago. Anybody listening to a music device during class is being immensely disrespectful.
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While you add in during class I don't really see a reason to ban them from school. Also it is not disrespectful to listen to music say after a test while the room is still quite. Study hall would be another time I don't see an issue with it. Hell in my drafting class a lot of students would listen to music when I was in HS(put a cd in the computer and hook headphones in). Teacher would give the instructions and the students would have a few days work. Music was not an issue.

Kristofff said:
And if your banning ipods to stop cheating, you might as well ban pencils, pens, all forms of paper, watches, sleeves, pockets, and place cameras above every desk becuase banning an ipod from school isn't going to stop a god damn thing.
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Yea really. Also the artilce saying "Banning baseball caps during tests was obvious" just seems really stupid to me. One who's even been allowed to wear a baseball cap in class? Students are going to cheat anyway they can. Removing the ipod does nothing.
 
I knew some people back when I was in HS that had a tapping system down to get the answers from eachother
 
there were always very strict with exams in high school here and college was even harsher. both you could only take it what you required for exams, all belongings front of the room. they might allow a bottle of water, but thats it. even pencil cases weren't allowed.

so an ipod? u better believe thats not allowed. if you got caught in high school they give you a zero on the exam and fail you in that class so you have to do it again next year. if it continues, you get the boot.

now college....if you got caught you fail, get expelled from the school, and then get blacklisted with all other colleges in the province for 5 years. why can't these idiots impose harsh penalites like this and let the kids keep their ipods? i would have went nuts in high school (and even college) if i couldn't carry around my mp3 player
 
Kristofff said:
You ban things from class time, not from school. Why should anyone not be able to listen to music during lunch, between classes, during free time, or after waiting on your ride?

And if your banning ipods to stop cheating, you might as well ban pencils, pens, all forms of paper, watches, sleeves, pockets, and place cameras above every desk becuase banning an ipod from school isn't going to stop a god damn thing.
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Well, it is the fault of the cheaters, not the school.

Heh...reminds me of back in the day when you'd screw up, the teacher MADE SURE that everyone in the class knew that "there is no recess today because little Stevie screwed up".... ugh...

Now, people act like it is an infringement on their right to cheat. Besides, since you can't stop cheating...why try at all. :rolleyes:
 
BoogerBomb said:
A better solution is to expel the cheater from school. Zero tolerance. maybe then they will get the message.
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[sarcasm] That would be too easy...its much better to make everyone pay for the mistakes of a few assholes.......[/sarcasm]
 
Back when I was in high school, they would ban necklaces because we would make abacuses out of the beads. And sliderules out of licorice, of course.

No, not really. Seriously, making students leave all non-writing material at the front of the class for tests is pretty standard.
 
God bless the graphing calculator. That got me through more exams than I can count. :D
 
GJSNeptune said:
Which is why you needed the calculator in the first place. :p
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pwnt.

we weren't allowed to use graphing / scientific calcs in my exams.
(talking physics, EE, and chemistry, calculus, etc)

how's that?

whats worse is that we had to memorize all the theorems and equations; we weren't even allowed to have a reference :(

no wonder why I failed all those times.
 
That's interesting...cell phones should be treated the same then. Personally, I've used text messages to answer difficult questions. There's always ways around the "mans" rules.
 
I'm not exactly sure how high school exams are today, but 5 years ago they were simply memorization. Now, devices are wonderful for memorizing things for us. In fact they are much better at it than we are. However, they will not always be able to solve a more complicated problem without some type of programming. If exams are complicated to the point that kids have to actually understand the underlying concepts, then having technical assistance is not counterproductive. The schools are teaching kids the same basic stuff at the same age.
Why not try to push public education in a similar fashion of technology. Why not try to work on a level that embraces technology. If we do not catch up in terms of technical knowledge, we will soon be much less powerful as a nation.

For those of you who have children: what do you think is wrong with public education?
 
God forbid the teacher walk around the class room during the test and look for cheaters. All they do now days is pass out a test and enjoy sitting at there desk doing busy work for 2 hours. I had some teacher in high school that would leave the room on a 25 min bathroom/smoke break during tests. How about instead of banning ipods they actively prevent cheating during there tests themselves.

How many test answers is little johnny going to get off of his ipod while the teacher is passing him every 2mins? Now enough for the moron to pass thats for sure.
 
It's really interesting to see what happens when you make exams open-book.
 
It's funny, though, that there are some people who would rather spend days trying to conceive a strategy on how to best cheat on an exam, when they could have simply studied during those days, and done things legitimately.

From a distressed student:

Oh no! My teacher isn't going to let us use our graphical calculators! I spent, like, three days plugging in all of that info into my calculator so I could cheat! Now I'm going to do badly in my class! Now I can't go to medical school!
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Honestly, would any of you want that character operating on you, if you were the unfortunate person on the surgical table?
 
I(illa Bee said:
God forbid the teacher walk around the class room during the test and look for cheaters. All they do now days is pass out a test and enjoy sitting at there desk doing busy work for 2 hours. I had some teacher in high school that would leave the room on a 25 min bathroom/smoke break during tests. How about instead of banning ipods they actively prevent cheating during there tests themselves.

How many test answers is little johnny going to get off of his ipod while the teacher is passing him every 2mins? Now enough for the moron to pass thats for sure.
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I know; for real, man! I was a high school teacher for 2 1/2 years, and nobody tried to pull that crap on me because I paid attention to what they were doing during the test. This new ban is because people in charge need to make themselves relevant by regulating everything. There's already regulation against this--it's called "cheating is against the rules." Doesn't matter how you do it, if the teacher pays attention he'll catch you. But no... heaven forbid we bother to enforce the rules we already have. Let's just make more rules instead. Ridiculous.

I guess we'll ban shoes, paper, the underside of desks, pockets, and palms next, since students since the beginning of time have used those as cheating devices. :rolleyes:
 
They could try writing tests that actually forced students to understand concepts rather than simply regurgitating memorized information. Being forced to remember dates, formulas, names is incredibly stupid considering that it is that same overly specific information that students will forget first.

A well-written test should be nearly impossible to cheat on (unless you had access to the questions beforehand). But I suppose that would force teachers to actually work and students to actually think...
 
rhouck said:
They could try writing tests that actually forced students to understand concepts rather than simply regurgitating memorized information. Being forced to remember dates, formulas, names is incredibly stupid considering that it is that same overly specific information that students will forget first.

A well-written test should be nearly impossible to cheat on (unless you had access to the questions beforehand). But I suppose that would force teachers to actually work and students to actually think...
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I agree with this very strongly. It has even gotten worse since I've gotten to college. There hasn't been a single class outside my major that hasn't been regurgitation of random facts. It bugs the hell out of me. It's also much worse with Tenured teachers, they just don't give a damn.
 
rhouck said:
A well-written test should be nearly impossible to cheat on (unless you had access to the questions beforehand). But I suppose that would force teachers to actually work and students to actually think...
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You make an argument that dates, names, etc have absolutely no place, because students will forget them. While I agree with some of your argument (I teach history, and certainly don't remember a large number of the dates and such I used to know), there are certain things that students should know to be historically literate- Pearl Harbor was Dec 7, 1941; D-Day was June 6 1944, the President at the beginning of Vietnam was LBJ, Brown v. Board ordered the desegregation of schools and overturned Plessy v. Ferguson...etc. Students should certainly be tested on those, but they should also be tested on other things.

The other thing to keep in mind, though, is that at least in high school, teachers have quite a lot to deal with. In NYC, for example, the legal limit for a class is 34 (though the actual numbers sometimes go higher). A history teacher teaching a full load (5 classes) would therefore have ~170 students. If the teacher spends 3 minutes to grade each essay, 1 essay/test, we're talking 8-9 hours of grading. If the test has more essays- i.e. if there isn't any of that multiple choice that's so easy to cheat on- then we could easily be talking 15 or more hours of grading; furthermore, unless a student has a particular turn of phrase, it's entirely possible for students to have shared sections without the teacher noticing. Add that to homework grading, lesson planning, and various other responsibilities and you may understand why some teachers so regularly use multiple choice for tests.
 
obviouslytom said:
What happened to the days of writing the answers on your pencil? or on the sides of your shoes? or in the brim of your hat?
Click to expand...

Or writing them lightly on the scantron that you're taking the test on then erasing it. lol :) ;) ;) ;)
 
Unabomber said:
Simple:

Those who are taking exams, must leave all possessions at the front of the room. The only things allowed are writing instruments (that are checked so that nobody has cheating notes written on them), and simpler scientific calculators (again, checked to make sure that no cheats are on them).

Nothing else was allowed. I still remember when some people who screamed "unfair! This goes against my rights to listen to my Walkman!" and all I could do was just frown in digust at those people. The teachers simply gave the ultimatum: ditch the Walkman, or you won't be taking the test, and get a 0.
Click to expand...
Pretty much how it is in college, no hats and everything on the floor. Heck even in high school you couldn't be listening to something while taking an exam. That's absurd, I'm guessing the students were doing th old headphone up the jacket sleeve and the teachers didn't see.
 
Don't worry. [guy from jurassic park tone] They'll find a way.
Cheaters probably will create new inventive ways to cheat during the time they should be studying =P
 
My method for multiple choice was rather simple.

For example; It was ABBBCDABCDABDACDDCD
I would right
Math Hw:
Pg 122 #2,3,4 (ABB, BCD)
Pg 123 #4,12 Part 4 (ABC, D,AB,D)
Pg 134 #4,34 (ACD,D,CD)

Teachers would always look, not think anything of it because i had notes on my hands all the time.

Graphing Calc saved my friend in 10th grade. I would slide my answers over to him. He got a 94% I got a 97%. Mind you, the kid was a retard. The teacher afterwards asked me, and said "I won't get you in trouble, but I want to know for future years" So I told her.
 
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