By REBECCA BOONE=
Associated Press Writer=
MERIDIAN, Idaho (AP) _ Banning baseball caps during tests was
obvious _ students were writing the answers under the brim. Then,
schools started banning cell phones, realizing students could text
message the answers to each other.
Now, schools across the country are targeting digital media
players as a potential cheating device. Devices including iPods and
Zunes can be hidden under clothing, with just an earbud and a wire
snaking behind an ear and into a shirt collar to give them away,
school officials say.
``It doesn't take long to get out of the loop with teenagers,"
said Mountain View High School Principal Aaron Maybon. ``They come
up with new and creative ways to cheat pretty fast."
Mountain View recently enacted a ban on digital media players
after school officials realized some students were downloading
formulas and other material onto the players.
``A teacher overheard a couple of kids talking about it," said
Maybon.
Shana Kemp, spokeswoman for the National Association of
Secondary School Principals, said she does not have hard statistics
on the phenomenon but said it is not unusual for schools to ban
digital media players.
``I think it is becoming a national trend," she said. ``We hope
that each district will have a policy in place for technology _ it
keeps a lot of the problems down."
Using the devices to cheat is hardly a new phenomenon, Kemp
said. However, sometimes it takes awhile for teachers and
administrators, who come from an older generation, to catch on to
the various ways the technology can be used.
Some students use iPod-compatible voice recorders to record test
answers in advance and them play them back, said 16-year-old
Mountain View junior Damir Bazdar.
Others download crib notes onto the music players and hide them
in the ``lyrics" text files. Even an audio clip of the old
``Schoolhouse Rock" take on how a bill makes it through Congress
can come in handy during some American government exams.
Kelsey Nelson, a 17-year-old senior at the school, said she used
to listen to music after completing her tests _ something she can
no longer do since the ban. Still, she said, the ban has not
stopped some students from using the devices.
``You can just thread the earbud up your sleeve and then hold it
to your ear like you're resting your head on your hand," Nelson
said. ``I think you should still be able to use iPods. People who
are going to cheat are still going to cheat, with or without
them."
Still, schools around the world are hoping bans will at least
stave off some cheaters.
A teacher at San Gabriel High School in West Covina, Calif.,
confiscated a student's iPod during a class and found the answers
to a test, crib notes and a definition list hidden among the teen's
music selections. Schools in Seattle, Wash., have also banned the
devices.
The practice is not limited to the United States: St. Mary's
College, a high school in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, banned
cell phones and digital medial players this year, while the
University of Tasmania in Australia prohibits iPods, electronic
dictionaries, CD players and spell-checking devices.
Conversely, Duke University in North Carolina began providing
iPods to its students three years ago as part of an experiment to
see how the devices could be used to enhance learning.
The music players proved to be invaluable for some courses,
including music, engineering and sociology classes, said Tim Dodd,
executive director of The Center for Academic Integrity at Duke. At
Duke, incidents of cheating have declined over the past 10 years,
largely because the community expects its students to have academic
integrity, he said.
``Trying to fight the technology without a dialogue on values
and expectations is a losing battle," Dodd said. ``I think there's
kind of a backdoor benefit here. As teachers are thinking about how
technology has corrupted, they're also thinking about ways it can
be used productively."
___
On the Net:
National Association of Secondary School Principals:
http://www.principals.org
Center for Academic Integrity: http://www.academicintegrity.org/
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
APTV-04-27-07 0309EDT
