A school in Meridian, Idaho, is banning iPods and other digital music players during tests due to the fact that students were using them to hide answers, as one teacher overheard. The iPods in question could be loaded up with notes hidden in song lyrics, or recorded lectures stored on the hard disk of the player.
Wow -- I'm shocked. I'm not shocked at the news that students are using them to cheat during tests, that's not at all surprising. What I'm surprised at is the fact that the teachers didn't realize it was happening under their very own noses, the fact that they even allowed the usage of electronic devices during a test.
These teachers are completely naive. Anything digital can be used to cheat -- heck, even those Walkman cassette players could have been used to cheat if some smart (or should we say stupid) kid had loaded them up with pre-recorded notes onto a tape. Seriously, how much entertainment do people need these days?
During a test, there should be the bare essentials: paper, pencil, rulers/calculators (and those had better be basic ones!). If teachers think that they can let kids use digital devices during a test, it's them that need to take a reeducating lesson from teaching school.
And of course, banning digital devices won't stop the digital cheating. As one student pointed out, a cheater can simply run an earbud up their sleeve, and then lean their head down to conceal their ear. And of course kids are going to find other ways to cheat. But seriously -- the least you can do is to stop the obvious things from happening.
