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.
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