Does anyone else remember teachers reminding you of this as they handed out tests? Cheating only hurts you. I know I certainly reminded my students of this when I would hand out exams. And inevitably there would be one or two enterprising students who still cheated and thought they got away with it...they rarely really got away with it.
So now we have an iPod cheating extravaganza. And part of my sarcastic brain wants to say "iPods don't cheat on tests, kids cheat on tests" but that's not really the issue. First off...they're really letting kids listen to their iPods while taking a test? Really? Cause I was never allowed to listen to my walkman at school - except for sometimes -- sometimes -- in study hall. If we had the cool study hall teacher. So the idea that you'd let a kid plug into their iPod during a test is foreign to me.
That aside, we have other people saying that iPods are the calculators of yesterday and that rote memorization is bad and what's important is being able to find out the information so if kids are clever enough to put stuff on their iPod to cheat, well, we should applaud their creativity. And if we do that...shouldn't we also applaud those enterprising kiddos who scrawl up and down their arms and then sneak looks under the sleeves for right answers? What about the ones who whisper sneakily across the aisle? Or sit behind the smart kids and crane their necks?
Sure, sometimes in school you have to remember things that you feel will ultimately be pointless because you'll be able to look it up, should you ever need it. But does that make it ok to figure out ways to "get around the rule" simply because you think the rule is stupid? And if it's ok with formuale and historical facts, where does it stop?
Not sure where I was going with this other than to shake my head and quietly wonder exactly what the world is coming to.
1 day ago
I would never allow an iPod into my room, much less let a kid listen to it. And honestly, the kids who cheat usually cheat off a kid who is flunking. And both of them flunk...it's ironic, really. I mean, if you're going to cheat, at least sit next to a straight-A student. LOL.
ReplyDeleteCreative cheating is not teaching our kids anything is it? well, except for possibly bad morals and ethics...
ReplyDeleteMichelle - I noticed the unintelligent cheating tendencies of my students as well. Never did quite understand that one, but maybe it has to do with birds of a feather and so forth. Still, I'm glad to see that someone thinks iPods in the classroom is a little silly.
ReplyDeleteRachel - Exactly. But then, since we can't teach good morals/ethics anymore lest we be accused of teaching religion, I suppose this wasn't too far off.
I heard about this coming to work the other morning and my first thought was why are they allowed to listen to ipods during class to began with. Gee in the old days we had to actually listen to the teacher and during test we had to actually sit there and take the test. Without any music or anything...mostly just the humming sound of a fan b/c we didn't have a/c in our classes :)
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