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Norway Trying Out Laptops For High School Exams
The BBC reports that Norway is experimenting with a system that would let secondary school students take their school exams on laptop computers. According to the article, using computers for exams isn't new there, but it's been on fixed machines rather than personal computers that the students can take with them and use for other purposes throughout the school day. Having suffered through three years of exams taken on the awful SoftTest (inflexible, single-platform, ugly, buggy), I hope they do a better job — this is something that is all too easy to get wrong.
News: Norway Trying Out Laptops For High School School Exams
Here, let me fix that. Let's go all the way:
News News: Norway Norway Trying Trying Out Out Laptops Laptops For For High High School School Exams Exams
Now you can read the headline in STEREO (be happy it's not quadraphonic or 7.1 surround sound :-)
Norway is being very lenient compared to what we have to do when we take standardized tests here in the US.
When it's test taking time; your pockets must be empty of virtually anything and the only items your allowed to have are a #2 pencil and scrap paper. If these rules are violated, it could end up in not just you, but your entire class retaking the test. There are also very strict rules when it comes to seating and going to the bathroom during standardized tests (In general, it's just a big pain in the ass). Kudos to Norway for trying something new.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
I think the government is only going to let the students use private laptop on "open book" exams. "Open book" exam is quite popular exam type in Norway, where the focus is not so much on facts, but more on concepts and a very practical approach to the subject. Since there is no facts,there is no need for security since it's very hard to cheat.
I've been through this school-system and I'm no big fan. What usually happens is that it almost impossible to fail an exam, and there is very hard to get a good mark. ( a celebration of mediocracy )
Some things they might consider rather than key logging is booting from supplied portable media or booting from the network. Using key logging tends to set a bad precedent and the whole of school experience is part of their education, including accepted practices by government and respect for the privacy of individuals.
So boot from network and a quick scan and check, or boot from a cdrom which contains all required software and the exams, it also initiates a system check and then uploads the results to the network. Really easy to do with free open source software but could prove expensive with closed source proprietary software ie licences on top of licences and even 'illegal' in some cases.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
I would have done all my tests through VNC in the toilet while reading the answers I scribbled onto the wall the day before
Yea i know i could just store them on my computer but that doesn't have the same rebellious effect as defacing the walls with them
ya see that way I would have got into a posh college and I'd be surrounded by people with iPhones and doing hot chicks with preppy clothes and messy hair who drink expensive coffee.
Ironically though here at the University of Oslo (capital of Norway) we use pen and paper to do our exams on object oriented java programming (yes, we write code by hand...with a pen...)
Say NO to unpaid Internships!
This will be a real money-saver, because paper is becoming very expensive.
It is only a matter of time before someone reverses the network protocol they're working with and sends falsified data.
Never trust the client.
In Virginia, students in high schools can take the SOL (standards of learning) tests on laptops and see their score next day (only in order to prevent guessing the answers based on scores if scores were given immediately).
Why is this something new?
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A friend of mine took a bar exam in California in 2001 using software. The software corrupted her machine and the "technicians" could not fix it. It took me 1 minute with a dos boot floppy.
Using exam software by people who can't write good code depending on an operating system that is written by people who can't write good code will always be a disaster.
Fight Spammers!
They use a software called MAS from a company called 3AMI (3AMI.com) I personally think it's a bad idea though to use propriatary software that doesn't even specify what level of security it practices between client and server. (oh nevermind, it requires a "password", it must be secure)
Some documentation would be nice.
The Norwegian Data Inspectorate (datatilsynet) is not to happy about their trials though.
A computer is a tool, but I am not. I use Linux
One of the professors at my 4-year college was rather amused by all the concern about cheating and whatnot. He thought the simplest, most foolproof way to see whether people had learned anything or not at the end of their program was to stand them up in front of a few teachers, maybe at a board with a piece of chalk when appropriate, and have them answer some questions.
Another professor at the same school, when he had small classes of 10-15 people, would once or twice per class period pick somebody to come work an example problem from the material from recent classes. Personally, I found that a pretty good reason to keep up with the class material instead of just cramming at the end before the exam.
It seems to me that by the time we've paid for custom anti-cheating software, plagiarism detection software, continual redesign of standardized exams, and all the security around standardized exams, we could have just paid for a video camera, some chalk, a chalkboard, and good local teachers to do some sort of individual testing.
But then, I personally think that standardized tests are mainly good for measuring how good you are at taking standardized tests, and not much else, so I guess I'm a bit biased.
[b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
Posting anon for privacy. I go to a school with a 4 year undergraduate program that has teachers that like to test through Blackboard's WebCT software. It has benefits; instant grading, enforcement of times the test can be taken (window), time limit on the test itself, multiple choice can have explanations, and the order of the questions/answers can be randomized so students can't copy from each other. It works on any platform with a decently recent (I think it's still Firefox 1.0 approved, 3.0 got formally approved recently but has always worked- before you got an "unsupported browser" nag screen at each login)
However, it doesn't fundamentally solve the problem of cheating. Most teachers choose to be diligent- walk up and down the classroom during the test, be reasonable, etc.
However, some take the software approach. There is a piece of software the school is pushing teachers to use called the Respondus Lockdown Browser. It uses IE as the engine and basically hooks into a ton of system services to try to take control of the entire system during testing. Once a test starts, you can't view other windows, can't copy/paste, can't shutdown, run a variety of programs, etc.
Through stuff beyond user agent, teachers can restrict a test to only be takeable in the LockDown browser.
So, great idea right? It's a horribly designed program.
The thing is extremely buggy. Even when it quits "properly", it can leave system hooks in place that disable shutting down or opening the task manager. I've heard of it borking a couple installs to the point where they had to reinstall Windows.
-If your browser crashes and it isn't a "secure" test, it'll usually let you back in, even if the number of takes is only "1". The Respondus Software will often not let you do so, resulting in a tech support nightmare and possibly having to retake the test from scratch.
-It doesn't run in WINE or Mac OS. Great for students who want to make their own choice of OS. (Not enough computer labs/not installed on them, you have to install on your laptop).
-The security on this thing is horrendous. It makes a ton of system hooks, but it relies on executable names for blocking. If you rename Pidgin.exe pidginmaybe.exe, the software will allow it to run. Combined with relatively poor hooks that can be overridden, it's horribly ineffective.
-The main problem is that teachers treat it as infallible. The moment the testing software went on the tests, kids resorted to texting and looking in textbooks/notes on their laps. The teachers that started using the software stopped paying attention to people taking the test, and in many cases, leaving the room, for periods of 10+ minutes at a time.
I'd bring it up with the administration, but I learned the hard way in high school that trying to bring up any sort of possible security issue or being critical of anything designed to stop cheating results in suspicion on yourself and no results. I'm disgusted, but I'm not going to risk the attention.
This software solution sounds really dodgy. You might be able to take in notes on the computer, but the other problem is people enabling WIFI and sharing answers.
Try using the 'specially tailored software' to enforce security, when a smarter student dumps the entire default OS install into a virtual machine or reverse engineers the software and writes a fake one.
I suppose if it's very well coded it might work using things like TPM, encryption, keys, verifying hardware and so on but somehow I doubt it is.
Once you bypass the security program your good to go.
Actual visual checking by teachers isn't going to do much either, I remember students using Synergy in a Cisco test, all it was used for was to allow for the mouse to be remotely controlled, it would be almost impossible to see this but its enough to allow a student next to or behind another to highlight multiple choices (It also allows for keyboard control so more complicated tests would be doable too).
Another idea is to have a chat program overlayed on top of the test that is very transparent with only a few pixels of text so its hard to see.
Of course the ultimate win would be to actually gain access to the monitor program and then see everyones tests at will.
They could also share login information and do each others tests.
Even more alarming would be students trojaning others computers and deliberately making it look like they are cheating.
If my previous experiences with the Norwegian school computer systems are correct, this is Windows only. I can't believe that at the same time they are researching use of Linux in schools they are locking themselves harder and harder into the Windows platform. I have nothing against Windows, but lock-in is always stupid, and sadly, as a Norwegian high school student, I see this every day.
Quit complaining you little shit, I took tests on a scantron.
In my college I have had easy professors and hard professors. Old school professors and innovative professors. I had some classes where everything was only and classes that everything was on paper. I don't see why not have computers for testing. Testing has become this huge topic of discussion. We are really forgetting what testing is. It is a way to find out how much someone knows about a subject. Ok. Lets go from there. Having a test on a computer gives you access to a lot of information at your finger tip. So does open note tests, we all remember back in the day, the open note tests were the hardest. Ok so they have all this information at their hand so eventually they will be able to find the information they need to pass a test. Just like old times when it was all books you put a time on it and that is it. You wanna make sure that the person is the person that is supposed to be taking the test you put a digital finger impression at the door, the kid wants to go to the bathroom, no problem scan out and scan back in. Easy!!! So really the place where you write/type the answer changes but the test is still the same, this is too much talking and not enough action. We are in the 21st century. Yes! Kids should be using their laptops for exams.
Norway? More like Snore-way!
I can't believe how obsessed the world is with computers - especially schools. They madly add computers everywhere. Schools do not seem to realise that paper and computers satisfy different needs.
Computers are slow to put the information in (typing) but fast to retrieve (searching). Paper is the opposite: quick to enter (writing) and slow to retrieve (filing).
As you are in an exam you need to enter the information quickly; and the information is only read once (marking). Paper is the better choice.
Hi all. I thought I'd chip in with my experience.
In High School ("gymnasiet"), we were allowed to user computers for all written exams (that I attended; IIRC; maybe except math).
The protocol was this: you would get your problem set (i.e. five texts and two pictures, "write an essay about [...]"). You wrote some words, either on paper or on your computer. If you wrote on your computer, you'd print the document and put it in your handed-out blank A3 sheets (folded to four A4 pages, put prints in the middle). It was your own responsibility to have a working computer and printer.
Note that this was in 2002; most people brought desktop boxes. I don't recall wireless networking being the hip shit back then.
In math we were allowed to use calculators that couldn't perform "abstract symbol manipulation". Our (turing-complete...) TI-83 was allowed. [a part of the exam was "no-aids"; no calculator there, only pen(cil) and paper].
In music (given a melody, make an arrangement), we were allowed to use software from a whitelist; the whitelist was based on the capabilities of the software (it wasn't allowed to do our jobs for us).
In general, I didn't notice any problems regarding the use of computers.
Fast forward to university (I'm doing CS and math). The Introduction to Programming exam was done on the university's computers, with electronic hand-in. You'd get a problem set instructing you to write a simple class or two and a for/while loop iterating over some collection. When you'd hand in, you'd copy the files somewhere on the network. ISTR that you were allowed to bring your own computer if you wanted, but being connected to the network was your own responsibility then.
There were generally no problems there.
For all other exams, either you weren't allowed to bring your computers, or you weren't allowed to bring a printer (so there'd be no point). One exception was the statistics course. the kind of problems we'd face was easy to predict, so one of my fellow students wrote a program which would solve 90% of the problem set for him, generating some nice LaTeX. He'd then copy this to paper by hand, and work on the remaining 10%.
My experience: using computers as a "smart typewriter" works great. Using computers as a "smart typewriter" for music notation works fine as well (and hey, midi keyboards are easier to lug around than pianos).
Using them as "smart typewriters" with a Java development environment and a "smart mailman" (network handin) works fine too. Were the possibilities for cheating there? Sure, draw a map of the computers and their names; ssh into the host of your friend; start talk(1)ing. So what? If you need to cheat on your first quarter course, chances are you'll EPIC FAIL some other course heading your way. And there were TAs walking around, glancing at your screen every now and then.
Using them to solve the exam problems, when you write the solving software yourself, works great too; if it was someone else's software, it'd be a little is-it-cheating iffy.
Like all those people said using laptops for high school exams isn't secure enough, but on the other hand it reduce the chance for the students to cheat by looking at others, which is the most popular cheating technique!!
There is a drive in developing countries where $200 or even cheaper laptops are being distributed to not just improve education standard but laptop sales as well. Minthis Hills
Besides, it's ineffective for a sufficiently creative student and I can tell you that some students are very creative when it comes to cheating at exams. I knew guys in college that if they spent as much time studying as they did inventing clever ways of cheating they would have perfect grades.
In Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon" there was a moment when one character was in jail where his notebook could be watched. He installed a driver that accepted input from morse code in a shift key and the output was the scrollock led blinking morse code.
I don't see that mentioned on his wikipedia page, please elaborate.
Laptops, particularly the nubile female variey, are well suited for any sit-down task. What stops this practce is shortages.
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
Gotta love it.. I remember being TI-83s to work with in Math and that was a trip! Now having a laptop to take a test.. this makes me feel good on the inside. I could see it working out as well due to the whole open book approach. :)
You got to use computers in gym class!?
No :) I said "gymnasiet", it's a danish word.
It has the same root as "gymnasium" ("sports hall", we'd call it). It comes from the Greek "gymnos", naked, and the designation for the kind of places where the ancient greeks
Danish kept the learning part, English kept the sports part.
(Or so I heard)
Well, it is convenient for graders by using computers. However, the varities in exams are limited. For example, it's hard to draw a graph in a math exam. Of course, for those computer experts, it might be easy. A computer base exam should be provided when all students have enough knowledge and skill of using computers. I dont think it is fair enough for High School level students.
maybe we should use the restricted laptops that are provided from the school.