Slashdot Mirror
Rich Kids Are Cheating in School With Apple Watches (theoutline.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: There is, however, one demographic that has embraced the Apple Watch with open arms: tech-savvy, upper middle-class teens and tweens. The watch is a convenient workaround for classroom cell-phone bans; it can be used for everything from texting to cheating on tests. [...] Julia Rubin, a former middle-school teacher at a private school in New York City, said that when the Apple Watch first came out in 2014, a handful of students got them as presents for the holidays.
When Rubin asked her school's principal to ban the watches the same way the school banned cell phones, she refused. In addition to kids texting during class, there is growing concern that smart watches could be used to help kids cheat during exams. In fact, there is a wealth of YouTube videos showing teens how to do precisely that, usually with the disclaimer that they are only sharing this information "for entertainment purposes."
[...] Nikias Molina, 20, is a Spanish vlogger who runs the YouTube channel Apple World. A slender, dark-haired kid with braces and a slight European accent, Molina posted a 2018 video showing subscribers how to use various apps on the Apple Watch to cheat on exams. As he demonstrates in the video and explained to me, there are apps you can download onto the Apple Watch to save PDFs, but the most common method is to take a photo of a cheat sheet and pull it up on the Apple Watch, which doesn't require internet accessibility. The response to the video was mixed -- "students were thanking me [in the comments], and teachers were hating on me" -- but the video racked up more than 115,000 views.
When Rubin asked her school's principal to ban the watches the same way the school banned cell phones, she refused. In addition to kids texting during class, there is growing concern that smart watches could be used to help kids cheat during exams. In fact, there is a wealth of YouTube videos showing teens how to do precisely that, usually with the disclaimer that they are only sharing this information "for entertainment purposes."
[...] Nikias Molina, 20, is a Spanish vlogger who runs the YouTube channel Apple World. A slender, dark-haired kid with braces and a slight European accent, Molina posted a 2018 video showing subscribers how to use various apps on the Apple Watch to cheat on exams. As he demonstrates in the video and explained to me, there are apps you can download onto the Apple Watch to save PDFs, but the most common method is to take a photo of a cheat sheet and pull it up on the Apple Watch, which doesn't require internet accessibility. The response to the video was mixed -- "students were thanking me [in the comments], and teachers were hating on me" -- but the video racked up more than 115,000 views.
With the aluminum watches on their sweaty skin, they are also slowly poisoning themselves.
What's the difference between pulling up a cheat sheet on your watch and having one stuck in your sock? I suppose you could keep more material on your watch, but as everyone who's ever written an open book test knows, more material is a curse, not a blessing.
If you see a kid fiddling with their smart watch during a test, fail them. Can't do that? THAT's your problem, not the watch.
Why is it in anyway relevant that they are "rich kids"" It's unfair, because "poor kids" cannot also cheat? What about taking them all away, so no one can cheat?
Design the exams like university level exams, where a cheat (equation) sheet is allowed, but you actually need to understand the material to finish the exam in time. regurgitation based exams are stupid.
Well, that is the idea, no? The content is hardly controversial.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
... I looked into the soul of the girl beside me. (Woody Allen)
I was in high school 30 years ago and I cheated during an exam by wearing a long-sleeve shirt and passing the wire of an ear bud in there. Then I listened to my home-made "audio book" of Canadian history on my crappy Candle portable cassette player.
I got real good at pressing the buttons quietly!
Mostly random stuff.
If your school allows you to keep smart watches when it matters most (like exams), they are a terrible school and you should feel free to cheat.
My nephew's school added in the policy LONG ago, even before the Apple Watch first came out, that Watches and other electronic devices are not allowed during exams. The whole thing is also filmed from multiple angles including top down so they can make sure nobody is cheating during and after.
Who knew this is an actual story... again
I tried to use a Fitbit to cheat, but having to move my legs gave it away.
Table-ized A.I.
They just need to put off upgrading their iPhone every year and then they could afford to cheat like he rich kids. Why are the poor so lazy and stupid! #MAGA
a useful item would be a cell phone &/or wifi blocker that operates at about classroom size (maybe 30'x30'). Make it so that a teacher can turn it on/off. Have it be visible with a red-light to indicate it is powered and on.
Of course, FCC has to give permission for schools to use them, but they really are needed.
An Apple Watch may not be cheap, but having one hardly makes anyone rich. We really have a strange way of measuring wealth in this country.
"Uneducated faggot fraud Kohath doesn't understand why veritas in education and cheating are incompatible, news at 11 when Trump goes to prison for having zero integrity, just like the faggot Kohath - the circle of retard is complete."
A good test is not for rote knowledge, it will test your understanding of the material. In fact in the uni we were left all physic books we wanted, we were asked to form a reasoning over the question given, formulate an answer, and apply what we could to form a conclusion based on the presented points - you would be surprised on how many people fell through and could not answer porperly. Basically asking you if you remember what equation X,Y,Z looks like and spit out the correct response, is stupid, rote knowledge does not help. And this is not solely related to STEM, in history/geo/philo/art there is a lot which can be done on understanding material rather than rote knowledge. Rote knowledge anyway is best replaced/fulfilled by by computer system. What is better is to show you can make research, understand the material, and explain it back. And as such an apple watch should NOT help - if you were testing for the correct thing. If you are testing for rote knowledge, then a well trained monkey can help.
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I cheated with my TI-85 back in the day. Now Iâ(TM)m a 1%er. One the girls that I helped cheat is now a science teacher.
FCC won't even give prisons authority to operate signal blockers. Good luck ever getting it for schools. Next movie theaters would want it, then owners of snobby restaurants. FCC does not want to open that pandora's box.
if you buy last gen.
Then again maybe it's only the rich kids with connections that get away with it. There's not a teacher alive who doesn't spot every cheat device you can think of. Even the drunk ones (they just don't particularly care)
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"students were thanking me [in the comments], and teachers were hating on me"
You know, it is possible for someone to disagree with you without being a "hater".
Really? A "European" accent?
Can they mean "speaks Spanish like a Spaniard rather than a Mexican/Puerto Rican/American/etc," or "speaks English with a Spanish, rather than Mexican/etc accent."
Or perhaps it means they are unable to distinguish between the accents of the Spanish, Greeks, Italians, French, Germans, Poles, Finns, Swedes or British, let alone the regions thereof? (other European countries are available)
Whatever they mean, it adds nothing to the actual story and serves only to demonstrate the laziness and ignorance of this "journalist," and the ineptitude of the editorial oversight processes of this "publication."
Sorry, but this sort of thing really pisses me off - if copy like this came across my desk (OK, so it wouldn't actually, but you know what I mean), words would be had... probably starting with "bollocks."
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It's all too predictable that most comments are focusing on the "rich" versus "poor" debate, which completely sidesteps the real issue of the lack of quality education in American K-12 schools.
This is why smaller class sizes are important, not because smaller classes are easier to manage in the classroom, but because they enable instructors to actually devise and grade homework and tests that aren't easy to cheat. I see the comments that call for such tests, but fail to appreciate that in a high school environment, a single teacher could have well over 200 students, with no TAs. Imagine having to grade 200 exams on top of a full classroom schedule. Each assignment is a mountain of work to grade, especially if carefully designed to test understanding. And then to craft them so that they are different for each class, and sometimes different forms within a class.... A university professor has the benefit of graders, TAs, a teaching schedule that is more relaxed, and more mature students with fewer behavioral problems that require parent-teacher interaction.
I don't fucking care about whether Apple Watches are a sign of social class, or the political subtext such a statement might imply for the reader. The fact that we have cheating facilitated by technology is nothing new. The point is that teachers in America are expected to impart valuable critical thinking and reasoning skills to the next generation while being paid paltry salaries compared to far less stressful and time-consuming jobs in the private sector, while getting blamed by everyone from politicians and parents--and the students themselves. Meanwhile, class sizes continue to grow because of fiscal mismanagement and corruption, and lack of investment in education. Americans like to talk about how important education is, but when it comes down to spending taxpayer money, they'd rather build missiles and walls because fear sells shit to an uneducated and easily deceived public. So is it any wonder that we are in this situation? Who the fuck cares about whether a kid having an Apple Watch means they're rich. I care that a cheating student is in all likelihood going to grow up to be yet another irresponsible, uneducated, entitled, egocentric American whose corporate overlords can manipulate at will. Downvote me all you want. Call me a troll. I don't fucking care anymore.
This. It's no wonder they voted for trump. They also have no morals or values. It's all starting to make sense.
If only these faggots had a stern father around to smack some sense into them.
Is each generation getting dumber or something? When I was in high school 20 years ago, we had calculator watches. Nearly no one owned one, but they existed and were banned from use. Well not exactly banned, just not allowed. If you had one you have to remove it during the test. What's so difficult with checking out people's wrists while you walk around watching the students? Why aren't teaching looking for them? Why does there need to be a school wide ban? Just have people remove their watches during the test. Put it in their bag under their seat with all their other stuff. Isn't there a clock in the room? Sure students could try to hide it in their sleeve or lap, but they can do that with paper notes too. Smart watches change nothing and have been around for decades, no new rules are needed to deal with them.
In terms of sharing answers, randomized test ordering and answer ordering has always been the solution to that. With software, it's easier than ever before to reorder tests and make a unique order for each student. Grading is more difficult if showing work is required, but trying to share with someone across the room how to fake their work is far more difficult to do without getting caught.
If your "test" can be beat by a kid wearing an Apple watch, then your test sucks and is just a waste of everyone's time. There are plenty of ways to assess student growth that can't be beat by an Apple watch (or answer sheet in your sock, or what ever)
Typical Democrat. Even Howard Schultz can't stomach you people any more.
They did that thing where they described a woman based on her physical characteristics.
Only they did it to a KID?!
"Uneducated faggot fraud Kohath doesn't understand why veritas in education and cheating are incompatible, news at 11 when Trump goes to prison for having zero integrity, just like the faggot Kohath - the circle of retard is complete."
I give it ten years #maryloujepson #elonmusk
And so the cycle continues. Before the era of smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, portable computer algebraic systems there were simple alphanumeric programmable calculators. In the mid 80s you could already type whatever you wanted into those 32k/100k beasts. The Casios, the Sharps, the HPs, you name it, all had those capabilities.
Ok, you had no color, no internet connectivity but boy could you hold pages of typed in text in there.
The irony is you would end up learning the dam lesson anyway by force of typing it whole into the calculator.
I was university back in the late 70s. Kids would program their calculators with the formulas. Teaching assistants would walk around and reset i.e. wipe the memory on everybody's calculator before the exam started. Most professors allowed students to bring a single 8 1/2 x 11 cheat sheet to the exams. The point of the exam wasn't to find out if you could memorize the formulas, it was to find out if you knew how to apply them.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
At the university I attend (US, top tier research, public school), watches are already banned from the testing centers. I guess it's been a thing for a little while. I was wondering why the heck watches were banned from the testing centers. I couldn't think of a way to cheat with regular watches.
I don't respond to AC's.
I learned that it's better to beg forgiveness than to ask for permission. Your Apple watch doesn't work? Gee, no idea why, but you can find out after the test. Here, I put a big one up in front of the class so you know how much time you have left, after all that's what you need it for, right?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You're assuming the purpose of TFA is investigative journalism. To bring an important issue to the public's attention.
It's not. The purpose is to generate more page loads and thus more advertising revenue. So if inflammatory insinuations - like singling out kids who wear an Apple Watch, or speak with a "Europeant" accent - gets you all in a huff to where you click on TFA, then it's done its job. It's one of the reasons I'm not that critical of comments here from people who haven't read TFA. So many of articles are click-bait that I won't fault someone for using a too-stringent anti-click-bait filter and not reading TFA.
Rich kids go to a Swiss high-school and always come back with good grades.
Then Daddy will have some ex-presidents and members of Congress write letters so that the brat can go to Harvard where they buy a diploma they don't need, because Daddy is rich!
FCC won't even give prisons authority to operate signal blockers. Good luck ever getting it for schools. Next movie theaters would want it, then owners of snobby restaurants. FCC does not want to open that pandora's box.
News just in: The MPAA has successfully sued the FCC into bankruptcy in court costs and now got the law changed. More at 10.
You sound more like the dem. Why even have schools or grades. Just give everyone a trophy. I am at the other end of the spectrum. Kid cheats, toss em out of school for the year and let them try again next year. I had a CS prof who styled certain assignments to test for cheating. He flunked any kid that cheated and I thought it was great.
I'm not an authoritarian or a totalitarian, nor am I jealous of others' success, so I’m not in favor of ruining children's lives or otherwise harming people to maintain some vain illusion of control or exclusivity.
If a kid wants to cheat, why is that any of your business? Because you're on the hunt for people to victimize to bolster your ego? How is that a good thing?
College is a giant open book exam.
All they need to do is also remove any smart watches.
Pre warn of this and there are no issues.
You can buy an Apple Watch on Ebay for a hundred bucks. WTF is with the title of this Slashdot article?
Thanks for demonstrating what we already know about you. You are worthlessness personified, loser. You will be buried under Trump, under the prison. You are lower than dogshit, pigshit, horseshit, and bullshit. You are faggot shit.
Zero value. You're a complete moron. Someone would be doing you a huge favor to kill you now.
"Uneducated faggot fraud Kohath doesn't understand why veritas in education and cheating are incompatible, news at 11 when Trump goes to prison for having zero integrity, just like the faggot Kohath - the circle of retard is complete."
Ran 3rd part math and science during the SAT, ACT, and on every math and physics test.
If you know where to look, exam mode hacks abound. Doing this helped me bolster my math scores on my application to Penn. Sure some diversity applicant was denied, but who really cares anyway.
Non story.
Feh. When I took the PSAT, one of the proctors who knew I was the only kid in class with a calculator watch made sure to tell me to take the watch off in front of the whole class.
Seriously? Whoever wrote this... is a disingenuous hack and should re-think their life.
You might mean jammers, rather than blockers.
Man it was so annoying the kids that had those full grapphing calculators and where aceing precal and calc
So "upper middle class" is now synonymous with "rich"?
Really, guys, you need to get your class envy and self-righteous indignation straight.
In university, cheating resulted in a zero. Do it again? Expulsion. Enforce the rules and purge, why is this hard?
...and we wonder why they live at home until they're 30...
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So what? Having resources is not cheating. Poor kids need to learn what it is like to be a poor adult.
What is "European accent", Precious?
I witnessed both of these in college. Cheat sheets were allowed (actuarial math courses), a lot of time textbooks (student versus clock).
The two "allowed" best tweaks to the "single page" cheat sheet were:
1. Printing at 3PT font on both sides and bringing a magnifying glass.
2. The winner - printed on dot matrix paper which he claimed was a single sheet since it was continuous. He did well on the test.
Myself, I relied on an HP-48SX and infrared data transfer with other students in the classroom (needed to aim them at each other but the teachers had no idea this was possible). It was way ahead of it's time with regards to what it could do (1991). Some of the ideas we came up with were a better education than the classes (wrote memorization versus creativity).
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Smart watches are not a rich-only phenomenon.
OG's were doing this same thing with Palm Pilot watches back in 2005. Like usual /. is a decade late reporting a story.
When are we going to start recognizing that people have access to the largest repository of human knowledge in all of history and start trying to test for understanding of material instead of regurgitating knowledge? At work I have access to the internet. It helps me make decisions and develop solutions. Why are we denying children that? The exams I had to take when I was younger was literally just regurgitating information. Rote memorization doesn't make for a very good understanding of material.
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