John and his friend Mike both camera phones. Mike sits in the back of the class and uses
his phone to photograph the test for John, who is taking the test that
afternoon. Mike then emails the
photograph of the test to John’s phone.
In this situation the student is using technology inappropriately. The actions that make
this scenario inappropriate are the photos taken of the test and sending them
to John. This is a form of academic
misconduct and would result in significant consequences if caught by a teacher
or proctor. According to Brock
University’s academic misconduct policies, “the penalty imposed may range from
zero for the exam or the piece of work to expulsion from the University”
(Brock, 2014).
I understand that cell phones are a growing concern in
schools not only for academic misconduct but also for privacy violations and
cyberbullying. That being said I believe
that cell phones should either be collected by the teacher before the test in a
small setting (high school class for example) or they should be turned off and
placed on the floor under the desk just like during Brock final exams. A ringing cell phone during a test or exam is
a distraction and can cause some students to lose focus on the task at hand. By having the cell phones collected at the
beginning of class there is no opportunity for the student to take a picture of
the test before leaving the room. Even
having the phone out of arms reach, like under their desk, is also a good
option as it’s visible to the proctor or teacher and inaccessible by the
student. The consequences of cheating
are far too severe to be practising actions such as taking pictures of the exam
while writing it.
Another option for the teacher is to have multiple versions
of each test that they give out that way the tests would not be the same
between John and Mike’s classes. However
this path does not fix the issue of having cell phones in exam or test rooms.
Brock
University. (2014). Academic Misconduct.
Retrieved from http://brocku.ca/business/current/graduate/academic-policies/academic-misconduct
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