using cell phones to cheat in classes...

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 23:20:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <jhall () SIMS Berkeley EDU>
Subject: using cell phones to cheat in classes...
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>, Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>


We're starting to have problems with this (or we're just starting to
notice!)... -Joe

---
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/8026550.htm

The cheat e-sheet

Cell phone cameras, text messaging are next in line of ways kids try
to trick teachers

By Suzanne Pardington

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Crib sheets tucked in sleeves. Math formulas programmed into
calculators. Essays copied off the Internet. But a new technology now
hitting classrooms is opening up new and easier ways to cheat.

Cell phones with built-in digital cameras and e-mail allow sneaky
students to send silent questions and answers to one another right
under teachers' noses.

Jan Burten, a math teacher at College Park High in Pleasant Hill, was
shocked when a student showed her a cell-phone picture of a test
question from another class last fall. The student who sent the
picture was asking for the answer to be sent back in a picture. Since
then, she's heard of other similar incidents.

"Catching kids cheating is just a nightmare," Burten said. "It's not
nearly as easy as it used to be."

California lawmakers passed a law allowing students to carry cell
phones on school campuses last year, and phones are pervasive at most
middle and high schools.

One survey two years ago found that 55 percent of all 15- to
19-year-olds own a cell phone, and the numbers continue to grow as
phones become cheaper and parents more anxious to keep in contact with
their children.

Cameras and text messaging, increasingly common features, are raising
new worries for teachers and administrators. In addition to cheating,
some district officials are worried that students will take photos of
other students undressed in locker rooms or in other inappropriate
ways.

The five high schools in the Acalanes district in Walnut Creek,
Moraga, Lafayette and Orinda are planning to post signs in locker
rooms saying that cell phones are not permitted.

"The kids are much brighter than we are with computers and technology.
There's no way we can keep up with them"



(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes.)

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Joseph Lorenzo Hall                    http://pobox.com/~joehall/
Graduate Student             blog: http://pobox.com/~joehall/nqb/

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