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STUDENTS SET TO 'PHONE A FRIEND' DURING EXAMS
Wednesday, 20 August, 2008RELATED CONTENT
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Is using the internet or a mobile phone in exams cheating? Students at one exclusive Sydney school will be allowed to use the internet, ipods and mobile phones in tests, but is the policy fair?
COMMENTS
First [1][2] LastA well designed exam seeks accumulated knowledge and its application to acheive results. So, if a student demonstrates sufficient expertise by all means including internet to find a good solution to a wise exam, that is all that matters. Of course we know that exams and "academic" assessments at present are still a legacy of the admistrative coup against real knowledge over the last few centuries. We are still a long way from encouraging students to learn pro-actively and engage them in real world problem solving. That would snuff the current corrupt management system of relations and "yes men" hierarchy!
Exams are about an application of knowledge - unless its rote learning, exams are about how to apply what you have learnt. So no, its not cheating.
It's absolutely rubbish. Offensive to those who do have to retain information. For any of those students who obtain an 'A' -- you are a cheat.
That depends! I remember carrying in a huge plie of law books to Law exams. Was that cheating? No. They were open book exams. You had to know where to very quickly find the information then know how to interpret and apply it. This proposal would not be for all exams. Using infotech to find information is a vital skill in today's world and ought to be assessed. Trust our professional teachers. Even if some educational bureaucrats have utterly no clue, the teachers are highly reliable professionals who know what they're doing. Texting a friend for an answer in a Maths exam is not the same as applying technology by request and under supervision.
And this is the revolution is it??more like some kind of joke if you ask me !so what happens when they are all running things with their degrees? oh hang on while i look it up?? if the internet or phones go down we will be at a standstill ,they wont even have a clue what to do ,i though the alco pops ,fuel watch ,grocery watch ,and the green scare stories in 100yrs for taxes was stupid, but this is rediculous" !!what kind of morons are they?
I use the internet to source information for both work and study, as many reliable sources such as government departments provide internet access to public documents - it is now a normal work skill and assessing the reliability of various internet resources should be a skill learned in school. Open book exams usually require you to provide an analysis of the topic rather than a right or wrong answer. Phoning a friend during an exam might be a bit more contentious - if they can dictate the answers then it is not your own work or analysis, so limiting phone time would be reasonable.
There is no doubt that being examined from what is held in your memory is very important for the basic working knowledge required in any field of study, and I think attempting to commit something to memory rivets knowledge more firmly in your mind. However, there is no human being on the planet that can, or should have to retain, everything they have learned in their brains. Form and structure of a subject are far more important than details. Researching skills, and knowing how and where to find information is just as important in today’s world, and the internet and mobile phone give you access to knowledge. Learning how and where to learn is very important when we are being forced everyday to absorb far more information that we used to. Being good at research is an extremely useful skill. It is also useful to learn how to ask for help from other people (providing you are not just being lazy). I’m sure that the teachers that have designed the curriculum and examination process in this school know what they are doing.
If it is an open-book exam and all students have an equal opportunity to access the internet, then there's no problem with the policy. Accessing the internet for data is a far more accurate representation of the type of research required of students once they enter tertiary studies and start writing papers. Furthermore, cramming for exams and rote memorisation are very inefficient learning techniques as they do not always require the student to understand the materials they are studying. On the other hand, when students researchs the internet they are required to not only fully comprehend the task required, but to also exercise their study skills. Its good to see the education system is starting to experiment with a different approach to assessment.
Not if the exam is designed that way or, EVERYONE has access to, and lessons on how, to use said technology.
This is maybe the beginning of the end for our educational standards! This trial misses the point of education: that you can be given a task and you will need to work it all out for yourself with the information that you have or have equipped yourself to have. In the workplace for example you don't always have the option to just ask someone else or google away for the answer. The highest performing students at the elite universities all have the capability to pass really tough exams as well as their coursework and this ability comes from the foundation they get from school. What we are finding in Australia, is a real problem in teacher quality, where they don't know how to get students ready for the challenge of exams and instead resort to phone-a-friend type social experiments to cover their failings.