After looking at the picture of potential cheaters in the lecture hall, Molly, John, Scott and I have been discussing our own personal histories and worries about cheating in our classrooms. I think that cheating in the 21st century is a whole new ball-game, one that has potential to be difficult to regulate, difficult to identify, and difficult to prove. With the internet and messaging systems in many people's pockets, cheating is changing. I remember in high school, someone sent the answers to the exam to the class printer, and students would just get up to sharpen pencils and look at the print out near the sharpener. I vividly remember this because the teacher caught on when many of the lower performing students suddenly did so much better on the exam that was most difficult. But what if it's not that obvious? I hope we get the chance to discuss cheating in class, since we don't have a classroom management course, and I'm interested to hear what other people have to say on the subject.
For your enjoyment:
Katie, i completely agree with you about cheating nowadays. It seems to me that it is going to be very difficult to monitor and even more difficult to enforce. Its probably going to be very difficult to watch a student break down and cry in front of you because you caught them cheating. I think it would be good to utilize some of the different testing strategies such as an essay format to make it more difficult for students to cheat
ReplyDeleteThis has been a powerful topic for many of your SMAC colleagues. It's a great chance to think about beginning with the end in mind. If your goal is for them to master content, then how can you engineer a testing environment where NOT mastering the content (and cheating) doesn't happen? And it goes back to what students need to memorize vs. Google in today's world. Personally, when I have all the instructional options, I usually skip exams in favor of projects. But I did teach in several secondary settings where exams were mandatory. I was definitely in the minority for having even an essay PORTION on an exam -- and I was an English teacher!
ReplyDeleteKatie, I agree with you about cheating.. it is a big issue and I hope we talk about how to deal with it in our program. I hope we would be in a school system with a strict cheating policy and that the administration would back us if we have problems with students in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI think this is another reason why it's important for teachers to keep informed with the capabilities of current technology. By knowing how technology can be used we can take the necessary measures that encourage our students to actually learn the material instead of scheming some way to cheat.
ReplyDeleteReally? Posting the video of a cat in a box? I loved it! I watched it twice....shameful...
ReplyDeleteThat video of the cat in the box is awesome, Speaking of cheating, I replayed the video many times it seems authentic. It just seems too coincidental that the flap on the cardboard box always ends up in its original position. The cat moves so fast I can’t tell if the video is being reversed???
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