Somewhere over the course of the day yesterday I encountered an article talking about allowing the use of cellphones on tests and I'm going to share my thoughts on the subject.
I don't think it's a particular good idea to allow cell phones on tests. My reasoning mainly through a science perspective. Use of a cell phone changes the result of the test as an assessment. Does the student really understand this question or do they know how to use google well? Also since many have smart phones, are they really using the internet or are they using the notes that they've prepared before hand? If this is a math or science test, how can you be sure the student doesn't have a subscription to a website like cramster and just posted your question and maybe an expert decides to do the work for them? Sure the student got the question right, but is it really their work? It's significantly harder to tell
Now for some content areas a cell phone might not cause those concerns, but what it can do is give students an advantage over others. A student with a smart phone is in a better position then a student without one if students are allowed to use them in an assessment. It's not right to start students off at a better position because their family provided them with what is essentially a pocket computer.
Just my thoughts and concerns over the situation.
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