<p>"Colleges Chase Cheats as Cheats Shift to Higher Tech"</p>
<p>"If they'd spent half as much time studying ... they'd all be "A" students."</p>
<p>I was going to link this article under the "Menschadictorian" thread, since there was some discussion included there about cheating.</p>
<p>I was going to put it in the longer thread about cheating but then thought better of it because of the high tech angle. Apart from the impressive command of technology and misguided uses for ipods etc., I was also bemused by the thought - how could anyone give a spelling test on a computer and seriously expect the students not to use a spell checker?</p>
<p>and, who gives a spelling test in college? really.</p>
<p>Also, aside from papers (and only not-in-class ones), all my exams have been done by hand - I've never seen students type a test...</p>
<p>I've never typed a test, but I've certainly had tests where we were allowed to use our laptops for very specific things (like graphing something or row reducing a huge matrix in Matlab). Of course, those tests are still generally taken by the student where and when the student decides to take them.</p>
<p>Another side of the hi tech story - how universities and colleges tap into a new era of peer dynamics that encourages students to explore and exploit the creative uses of ipods in higher education today - </p>
<p>the only "exams" that I have been aware of that can by typed are when "final papers" replace exams.</p>
<p>... and seriously, spelling?</p>
<p>I had a guy in my class who somehow knew nothing in class discussions but always aced the tests. His brother who was one year ahead of him got caught taking pictures of an exam with a small camera on his watch. Video cameras had been installed in the room because someone anonymously complained that this was happening. </p>
<p>I was glad to finally know why everyone else struggled and he breezed through the exam - sometimes he would be finished in 15 minutes while it took everyone else 2 hours to finish an exam. </p>
<p>I know that some classes allow computers - but I always thought those were the classes that you really couldn't cheat in - like advanced math classes where you had to 'prove' yourself by taking lower level classes. </p>
<p>I remember when I was in my third year of college three students were dismissed because they were ringers for some intro classes. Apparently it was well know that if you didn't want to take intro to psych all you had to do was anty up x dollars and Joe would take the class. Because the classes were so big and TAs changed all the time no one knew these people were taking the same class every semester. I was shocked. I had no idea that things like that happened!! After that they started requiring student IDs for every exam. </p>
<p>Also, I know of a few students who have gone to India to take their medical licensing boards. It is rumored that you can pay to take your exam with the help of others and books. I have no evidence but we all wonder why these guys go all the way to India to take their exam. Something just doesn't add up.</p>
<p>My point is - there are some students who will cheat no matter what - technology or no technology.</p>
<p>Exactly, some students will cheat no matter what and spend tremendous time and effort in the process. This tongue-in-cheek USA today article gives an overview of the high tech gadgets on the market with an eye to the "keep up with the Joneses" must have inventory necessary to play the high tech cheating game - "since actual learning is overrated" these students can always take heart because there are links provided to get high tech generated fake diplomas, too.</p>
<p>Btw, don't overlook the red box "Schools Fight Back"</p>
<p>The topics of cheating, the presence or absence of the honor code, packaged essays (not to mention books) and plagarism have all figured prominently in several past threads and have all generated hot debate. The NY Times article on high tech cheating may not appear to touch on a controversial or "hot" topic but I am pleased to find that it has generated quite a few responses most of which pick up on the exaggerated, high-handed tone of that piece. While no one wants to defend cheating, the original article begs the question whether or not students' highly imaginative and ingenious uses of high tech gadgets, and the steady flow of available information on the internet, can be condemned, across the board as "cheating". </p>
<p>The author of the following article takes the stance that "the problem is firmly one of instructional and evaluation technique. It will not be solved until teachers and professors figure out that understanding and the ability to work with knowledge is what counts ..."</p>
<p>An interesting and provocative article.</p>
<p>Thanks for linking the article, Asteriskea. I do not use the spellcheck function on my computer because it would challenge the many foreign words I use regularly (too many to enter them) I also loathe the grammar police installed in Microsoft word. It challenges unsual but perfectly correct turns of phrases that are chosen precisely because they are unusal.
[quote]
Just three days after publishing the Cheating article the Times itself had to publish a lengthy retraction of a front page story. The prominent printing of false information could have been avoided, the newspapers Public Editor noted, had the news staff simply Googled its own articles. Nothing could illustrate the changing needs of curriculums more clearly.
[/quote]
[quote]
So, no, the problem is not cheating. The problem is firmly one of instructional and evaluation technique. It will not be solved until teachers and professors figure out that understanding and the ability to work with knowledge is what counts, and that anything you can instantly Google, or store in your calculator, or retrieve via quick text-message or phone call need not be remembered, nor tested, because, obviously, you will always be able to instantly Google it, or store it in your cellphone, or get someone to text it to you.
[/quote]
S had a final exam a few days ago for which students were advised by the prof to bring in their calculators. In another exam, students were given cheat sheets.</p>
<p>Asteriskea:</p>
<p>A story of low tech cheating. At the bac, students are required to pass the PE test. The most stressful part of that test is gymnastics because it involves memorizing an appropriate sequence of movements. chosen from different groups and with correct transition from one to the other. One of my schoolmates wrote her sequence on her palm. Everything worked well until she had to extend her arm, palm up, as part of the sequence. All the jurors got to read the writings on her palm!</p>
<p>asteriskea - thanks for posting the link to the article. The discussion at the end of the article was very interesting.</p>
<p>Ultimately, what is at question here is how adeptly professors and students rise to the high tech challenge - learning and scholarship ought not be just a matter of "cutting and pasting" (and how many of us can remember having to do that without a word processor) but how knowledge and information is evaluated and processed and ultimately, synthesized. That students are given "cheat sheets" and told to use calculators is not at all surprising in a world in which they are faced with such sheer volume of information. Even a quick glance at the student SAT threads on this forum are telling. Numerous discussions focus on which calculator, and what software programs, will give the better edge. Is this "cheating"?</p>
<p>In this vein, the following article highlights how the National Science Foundation is challenging science and math faculty members to think about how high technology could/should change the traditional textbook. "What everyone agreed on, is the way students gather information is changing rapidly, but textbooks are not." These changes are opportunities - opportunities "to innovate teaching techniques" rather than simply ban the use of lap tops in the classroom.</p>
<p>Just thought I would post a link to "The Chronicle of Higher Education" because it connects back to my previous post. This short piece invites discussion on the topic of laptop bans from classrooms "after colleges nationwide have spent millions of dollars to equip classrooms with internet access."</p>
<p>I don't see laptops as a threat to higher education. When I was in college, students would read the newspaper in class. Some would doodle; others do something utterly unconnected to what the class was about. I saw female students file their nails and apply make-up. It's a case of old wine in new bottle ,or old distractions with new technology.</p>
<p>Laptops may or may not drive teachers to distraction but how about this technological twist - cell phone ring tones that only the "young" can hear!</p>
<p>If anyone has checked out the ringtone via the link posted in the parent cafe and is "young" enough to hear it (being "young at heart" must count because I can hear it...) I think it is ranks high as one of the most annoying, distracting, and therefore clearly disruptive tech sounds I can imagine - and I can understand how it would drive any teacher/professor absolutely nuts.</p>
<p>This is the revenge of the techno-teen: a device created to annoy teens and mollify adults has been turned by teens into something they can use and annoy the heck out of adults. If adults can hear it, they are annoyed. If they cannot, the realization of their creeping senility also annoys them. ;)</p>
<p>LOL. Revenge of the techno-nerd may be sweet and drive us nuts but since so many of us old folks can hear it I don't think it will make techno-cheating any easier. I wonder how well Japanese, Thai, and Chinese professors and exam proctors can hear it ... especially with those cellphones hidden in student's underwear.</p>