As a recent law school graduate, I will add that the obnoxious ring going
off while one is trying to focus is beyond irritating.  A professor might
want to use peer pressure, rather than make it seem like you're saying,
"Hey! This is my show! How dare you interrupt me?"



----- Original Message -----
From: "Ingulli, Elaine" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, September 18, 2004 8:31 AM
Subject: Re: High Tech Cheating


> I've been making students leave their cell phones, electronic toys ON MY
> DESK during an exam, to be picked up on the way out. I also have on my
> syllabus that they must be turned off daily for class--although so far
> this semester, that seems to have had little impact on actual behavior,
> despite my hving said, "remember the rules--turn it off" several times.
> Hard to tell where the bleep comes from, so I don't actually know how to
> enforce it. Our computer services has a link to "tips" through
> homepage--www2.stockton.edu.
> Elaine
>
>        -----Original Message-----
>        From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk on behalf of
> Hauserman, Nancy R
>        Sent: Fri 9/17/2004 11:03 PM
>        To: [log in to unmask]
>        Cc:
>        Subject: Re: High Tech Cheating
>
>
>
>        Yes, we are routinely telling our students that they may not have
> cell
>        phones, pagers, palms, etc. in the exam. If I even see one come out
> I
>        will give the student a "0". Sigh.
>        Nancy Hauserman (soon NOT to be Dean Queen!)
>
>        -----Original Message-----
>        From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk
>        [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ginger, Laura
>        Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 5:35 PM
>        To: [log in to unmask]
>        Subject: Re: High Tech Cheating
>
>        I had already started banning electronic dictionaries and now
> permit
>        international students to use only paper ones that I have
> inspected.
>        Now it seems that I need to start banning all electronic devices
> from
>        the exams.  Has anyone out there done this?  Is it as simple as
> telling
>        students to stow them until they leave the exam room?  Any insights
> or
>        advice would be appreciated!
>        Laura
>
>        -----Original Message-----
>        From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk
>        [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Christiansen,
> Linda A
>        Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 6:45 PM
>        To: [log in to unmask]
>        Subject: High Tech Cheating
>
>
>        Hello everyone,
>        If you have not seen the recent articles on high tech cheating in
> the
>        Wall Street Journal, I have included the two articles for your
> reading
>        pleasure.  Apparently students have found all kinds of uses for new
>        electronic gadgets.
>
>        My students who read the WSJ thought these were great ideas.  Now
> if I
>        could just get them to read the serious business articles...
>
>        Linda Christiansen
>
>
>        GADGETS
>
>        High-Tech Cribbing:
>        Camera Phones
>        Boost Cheating
>
>        By MARLON A. WALKER
>        Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
>        September 10, 2004; Page B1
>
>        Diann Baecker thought it was odd that a student in one of her
> language
>        classes had left his cellphone flipped open during a test -- until
> she
>        started grading the exams.
>
>        The assistant professor at Virginia State University in Petersburg
>        noticed that the student, and his neighbor, had used identical
> language
>        to answer an essay question. She deduced that one student must have
>        taken a picture of his neighbor's essay with his camera-equipped
> phone
>        and then copied the answer onto his own test using the image on the
>        phone's screen.
>
>        These days, Prof. Baecker tells students to put their phones under
> their
>        desks, along with their books and backpacks. "The picture phone is
> the
>        new thing" for cheating, she says. "Technology just makes it a lot
>        easier. They're not leaning over their neighbor's shoulders
> anymore."
>
>        A small but growing number of students are using camera phones to
> cheat,
>        according to students and educators across the country. The
> techniques
>        vary: Camera phones can be used to create high-tech cheat sheets,
>        letting students call up photos of key notes they took back in the
> dorm.
>        A student also could surreptitiously send a photo of his answers to
> a
>        friend sitting in the same classroom during an exam.
>
>         As millions of students head back to school, camera phones have
> become
>        almost as commonplace as cellphones in colleges, high schools and
> even
>        some middle schools. Camera-phone sales are skyrocketing, from just
>        4,000 in the U.S. and Canada at the end of 2002 to an estimated
> 21.4
>        million by the end of this year, according to consulting firm
> Yankee
>        Group in Boston. Camera phones are expected to rise to about half
> of all
>        cellphone sales in the two countries by the end of 2006, Yankee
> says.
>
>        Yet professors and teachers often don't realize the phones can be
> used
>        as a cheating device. And even among instructors who are aware of
> the
>        problem, enforcement is challenging because many students resist
> parting
>        with their phones.
>
>        "The average faculty member doesn't understand what their students
> are
>        doing," says Donald McCabe, a Rutgers University professor who
> helped
>        found the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University in
> Durham,
>        N.C. The center focuses on reducing cheating among students.
>
>        Cameras are just the latest way cellphones are being used for
> cheating.
>        Students have become increasingly sophisticated in using their
> phone
>        dial pads to send text messages containing test answers to fellow
>        test-takers. In 2003, the University of Maryland failed a group of
>        undergraduate business-school students after they were caught
> engaged in
>        the practice.
>
>        Yet cameras make cheating even easier. One senior at Elon
> University in
>        Elon, N.C., had worked the night shift at his job and wasn't
> looking
>        forward to several hours of studying for a final exam the next day.
>        Instead, he says, he studied for about 30 minutes and then used his
>        phone to do the rest -- taking pictures of study-guide problems and
>        saving them in his phone.
>
>        The student got three extra hours of sleep. And the camera phone
> helped
>        him pass the final, he says.
>
>        High schools also are concerned about nefarious uses of cellphones,
> let
>        alone their potential for disrupting classes with constant rings
> and
>        whispered conversations. New York City has a strict no-cellphone
> policy
>        at all public schools. But such a move could be opposed in other
>        communities. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, cellphone
> use
>        among high-school and younger students has soared as parents want
> to be
>        able to reach their children. About 45% of U.S. teenagers now have
>        cellphones, Yankee Group says.
>
>        Banning phones in school "was not a battle that I was going to
> win,"
>        says Jeannette Stern, principal of Wantagh Middle School on New
> York's
>        Long Island. "Parents want to be in touch with their children in
> this
>        day and age." At her school and many others, students can bring
> phones
>        but they must be stored during class hours.
>
>        Certainly, most students don't cheat, and some aren't aware that
> phones
>        could abet the practice even if they were so inclined. Tiffany
> Young, a
>        21-year-old senior at Virginia State University, says she thought
> Ms.
>        Baecker's worries were overblown when the instructor launched into
> a
>        nearly 15-minute tirade warning students not to use camera phones
> to
>        cheat.
>
>        Yet as schools embrace technology, they may be creating new
> openings for
>        mischief. As more mobile devices like hand-held organizers come
> with Web
>        browsers, and schools equip more classrooms with wireless Internet
>        access, students may find themselves able to do Google searches on
> the
>        sly during an exam.
>
>        The University of Maryland's graduate business school even plans to
> give
>        BlackBerries to all incoming students. "We know we have just given
> them
>        all the tools to cheat," says Cherie Scricca, associate dean of
> master
>        programs and career management at the school. "We are trying to
>        ascertain how the community establishes rules and guidelines for
>        itself."
>
>        But most schools are trying to fight back. At Case Western
> University in
>        Cleveland, a number of professors are asking students to leave
> their
>        phones in a basket and warning them about the dangers of cheating.
> The
>        punishment for being caught at most schools is severe: expulsion.
>
>        "It's the updated version of 'leave your textbooks in the front of
> the
>        classroom.' We had to move and realize there are other items that
> need
>        to be in front of the classroom," says Timothy M. Dodd, Case
> Western's
>        associate dean for undergraduate studies and president-elect of the
>        board of the Center for Academic Integrity.
>
>        Yet even when caught, some cheaters are undeterred. Last spring, a
>        student at Houston Community College used a camera phone to copy
> another
>        student's work for a math class. After reprimanding the student,
> Prof.
>        Linda Rosenkranz went back to her lecture. Not 15 minutes later,
> the
>        student was back at work with her phone in the back of the room.
> And as
>        for that student? "She failed."
>
>
>
>
>        September 13, 2004
>
>
>                 THE JOURNAL REPORT: TECHNOLOGY
>
>
>
>        Putting Tech to the Test
>
>        As students turn to high-tech gadgets to cheat, schools consider
> turning
>        to high-tech gadgets to stop them By LAUREN ETTER
>        Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
>        September 13, 2004; Page R17
>
>        Cheating has entered the digital age. Around the world, students
> have
>        stopped hiding crib sheets and whispering to their neighbors -- and
>        started swapping test answers by cellphone, camera phone and PDA.
>
>        In January 2003, the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith
> School of
>        Business failed a group of accounting students for using cellphones
> to
>        receive text-message answers during a test. In England last summer,
>        proctors caught 254 secondary-school students illicitly using
> cellphones
>        during tests, according to the Assessments and Qualifications
> Alliance,
>        a testing administrator. In June, five students in China were
> caught
>        text-messaging answers for a national college-entrance exam. The
>        students face criminal charges of stealing state secrets. Other
>        e-cheaters have cropped in Ireland, South Korea, New Zealand and
> Canada.
>
>        Now a handful of tech firms and software developers have begun
> hawking
>        high-tech countermeasures to put the cheaters out of business. The
> most
>        aggressive gadgets block cellphone signals. Others simply sound an
> alarm
>        when a signal is detected, and leave enforcement up to the proctor.
>
>        Test Case
>
>        Many schools and testing centers are shunning the devices, saying
> they
>        don't want to turn their facilities into high-tech surveillance
> zones.
>        But some high-profile names in education think electronic solutions
> are
>        rapidly becoming a necessity.
>
>        Electronic cheating is "definitely a major problem. We deal with it
>        every day," says Bud Wood, president of the National College
> Testing
>        Association, a trade group for testing professionals, and manager
> for
>        testing services at Brigham Young University, the largest
>        college-testing center in the U.S. "We are trying to find ways to
> detect
>        it. I think we will definitely go ahead with" purchasing cellphone
>        detectors.
>
>        He says his center is looking at a handheld cellphone-signal
> detector
>        developed by Global Gadget Ltd. of England. The device's
> manufacturer,
>        Zetron, also builds detectors for Cellbusters Mobile Security
> Products,
>        of Phoenix. The devices can pick up radio waves emitted from any
>        cellphone or wireless PDA within 90 feet. When the waves are
> detected,
>        the gadget flashes a red light, sounds an alarm or broadcasts a
>        prerecorded message asking the cellphone user to turn off the
> phone.
>
>        Safe Haven Technologies Ltd., based in England, has developed a
> software
>        application that would disable the camera function on cellphones.
> The
>        blocking function kicks in whenever the phones pick up a signal
> from a
>        wireless server, which would be installed in schools.
>
>        The company says it hasn't found a phone maker to install the
> software
>        in its products, although there are "progressed negotiations with a
>        growing number of handset manufacturers and network operators,"
> says
>        Patrick Snow, chief executive of Safe Haven.
>
>                CRIMINAL CLASS
>
>
>
>        A look at some high-tech cheating methods students use-and the
>        countermeasures some teachers have adopted, or are considering
>
>        STUDENTS USE...
>
>        Text messaging on cellphones to send each others answers during a
> test
>
>        Camera phones to photograph exam questions and send them to a
> friend
>        outside the room. The friend fills in the answers, photographs them
> and
>        sends the picture back.
>
>        Internet chat rooms to post exam answers online
>
>        TEACHERS CAN USE...
>
>        Cellphone detectors, which sound an alarm when they detect wireless
>        activity
>
>        Cellphone jammer, which blocks all incoming and outgoing signals
>        (illegal in the U.S. and Europe)
>
>        Quiet Cell, a device that reroutes incoming calls to voice mail and
>        prevents outgoing calls (illegal in the U.S. and Europe)
>
>        Safe Haven, a software program built into phones that allows their
>        camera function to be disabled
>
>
>
>
>
>        Cell Block Technologies Inc., based in Fairfax, Va., is currently
>        developing Quiet Cell, a device that would automatically reroute
>        incoming calls to voice mail and block outgoing calls. "There is a
>        tremendous amount of concern in schools -- everything from the bar
> exam
>        to you name it," says J. David Derosier, president and CEO of Cell
>        Block. "We have even talked with some schools that have offered to
> be
>        test sites." Mr. Derosier says that from February to May, his
> company's
>        Web site saw a 50% increase in hits from U.S. schools over last
> year.
>
>        But his product faces a big hurdle: It would be illegal in the U.S.
>        under Federal Communications Commission regulations, which prohibit
>        interfering with licensed telecommunications. Mr. Derosier says he
> plans
>        to launch a grass-roots effort to change the rules, by taking his
>        company public and having shareholders work as a lobbying team. For
> now,
>        he says he will also focus on markets outside the U.S.
>
>        For some of these tech companies, anti-cheating is a relatively new
>        sideline. Their original business was preventing cellphone use in
>        prisons, government and military facilities, hospitals and movie
>        theaters -- anyplace that had imposed phone-regulation policies.
>
>        Cellbusters CEO Derek Forde says he originally thought that the
> detector
>        would be best used in schools to prevent cellphones ringing in
> class. He
>        didn't realize that there was a market for anti-cheating devices
> until
>        he noticed that "converged" cellphones -- which can take pictures,
> store
>        lots of data, send e-mail and surf the Web -- were becoming cheap
> enough
>        for students to afford.
>
>        "Students are able to text in their pocket without seeing their
> phone,"
>        says Mr. Forde. "They are able to do it almost blindfolded."
>
>        Currently, few schools or testing centers in the U.S. will admit to
>        officially using electronic devices to prevent cheating. Mr. Forde
> says
>        educational facilities currently account for about 5% of his sales,
> but
>        adds that many potential customers are testing the device,
> including a
>        large U.S. testing center.
>
>        Some schools outside of the U.S. have already put the technology in
>        place. At Heathland School in Hounslow, England, Senior Deputy Head
>        Nigel Roper uses a Taiwanese cellphone detector.
>
>        "Mobile-phone technology is becoming more sophisticated," Mr. Roper
>        says, explaining that some children have been caught using
> cellphones to
>        send text messages and photo images of the test answers.
>
>        He has found that the detector is best used as a deterrent rather
> than
>        an active alarm. All in all, he considers the detector to be "quite
> a
>        good investment."
>
>        Another British school found detectors useless. "We tried it out as
> an
>        experiment, but it wasn't much use to us," says Tony Hacking,
> deputy
>        head of All Hallows High School in Preston, England.
>
>        Mr. Hacking complains that the detector, from Global Gadget, isn't
>        sophisticated enough to identify the student who is using a
> device --
>        just the general area from where the signal is coming from.
>
>        Other potential users express concerns that the detector would be
> prone
>        to false alarms. Moreover, they argue, the process of hunting down
> an
>        offender would be disruptive to honest test takers, and would take
> so
>        long it would allow a student ample time to illicitly access a
> cellphone
>        or PDA.
>
>        Michael Menage, CEO of Global Gadget, says the device is used best
> as a
>        deterrent. "It is not designed to track somebody down and hone in
> on the
>        exact desk," he says, adding, "Even the best cellphone detector"
> can't
>        automatically pinpoint a cheater.
>
>        Still, he suggests that cheaters are intimidated by the presence of
> the
>        gadget in the test room. If you received an illicit message and a
>        proctor was patrolling with a detector, "I think you'd look pretty
>        damned guilty," he says.
>
>        As far as disruptiveness, he says that the device can be switched
> to
>        vibrate instead of sounding an alarm. But he concedes that it could
> be
>        distracting to have a teacher walking down aisles pointing the
> device at
>        people.
>
>        Ultimately, though, Mr. Hacking booted the device because he didn't
> like
>        the reputation it gave his school. It "made our school look as if
> it was
>        the cheat center of the universe."
>
>        Many schools share the concern about image. Some parents say
> cellphone
>        detectors, like metal detectors, would make schools come to
> resemble
>        prisons.
>
>        Diane Waryold, executive director of the Center for Academic
> Integrity
>        at Duke University in Durham, N.C., thinks the prospect of
> electronic
>        monitoring devices in the classroom is "a little bit troubling."
> She
>        says, "We are trying to create a trusting relationship between
> faculty
>        and students. I don't want to see an arms race with our students."
>
>        For the time being, most schools dictate that cellphones must be
>        switched off during the day -- and some have banned them outright.
> But
>        bans carry their own image problem. With Columbine and Sept. 11
> still
>        fresh in their memory, many parents want to keep constant lines of
>        communication to their children.
>
>        Center of Attention
>
>        Since schools have proved tough to crack, Cellbusters is turning
> its
>        attention to large testing centers, which have a hefty financial
> stake
>        in the integrity of examinations. According to Tom Ewing, spokesman
> for
>        Educational Testing Services, a single SAT test takes almost a year
> to
>        create, and costs anywhere between $250,000 and $350,000.
>
>        The Law School Admission Council, the official administrator of the
> Law
>        School Admission Test, or LSAT, became intimately aware of the
> threat in
>        1997, when a University of Southern California test taker ran out
> of the
>        exam room with his test book. A proctor chased him, but couldn't
> stop
>        him from hopping into a getaway car.
>
>        Hours later, the thief sent the LSAT answers to two test takers at
> the
>        University of Hawaii at Manoa -- where the test was just
> commencing --
>        via electronic pager. The proctor became suspicious when she
> noticed the
>        test takers frequently looking at their pagers. She let them finish
>        their exams, then contacted the LSAC, which turned the case over to
> the
>        Los Angeles Police Department.
>
>        All three students were prosecuted in California Superior Court on
>        charges of conspiracy to commit robbery. They were sentenced to a
> year
>        in jail each and forced to pay $97,000 in restitution to the LSAC.
>
>        The LSAC retains experts in electronic surveillance equipment from
>        Securitas Security Services USA Inc. to provide staff to administer
>        tests, carry out security investigations and alert testing
> companies of
>        the latest cheating gadgetry and trends.
>
>        But, for now, it doesn't use electronic detection devices. Jim
> Vaseleck,
>        executive assistant to the president of the LSAC, notes that astute
>        proctors, not gadgets, foiled the USC plot -- leading him to
> believe
>        that the detectors are gratuitous.
>
>        "We instruct test takers and train proctors that folks are not
> allowed
>        to bring electronic devices into testing centers," he says.
>
>        Plus, he believes that low-tech cheating schemes, which can be
> combated
>        only with astute proctors, remain a bigger problem. He notes
> incidents
>        where test takers carved exam answers into No. 2 pencils, selling
> them
>        on the black market for close to $1,000, or lined up
> different-colored
>        M&Ms on a desk to correspond to answers of multiple-choice
> questions.
>        "Electronic devices present more of a nuisance than a security
> problem,"
>        Mr. Vaseleck says.
>
>
>