US schools pull plug on iPod exam cheats

[T_i_B]

Source: Daily Telegraph

Schools across America are targeting iPods and other digital media players as the latest way in which pupils are cheating in exams.

The increasingly tiny devices can be hidden under clothing, with just an earbud and a wire snaking behind the ear and into a shirt collar to give them away, said officials.

Some students are using iPod-compatible voice recorders to tape exam answers in advance, hide them in the machine's "lyrics" text files, and then secretly play them back.

A spokesman for the National Association of Secondary School Principals said it was becoming a "national trend" for schools to ban digital media players because of the cheating risk.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/28/wipod28.xml

[truthisfreedom]

1. So iPods are banned from schools completely?

[flobee1]

2. what about those that record lectures to study with

something I did on a regular basis in college

had the ipod been around then, I would have used it as a recording device

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Did they let you have your recording device during an exam?

[Mend]

4. do you count writing it on the inside of your socks?

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. You'd never get away with that in my class!

LOL

[Tuttle]

10. Does the iPod voice recording?

I'm so out of it: I thought it was a ROM type device, though I know some other similar devices allow recording...

Tut-tut

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

12. The iPod itself does not have a recording function built in.

However, there are many accessories that allow you to record audio using your iPod. It's not really a ROM device. Depending on the model, it may have a very large hard disk, equivalent to what you might find in a normal desktop computer.

[Tuttle]

15. Ultimately though it IS read-only

I've read up on it a bit and while you could record into another device, then save those files and load them into iTunes on a laptop or desktop computer and then transfer them to your iPod: it seems kinda clunky... I guess the functionality of having voice recording isn't part of style. To me, it's more of a no-brainer: I would want that capability.

Tut-tut

[Tesha]

16. I'm sorry, but you're wrong. There are voice recording accessories...

I'm sorry, but you're wrong. There are voice recording
accessories available for the iPod.

Tesha

[JVS]

17. Actually, recording a lecture without written permission is illegal

I took a pedagogy course in which we had to do classroom observations, and one of the tidbits I discovered is that if you intend on recording or taking photos inside the classroom, you needed the lecturer to sign a release.

[Davis_X_Machina]

9. It doesn't say that...

...doesn't even suggest that.

Please wait for the actual outrage to get outraged.

Hypertension isn't all it's cracked up to be.

[LibDemAlways]

6. Unfortunately there are some kids who stay up at night thinking

of new ways to cheat. Between on-line term paper mills, i-pods, cell phones with text messaging and internet access, the blackberry, etc.... the old standby of writing the answers on one's palm is hopelessly outdated it seems.

[Chico Man]

7. Run the wire up your sleeve and rest on your hand..

Listen to a pre-recording of your answers.. how clever. What would prevent someone from wirelessly transmitting to a headphone as small as a button sewed onto your shirt sleeve? Or even attached next to your ear? The slightest vibrations will be picked up by the ears if done in the right way.

Will they ban long sleeve shirts next?

[MilesColtrane]

8. Cheney wouldn't bother to transmit the answers to the lump between student's..

shoulders. He couldn't get anything out of it.

[Chico Man]

13. I'm glad you said shoulders..

Lots of ways to interpret that message =)

[fshrink]

11. In a world where cheating is the rule

rather than the exception, regardless of the level considered, why would our children do differently?

[Dumak]

14. It's hard to detect all cheaters

You can have a camera as a shirt button to transmit the exam to a friend outside the room. And, if you remember, the shrub had a wireless receiver 'hump' on his back during his debates. I guess you'd have to put a grounded metal box around the students to prevent this sort of cheating.

[Joe Bacon]

18. Why not use an iPod for an iTest?

After all, Neil Bush is making a mint from all these tests. You think that crook cares if kids cheat. You bet he does, he wants them to cheat just like he does!