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Preventing Networked Gizmo Use During Exams?
bcrowell writes "I'm a college physics professor. My students all want to use calculators during exams, and some of them whose native language isn't English also want to use electronic dictionaries. I had a Korean student who was upset and dropped the course when I told her she couldn't use her iPod during an exam — she said she used it as a dictionary. It gets tough for me to distinguish networked devices (iPhone? iTouch?) from non-networked ones (calculator? electronic dictionary? iPod?). I give open-notes exams, so it's not memory that's an issue, it's networking. Currently our classrooms have poor wireless receptivity (no Wi-Fi, possible cell, depending on your carrier), but as of spring 2011 we will have Wi-Fi everywhere. What's the best way to handle this? I'd prefer not to make them all buy the same overpriced graphing calculator. I'm thinking of buying 30 el-cheapo four-function calculators out of my pocket, but I'm afraid that less-adaptable students will be unable to handle the switch from the calculator they know to an unfamiliar (but simpler) one."
If the student is capable of getting the answers right, what difference does it make how it's obtained.
If the issue is that you're worried that the students are pulling answers off the internet then I could agree that you do indeed have an issue.
However, I will provide a different perspective on the problem. As an employer the employee who succeeds is the one who knows how to obtain the information necessary to solve a problem, and use those methods to build their skill levels up. I have seen those who are unable to do this eventually be let go. So aside from the usual arse kissers who seem to proliferate most companies, those who function the best are those who are able to compile a solution from sources built up from years of work. I could care less if it came from Google as long as it's not infringing on anyone's legal rights that could come back to haunt the company.
I honestly think you might be hobbling these young professionals in a sense. Have them show their work at least. Most free solutions to math problems never show the work, you have to shell out hundreds of dollars for that.
[rant]And please for the love of God, let them write it down on paper and scan it, equation editors add hours to large equations. I had a teacher pull that crap on me once on a refresher course. I paid to learn, not learn an equation editor, my writing is legible. I can understand if others are not, but sheesh give someone a chance![/rant]
iCheat - Genius Bar for exams
The Nazi's dont care about the spelling, it's the "SS" hunts you down if you spell things wrong.
No body realizes that Hitlers "SS" actually stood for "Super Spellers"!
With the door open? Or with phones inside?
That'l do it.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Whatever you do, remember what happens when you try to jam electronic devices.
Er, you misunderstood the question: you could escape by breaking the ice and swimming (before hypothermia kills you), you could wake up from the dream (frictionless? really?), you could wait for spring for the ice to thaw, you could wait for snowfall and use that for friction, you could yell and hope to trigger an avalanche (nearby mountain required), or you could put an elephant in the way- allowing dozens more solutions... I could go on, but the point is the problem required no knowledge of conservation of momentum, only your basic pond survival skills.
My webcomic
EMP. That'll show 'em.
It's an open book exam, not an open-Internet open-chat open-Yahoo-Answers exam.
Wow...anyone using Yahoo Answers on a physics exam deserves some kind of academic Darwin award. On second thought, let the girl use her iPod as long as that's the only site she accesses. :-p
Raspberry...there is only one man who would DARE give me raspberry!
Yahoo Question: If I have a crumpled up piece of paper in one hand, and a baseball in another, both hands are 1m from the ground and I release both objects at the same time, which one hits the ground first?
Best Yahoo Answer: Can't answer this question without knowing if there is writing on the paper.
Answer: If the crumbled up paper is in the left hand, it hits first.
Answer: The ball, it's heavier, duh.
Answer: Fucking nerd.
Answer: Nerd's don't fuck, idiot.
Answer: Oh yeah? I'm pregnant.
If I mod you +1 informative will you promise not to hurt me?
Insanity: voting in the same two parties over and over again and expecting different results
"unterminated 's' command"
I think he's worried that you could IM a friend during an exam to work the answers out for you, as if you're a thin client, with all that computing power over in the cloud.
I might be a client, but I am not thin.
Student traces diagram on onion-skin paper, photographs it, eats it.
Adds a whole new dimension to passing the test.
Back in the day we could use our graphing calculators on exams, but they weren't open book. So I'd store all my formulas in some mock program on there. But then the teachers got wise and started coming around and wiping the memory of everybody's calculator before each exam. So I wrote a program on the TI-82 that mimicked the series of screen prompts and displays required to wipe the calculator memory. Fun times...
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Build a Faraday Cage around the test room, then you won't need to worry about someone giving them answers from outside, and so long as everyone inside is busy with their own test - you don't need to worry about them much. Or build a EM Pinch - wait till the start of the exam, then detonate it and hand them all a pen, some paper, a paper dictionary, and an abacus. :)
(and I'm a grad student, I'd respect the teacher who forced us to use an abacus after Pulsing the classroom to prevent cheating, that's hardcore!)