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I fail to see how this will stop cheating. Any traditional method of cheating will still work (like writing notes on your arm...), but it opens a whole new ave

I fail to see how this will stop cheating. Any traditional method of cheating will still work (like writing notes on your arm...), but it opens a whole new avenue of cheating for those students who are a little more technically apt than the others. So in essence, this entire effort is useless. Software is software. You can patch it to do whatever you like. If the files are protected, you can edit the files from another OS/computer. This is the same reason why copy protection software always fails, because you can simply rewrite the section of code that checks for a valid license (I'm aware it gets much more complicated than this). I'm sure at some point, someone will make a patch for this software. I'm all for using technology in schools, but I think this isn't an appropriate use. I believe exams should be taken on paper, unless there is a very good reason not to (e.g. it's a programming excercise), for the sake of the students. My reasoning is that computers can and do fail. Kernel panics, freezes, user error etc... What happens if someone is writing the most important science essay of their life, and their computer suffers from disk failure? Or a display glitch? Or they have a battery failure? What can go wrong with a few pens and some sheets of paper?

zandorg 17y ago
I have terrible handwriting, so that has to be noted when choosing paper & pen, so people don't get penalized for poor handwriting.
- eru 17y ago
  I had and have terrible handwriting. But that did not penalize me in school. I'd hate to type on querty-keyboard (as opposed to a sensible layout) much more than having to write by hand.
- iamcalledrob 17y ago
  Good point, I didn't think about that. If you can't write well because you are just sloppy and don't care, then I think it's your own fault... but, of course, that might not be the case if you have a learning problem (no, that doesn't make you stupid, just a different skillset). I know what was done here is that students with recognised learning difficulties (dyslexia, for example) get extra time if they take a long time to get their answers on paper.. or, on request, someone to read or write for them, which gives them a fair shot in comparison to everyone else.
smokey_the_bear 17y ago
I'm just much more accustomed to composing essays on a computer, as I've been doing since fourth grade. I can write sentences out of order and edit them when I think of a better way to say it. It's much harder for me to write a good essay by hand, and it's not a skill I have ever had to use outside of school.
nop 17y ago
I think this is a terrible idea as I can't possibly see how they would stop a crafty student from modifying his own computer and putting in a radio link that can reach well outside the exam room in a frequency they aren't detecting (my university sniff cell phones) from getting external help. I don't however agree that exams should be written on paper but that you should be given the option of using a computer to write on if you choose too. Incremental backups to a computer that can print could easily save any sudden local crashes but honestly all I personally am asking for is a text editor and absolutely nothing else, I don't expect that to die short of hardware failure. Even if the computers failed all the time and all data was lost it should be up to the student to take that risk, they've got no one but themselves to blame if such a system had a high failure rate (which I don't think it would). I hate doing exams that are generally scheduled for 4-6 hours as I virtually never write anything by hand and haven't done so for years, so after about 30 minutes (probably less) I get terrible cramp. The whole experience is just terribly painful which doesn't exactly improve my willingness to sit and refine what I've written once I'm done. My university doesn't even let us do programming exams on a computer.

zandorg 17y ago

I have terrible handwriting, so that has to be noted when choosing paper & pen, so people don't get penalized for poor handwriting.

eru 17y ago
I had and have terrible handwriting. But that did not penalize me in school. I'd hate to type on querty-keyboard (as opposed to a sensible layout) much more than having to write by hand.
iamcalledrob 17y ago
Good point, I didn't think about that. If you can't write well because you are just sloppy and don't care, then I think it's your own fault... but, of course, that might not be the case if you have a learning problem (no, that doesn't make you stupid, just a different skillset). I know what was done here is that students with recognised learning difficulties (dyslexia, for example) get extra time if they take a long time to get their answers on paper.. or, on request, someone to read or write for them, which gives them a fair shot in comparison to everyone else.

smokey_the_bear 17y ago

I'm just much more accustomed to composing essays on a computer, as I've been doing since fourth grade. I can write sentences out of order and edit them when I think of a better way to say it. It's much harder for me to write a good essay by hand, and it's not a skill I have ever had to use outside of school.

nop 17y ago

I think this is a terrible idea as I can't possibly see how they would stop a crafty student from modifying his own computer and putting in a radio link that can reach well outside the exam room in a frequency they aren't detecting (my university sniff cell phones) from getting external help. I don't however agree that exams should be written on paper but that you should be given the option of using a computer to write on if you choose too. Incremental backups to a computer that can print could easily save any sudden local crashes but honestly all I personally am asking for is a text editor and absolutely nothing else, I don't expect that to die short of hardware failure. Even if the computers failed all the time and all data was lost it should be up to the student to take that risk, they've got no one but themselves to blame if such a system had a high failure rate (which I don't think it would). I hate doing exams that are generally scheduled for 4-6 hours as I virtually never write anything by hand and haven't done so for years, so after about 30 minutes (probably less) I get terrible cramp. The whole experience is just terribly painful which doesn't exactly improve my willingness to sit and refine what I've written once I'm done. My university doesn't even let us do programming exams on a computer.