iPods Increasingly Being Banned In Schools Over Cheating Fears

It was just last week that the Toronto District School Board followed the lead of some others across North America and banned the use of cell phones on school grounds, a move that didn’t sit well with students. 

The ban was precipitated not only because of the device’s potential for distraction during class time, but because some were using them to cheat via text message or taking harassing videos that later wound up posted on the web.

Those same cheating concerns surround MP3 music players, which are already verboten in New York City and Seattle’s halls of academe. And they’ve been on the “do not bring” list at St. Mary’s College, a Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. high school, since earlier this year.

In fact, school officials now think the iPod and its ilk have become among the biggest gizmos for cheating on tests. How do they do it?

Some kids use the machines to record their own voices giving answers, then play them back while they’re writing exams.

Others hide the correct responses in lyrics text files, which otherwise look like the words to popular songs.

And a few have been caught posting crib notes to their MP3s, glancing at them surreptitiously as they’re putting pen to paper.

Add to that the fact that they’re easily hidden in a shirt pocket with the headphones tucked under a collar and they can be almost undetectable.

“You can just thread the earbud up your sleeve and then hold it to your ear like you’re resting your head on your hand,” admits 17-year-old Kelsey Nelson.

But she’s against the idea of an all out ban. “I think you should still be able to use iPods. People who are going to cheat are still going to cheat, with or without them.”

Some academics agree.

“Trying to fight the technology without a dialogue on values and expectations is a losing battle,” argues Tim Dodd of Duke University in North Carolina. “I think there’s kind of a backdoor benefit here. As teachers are thinking about how technology has corrupted, they’re also thinking about ways it can be used productively.”

Students here will find out if next October is the month the music dies.

That’s when the Toronto Board meets again, and discusses the possibility of putting iPods and MP3 players on the list of things that can’t be music to the ears of local learners on citywide campuses.