Taking Cheating to the Next Level

A High School Teaching buddy of mine in Dallas, Texas sent me this pic (note: this is not the actual book and phone that he confiscated, but a pic he found similar to it online.  The school would not let him take a pic of it.)  He is an English Lit. teacher.  They were having an open book timed test and a student in the back kept flipping pages whenever he walked by.  He noticed the student would always flip towards the front of the book even though the test was over the 2nd half of the novel.  Finally, he asked the student to turn to page 200 and something, since that was what they were testing over.  The student refused.  He took the book and found this.  The student had been using his phone, typing in the questions and finding the answers online.  Pretty clever, but a big FAIL for getting caught.

Technology has taken cheating to a whole new level.  When I was in school, it was notes written on your shoe or your forearm...

Technology in Education?

For some reason, this educational article does not surprise me very much.  As a high school teacher, I have been seeing this for years.  I truly believe that technology in the classroom is not necessarily a good thing.  In fact, I've been saying it for years:

In nations with the highest-performing students, classrooms “contain very little tech wizardry,” writes Amanda Ripley on Slate Magazine. “Children sit at rows of desks, staring up at a teacher who stands in front of a well-worn chalkboard,” just like in U.S. classrooms in 1989 or 1959.

I think technology can be a good thing if used correctly.  Unfortunately, it is very rarely used correctly in the classroom.  Every year, I am seeing more and more research papers that are "copy - pasted" from the internet.  Wikipedia is fast becoming the number one research for high school students (probably college students too) and we all know how reliable Wikipedia can be.  There are websites out there that sell research papers, fictional stories, original poems, etc. to students if they have money. 

I think technology is actually dumbing down American Society.  It is an ugly and frightening trend.  I yearn for the good old days when you actually had to read several books and encyclopedias to get your information, then you actually had to write the info in your own words.  OH...for the good ol' days!