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> troops cross into Ukraine, their cell phones emit a roaming signal that connects to Ukraine’s cellular network... naive and ignorant about using mobile de
by nonrandomstring 4y ago
> troops cross into Ukraine, their cell phones emit a roaming signal
that connects to Ukraine’s cellular network... naive and ignorant
about using mobile devices, they often call home
This is not unique to the Russo-Ukraine situation. I've been with
British personnel who carry their own laptops with them while on
active duty and move across borders with them. We have an unbelievable
naivety about technology in all societies - basically an inability to
control it, because people see carrying an all-in-one personal tracker
as their god-given inalienable right.
CO: Put this uniform on!
PVT: Yes sir!
CO: March 500 miles in the rain and snow!
PVT: Yes sir!
CO: Eat this disgusting MRE.
PVT: Yes sir!
CO: Fire on these enemies!
PVT: Yes sir!
CO: Please surrender your cellphones for the safety of your entire
company.
PVT: FK OFF! I need* to post on Facebook.
While running an exam I asked students to switch off their phones and
put them in a box at the front of the hall. Half were resistant. I had
to expel two for refusing and another who sneaked-in a second phone
that rang during the examination. Many of the remaining students were
distracted, looking nervously at the box every minute.
These are good, honest, hard working and normally attentive young
people, not delinquents, but those things have a hold over them that
is worrying. These things are drugs and the sooner we start saying
so and treating them as such the sooner we can find the appropriate
psychological stance and interventions.
- totetsu 4y agoIt's like you need some phone isolation practice time before the exam also. One class a month with phones in the box.
- PebblesHD 4y agoThe students you mentioned are probably more nervous about the $1000+ device now not in their control than they are as a ‘withdrawal’ symptom. I’m happy to show the device being turned off and out in a backpack in those situations, but I’m not letting it out of my possession. I’d sooner just not take it with me in the first place. Taking my own phone into a hostile situation on the other hand, why would you? I don’t even take my own phone when travelling for business.
- klysm 4y ago> I don’t even take my own phone when travelling for business. Huh? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Being on business travel is exactly when I want my phone.
- spacehome 4y agoThat’s what your business phone is for.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- leaflets2 4y agoBurner business phone? Maybe just reuse the phone number?
- catach 4y agoMost would certainly want a phone, but the borders one crosses and the government policies around those crossing may disincentivize bringing your personal phone.
- pmichaud 4y agoYeah this is a good point. Maybe it’s solvable with simple tech like this: https://www.amazon.com/brotrade-Hanging-Jewelry-Organizer-Jewelries/dp/B01CPHFN34 https://www.amazon.com/brotrade-Hanging-Jewelry-Organizer-Je... Get a similar soft display case with compartments big enough to hold cell phones, and have it displayed at the front of the class where everyone can see them. You put your phone in one of the “pouches,” you can see it the whole time you’re taking an exam, you pick it back out once you’re done. I’m not sure what a practical method of ensuring you get the right phone back would be, but I can think of a few schemes. For example, each pouch has a uniquely numbered card, and when you put your phone in there, you take the card. Then you put the card back when you pick your phone back up. It would probably be helpful to have 1 or 2 visual indicators that you got it right, like the coordinates from the card also printed on the clear plastic in a way that’s easy to see them match, plus maybe a color scheme where a stripe or sticker of some kind on the clear plastic matches the color of the card itself. (This all to prevent accidental mix ups, not theft. The main benefit I see is letting the people still taking the exam feel confident that their phone is visible to them and it’ll remain where it is until they pick it up.)
- PartiallyTyped 4y agoAs a [near poverty] grad student, I am more concerned with the loss of the device than with "cheating" in an exam. The phone has my cards, contact info, plus its actual value. Understandably, exams are a stressful situation, and risking losing your phone is an added and frankly unnecessary stressor. 250 euro (how much my one plus nord cost me on sale) is not a lot to most people here, but that covers my living expenses (minus rent) for a month or so.
- jb3689 4y agoDoes this imply that you value passing your course at less than 250 euros? I understand your point about the hassle, but trying to understand the rationality
- klysm 4y agoNo it doesn’t, humans don’t work like that.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- PartiallyTyped 4y agoIt implies that I will be performing suboptimally because I will be worried about my livelihood over the examination.
- bell-cot 4y agoIf the instructor had announced, a few weeks before, "Absolutely no cell phones in the exam - leave it at home, or it will go into a box in the front corner of the classroom during the exam, or else you will automatically fail the exam"...would that work (both operationally and psychologically) for you?
- PartiallyTyped 4y agoLeaving it at home may not be feasible if the student needs to take the metro and they use the ticket apps. I'd ask whether I can sit at the front, put my phone in my backpack, and store (lock) the backpack in front of the desk so that I can't access it without standing up and making noise. So far no professor took issue with this.
- newsclues 4y agoAre we underestimating the power and importance of connection to family and home? Given that soldiers went to great lengths to write letters from trenches, it seems like war might suck and it may be nice to hear from mom or the wife. On the other hand, if your army has shitty comma gear having a cellphone might be useful as a fallback communication option, but I probably would prefer to use previously locally acquired sims…
- sandworm101 4y agoMaybe schools should not then demand that students carry cellphones. Let them register for courses oldschool, using paper forms. Let them submit work in hard copy. And give up on all those emergency/amber alert/active shooter notification schemes. Stop asking for personal phone numbers on every form.
- adastra22 4y agoWhat school requires students to carry cell phones?
- NathanielK 4y agoAll registration and homework is online at my college, and signing into anything has enforced two-factor authentication now. Phones aren't optional anymore. K-12 might be a different situation. Still lots of material online, especially post-covid. I don't think many high-schools use enforced 2FA though.
- solarkraft 4y agoAren't those things you'd mostly do at home? I can't think of a single reason I would strictly need to bring my personal phone to university. Worst case I'd sign into one of the provided computers.
- rco8786 4y agoAsking for schools to go backwards on technology is kind of the opposite of what we want. Schools already get enough flack for not preparing students for “the real world”.
- nbevans 4y agoThis has been going on for a long time and affects Western nations just as much as what's happening in Ukraine. Remember all those Strava (and other) fitness/running heatmaps from US/UK bases in Iraq/Afghanistan back in the day?
- watwut 4y agoI think that you are underestimating soldiers emotional need to have contact with wifes, children, parents, friends. Yes, it put them in danger. No it is not just about facebook. Second, students really dont want to loose phone. Do, they like me have habits - check pocket/bag periodically whether phone is in. If the phone is not where I always have it, I will search for it soon. It is expensive. People without such habit loose their devices often. And yes I know such people and they buy new phone once nine months or so. Cause the old one got lost.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoMail a letter.
- hunter-gatherer 4y agoI was in the Army before smart phones really existed and did a 15 month deployment. While it does indeed suck, soldiers are capable of functioning without continued contact for long periods of time with their families. I more recently was employed as a mobile device exploitation analyst at DIA and leverages many and more tactics outlined in the article against 'enemies of the state' if you will. The pragmatic thing to do is to properly educate the military and prohibit the use of these devices on deployments. Alas, that'll never happen though.
- serenitylater 4y ago
- ordu 4y ago> Many of the remaining students were distracted, looking nervously at the box every minute. There are many possible reasons to look at the phone. Some were mentioned in comments, I can add two more. It may be a reflex action triggered by the need to consult google. Not the real attempt to google, but when my mind suggested such a possibility to me, my eyes could flicker in a direction of my phone. Another possible reason is the process of rehearsing. If I was rehearsing answers using the phone, then I would try to look at my phone on each question needing a mental effort to answer. It is how memory works: when you trying to remember what you had read in a book you will look at the book or at least imagine the book. Or third reason. A neurotic reaction. Exam is a stressful experience, while phone often used to relax, to shut down external reality and to get some rest. So students are trying to get grip on themselves by taking a phone, but stop themselves from doing it. Probably they stop not just because their phone is unreachable, but because it is an exam and not a time to relax. But their mind keeps trying to use phone as a tool of self-regulation. If phone was in their pocket, they would touch it sometimes without looking. These things are not drugs but a new part of a human body. Like pants. Or even better, like glasses. I use glasses from my childhood, and I refuse to use contact lenses, because I feel myself naked without my glasses. I feel every movement of the air. It is disturbing. If you asked me to take an exam without my glasses, you probably would watched how I sometimes reach my nose with my hand, trying to touch my glasses founding everytime that I wear no glasses now. Or how sometimes I look longingly in a direction were my glasses are. I would do all this while being absorbed in an exam, and probably wouldn't remember it afterwards.
- tyleo 4y ago> These things are not drugs but a new part of a human body. Like pants. Or even better, like glasses. The big difference is that glasses are a clear net positive. It is possible for phones to be a net positive but a phone is multipurpose and I doubt most of there users prioritize it as an educational device. Sadly behavior like mindless scrolling is all to common, and companies know and measure success by sucking in more of there users minutes. The goal of these companies isn’t to maximize productive and meaningful minutes. The goal is to get any minutes at all. Sadly those mostly seem to come from the more drug-like use cases.
- Gwypaas 4y ago> While running an exam I asked students to switch off their phones and put them in a box at the front of the hall. Half were resistant. I had to expel two for refusing and another who sneaked-in a second phone that rang during the examination. Many of the remaining students were distracted, looking nervously at the box every minute. Seems like you are looking for conflict trying to be abrasive and prove your prejudice. This is especially the case now since many people use cases which are also wallets for your credit cards. Would you be comfortable leaving your wallet in a pile of other wallets in a box you can't control? The easy way of doing it, which I personally experienced during countless exams, is that all phones needs to be turned off and put in your bag. The bag is then stashed out along the walls or hung on hooks. Then you can both keep an eye on your bag, knowing that no one will ruffle around in it and the exam watchers can easily make sure that only allowed materials are on the desks. Magically there's no opportunity for conflict. Sure, someone inevitably forgot to turn off their second morning alarm and then an exam watcher and the person would together walk to the bag and under supervision turn it off. No need to escalate it into something more than it is.
- cinntaile 4y agoIndeed. Put it in your own bag and you're good, I wouldn't trust a box filled with mobile phones. Someone is bound to take the wrong one home when they're done, someone might even steal one. There is really no need to create that unnecessary stress when you're already writing an exam.
- nonrandomstring 4y ago> Seems like you are looking for conflict trying to be abrasive and prove your prejudice. With respect, it sounds as if you have some issues with authority. The chaps were told weeks in advance. The box was for their safety. It's not a theatrical magicians box that disappeared down a trap door in a puff of smoke while my scantily clad assistant made big eyes and cooing noises. It's just a clear plastic storage cube in full view the whole time - really no different than having it on the desk in front of you, just a few feet further away. > Would you be comfortable leaving your wallet in a pile of other wallets in a box you can't control? Absolutely yes, in the hands of a trusted figure, if protocol demanded it. I have to put my gear through a scanner every time I fly. Damnit, I have to put my life in the hands of others. It's something you get used to as you grow. We're not all in in control all the time. > Sure, someone inevitably forgot to turn off their second morning alarm You're making my point for me. The example I am giving is just a crummy maths exam. People are griping about scratched screens and other first world "nightmares". The original article was about getting yourself and all your buddies blown to pieces because of an "inevitable" lack of self-discipline.
- cyanydeez 4y agoYet no one in government finds a reason to curtail the privacy invasion aspect or the gross level of location tracking they do.
- moistly 4y ago> These things are drugs Dopamine dosing systems.