Some schools rethink bans on cell phones

[Raiden]

Bans don’t work, so administrators explore using mobile devices to teach

Excerpt:

Across the board, cheating takes off
Two-thirds of all students questioned by CommonSense Media said their classmates used their cell phones to cheat on their classwork. More than a third admitted having actually done so themselves. The percentages were roughly the same across all student populations — in private and public schools, among boys and girls, even among honors students.

Storing notes on a phone to help ace a quiz is the most common behavior, with 26 percent of all American students’ admitting to having done it at least once. But there are numerous other creative ways to sucker the teacher:

-25 percent said they had text-messaged a friend to get the answer to a tough question during a quiz.
-20 percent said they had searched the Internet to get the answers during a quiz.
-17 percent said they had taken pictures of quiz pages to give to their friends who might be taking the same quiz later.

Other rule-skirting practices include coordinating cheating and alerting fellow students that a teacher — or worse, the principal — is headed their way, said Gaylene Cruz, assistant principal at George Washington High School in Mangilao, Guam.

The school allows students to have phones, but only if they’re stowed and turned off during class hours. That’s so students can contact their parents in an emergency, but “kids will be texting other kids to say that we’re heading this direction or letting us know and giving them information before we even get there,” Cruz said.

“They’re using it for other things like selling drugs, threats and all kinds of stuff,” she said. “So it’s becoming a major issue.”

I can understand why schools would want to ban them, but I also doubt that this ban is effective because students can and will always find ways around the ban. So I think educators will be wise to find other ways around this problem. This makes me remember my school days when students would cheat by checking the person next to them, or silently pass notes to each other. How things have changed.

 

[xwolverine2]

get one of those phone watches lol

 

[Paroxysm]

Theodore Roosevelt said that "to educate a man in mind and not in morals is to create a menace to society."

I thought this was appropriate.

 

[Manic]

If students are using their phones to search the internet and text answers to one another during tests, maybe (just maybe) the teachers should actually try watching the students. If the teachers don't notice students whipping out their phones during tests, I get the feeling these are the types of teachers who wouldn't notice old fashioned forms of cheating as well.

As for students using their phones in drug deals, oh well. Even back in the 80's, people used beepers for that. Word of mouth and knowing a guy also works. They're not gonna find a solution to that problem with any rules they craft.

 

[SuperFerret]

They should just beat the students. I'm out of children school now so I don't care what they're doing with the kids anymore.

 

[Team Andino]

Theodore Roosevelt said that "to educate a man in mind and not in morals is to create a menace to society."

I thought this was appropriate.

 

[Catman]

Two-thirds of all students questioned by CommonSense Media said their classmates used their cell phones to cheat on their classwork. More than a third admitted having actually done so themselves. The percentages were roughly the same across all student populations — in private and public schools, among boys and girls, even among honors students.

Why would they admit this? Kids really are dumb these days. If someone asks you, "have you cheated on a test or know someone who has" then the answer is, "no."