Taking Away Phones for Testing?

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Permalink Reply by Nora on April 13, 2009 at 9:39pm

I agree that under most conditions it is not okay to collect the phones of students at the door. But for testing, if a teacher sees a phone out or if one goes off, the student with the phone as well as the people around them and possibly the whole class have a void test and have to re-take it.
Do you think it would be a better idea if teachers just went around and made sure that all phones were off, left it up to the kids, or took away the phones?

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Permalink Reply by Brett on April 13, 2009 at 10:08pm

Nora,
I talked to some of my advisors and that's what they suggested too. I just don't think it is acceptable to take personal property, and keep me responsible for it. I could just as easily memorize the correct bubble pattern or SOMETHING that would be more efficient to cheat. I don't see a phone going off jeopardizing the whole class's testing . . . that is just not realistic.
Side note, if I am smart enough to figure out a complicated system of cheating on this test wouldn't you think I would be smart enough to get a decent score on it anyway?

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Permalink Reply by Nora on April 15, 2009 at 4:28pm

I also think that it is slightly ridiculous that if one person's phone even goes off that the people around them, or even the whole class has a void test.
Brett said, "if I am smart enough to figure out a complicated system of cheating on this test wouldn't you think I would be smart enough to get a decent score on it anyway?" That is an interesting point and you would have to be pretty smart to figure out a way to cheat on the standardized tests because they are so worried about people cheating.
What do you think should be done to prevent students from cheating while not invading their privacy or taking things like phones away?

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Permalink Reply by george mayer on June 24, 2009 at 10:22am

ok guys, here's an article that may be of interest. It says one third of high school students ADMIT to using a cell phone to cheat on a test. that's pretty high. Another crazy stat they found is that 1 in 4 student doesnt believe using a cell phone during their test COUNTS as cheating. That's hard to swallow.

Anyway, people do cheat and it's not fair. The funny thing I think about it is that if a cell phone goes off they void tests, but the person that has their phone go off is probably the LEAST likely to be cheating. If you're cheating with you're phone on anything but silent, you're an idiot, but still those are the people they catch.

Now I don't know how your standardized tests are set up, but what if it was just the rule that you couldn't bring them. If you had one, you'd be asked to leave. Or is that the rule? It seems to be that banning cell phones in a test room is not the end of the world. If you choose to bring it at all, then you choose to put it in the bin, AND i would guess waive any liability that the school has.

I may be being short-sighted, but why can't you just leave them at home one day of the year?

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Permalink Reply by Brett on June 24, 2009 at 11:44am

“Another crazy stat they found is that 1 in 4 student doesnt believe using a cell phone during their test COUNTS as cheating”

Does that mean 1 in 4 does not believe using their phone to cheat counts, or that using their phone for someone else during the test is acceptable?

Most schools have a no tolerance system for cell phones in general. I just don’t like that a school can confiscate your phone, and not take responsibility if something happens to it. If my phone is being taken during a test, and you suddenly are not responsible when it disappears, that is not OK with me.

There are ways around it. Like you suggested, one could leave it at home, (although I would most likely put it in my car or locker in case I wasn’t going home right away or didn’t want to be phoneless all day). When it came down to my standardized test day (granted we were taking the reading test so I don’t know how helpful a phone would be) my advisor just went to every student and watched them turn it off, either put it in the bottom of their bag under their chair, or at the very edge of the table where he could see it through the test. Maybe that isn’t as realistic at other schools though.

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Permalink Reply by george mayer on June 24, 2009 at 3:31pm

The stat meant that 1 and 4 students believed that texting or looking up answers using their cellphone was not cheating.

Those all sound like better options. I just think if it is made clear prior to the test that phones will be confiscated and returned after, and someone still brings their phone than that is ok.

I think the major point is that it is totally acceptable for teachers and administrators to be very strict about this issues, because many students do use it to cheat.

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Permalink Reply by Nora on June 24, 2009 at 9:10pm

I would day just don't bring the cell phone into the testing room in case it does go off. I don't have a personal phone, so I may not completely understand it, but I would have to agree with George that if they say no phones and warn you that if yours goes off during testing they will take it, then it is okay for them to follow through with the threat.

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Permalink Reply by Brett on June 25, 2009 at 12:23am

If they take your phone at the start of the test, and tell you that they are not liable for your property if something happens, is it still ok for them to take the phone?

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Permalink Reply by george mayer on June 26, 2009 at 3:29pm

Yes, i believe it is ok. What is the obsession--not yours personally, but society's--with having a cell phone on and on them at every waking second of the day. It's a relatively new technology that has moved from a luxury to a necessity.

There are other articles about this sort of thing is the real world as well. Many companies are now banning cell phones in meetings. Different reason, but same sort of thing. That seems ok to me as well.

The other angle is that some schools in other countries make every test open notes/book/phone/computer/whatever because we are entering in an age of technology where answers will always be at our finger tips. What's more important is what we can do with those answers. What do you think of that?

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Permalink Reply by Nora on June 27, 2009 at 9:31pm

I have to agree with you that it is slightly ridiculous that people feel the need to have a phone with them even in situations such as testing, when they are forbidden to use them anyways.
That is an interesting idea to have everything open notes, etc. I think that it might be a good idea because even when tests are open notes, there is no way you can finish the test unless you have some knowledge of the information that you are being tested on. It is also a useful skill to be able to efficiently find information on the internet or in your notes.

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