Looking for a place to start? I highly recommend this book:

Cheating in School: What We Know and What We Can Do

Much of today’s talk came from this book.  For example, here are a few quotes from the book that caught my eye:

Persistent student cheating may corrupt a child’s character and lead to a devaluing of trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and honesty as fundamentals in a just society.

[cheating in school] may form a habit that persists and transitions into an adult’s work and life habits

• For teachers, many ways and reasons to cheat on tests – USATODAY.com
• Video: How to cheat in a test using a coke bottle!
• Video: CBS Early Show: Hi-Tech Cheating Poll and related article
• Hi-Tech Cheating: Cell Phones and Cheating in Schools (A National Poll)

If students are led to focus on ‘how well’ they’re doing more than on ‘what’ they’re doing, they may do whatever they think is necessary to make it look as though they’re succeeding.
-Who’s Cheating Whom? by Alfie Kohn (Phi Delta Kappan)

Schools fail to reward, and in some way discourage, good behavior on the part of the students. When so much emphasis is placed on grades and individual achievement, the system seems to breed dishonesty. Students learn to succeed by all means possible, even if this means compromising their integrity to obtain high grades.
-Denise Clark Pope (Doing School)

It’s not the dumb kids who cheat… it’s the kids with a 4.6 grade-point average who are under so much pressure to keep their grades up and get into the best colleges. They’re the ones who are smart enough to figure out how to cheat without getting caught.
-Everybody Does It by an anonymous student (SFGate.com)

Some children and their parents have convinced themselves that they have to be superstars and go to Harvard, Stanford, or Brown to have a worthwhile life. This attitude leads to cheating by the most qualified, not the least qualified, students in some schools.
-Who Says Cheaters Never Win? by Kirk O. Hanson (Stanford Knowledgebase)

• Audio: Cheating In College Is Widespread — But Why? (NPR)

“The top’s cheating to thrive, the bottom’s cheating to survive…”
-Don McCabe

• Junie B., First Grader: Cheater Pants (Junie B. Jones, No. 21) by Barbara Park
• Cheating: Here, There, Everywhere (PBS Kids GO!)
• Dan Ariely
  • Books: Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality
  • Video: Why we think it’s OK to cheat

• Video: Teachers not in the room, let’s cheat!
• Don’t claim what isn’t your work
• South Korean human cloning pioneer ‘admits to fake evidence’
• Embryo cloning cheat resigns in disgrace

Science is not received wisdom, but informed guesswork. It may well be wrong. That’s life. Besides, what’s the alternative? To substitute our own gut feelings for scientific analysis, flawed though it may be? We should always be willing to question the outcomes of science, but we should be even more willing to question ourselves.
-In praise of scientific error by George Musser (Scientific American)

• Video: Candle Power
• Power Balance gets slapped in Australia
• Mythbusters Forums

…the more we focus on all the clever ways youngsters can cheat, the more likely we are to ignore the fact that the biggest single factor in escalating academic dishonesty is the failure of parents and teachers to diligently teach, enforce, advocate, and model personal integrity. It’s the adults, not the kids, who have the greatest responsibility to create an ethical culture that nurtures the virtues of honor, honesty, and fairness.
-Cheating Isn’t the Problem by Michael Josephson (Character Counts)

However, I approve of most of the use (as shown below).

Yet, a few students have tried to sneak texting sessions at the wrong time. At first I was disappointed. I thought, “We had an agreement.”

However, I quickly remembered that my students are still getting use to their new found freedoms.

From now on, I plan to give a “gadgets in school” speech every few weeks. Like most rules, we all need reminders from time to time.

It would be "illogical" to go without it

Just imagine if Spock’s Vulcan school had restrictions like our cell phone bans when he was growing up.

We’d all be speaking Klingon!

Photo from Blaise Alleyne - http://flic.kr/p/6xJSQL

After working on a presentation for my students about using mobile devices in school, there are a few things I’ve decided to emphasize when I talk to them at the start of new school year.

1. Teachers can usually tell when students are sneaking looks at their mobile devices.
2. When they’re using a mobile device, I’m going to expect students to ask themselves, “Is this really the right time?”
3. If they have to sneak, it is the wrong time to be using a mobile device in class.

So when is it okay to use mobile devices in class? Simple. Anytime teachers think that it can help students learn.

Mobile devices have quickly become part of our daily life. A quick text message can put sites like Google to work for our students without a trip to the computer lab. More and more students will start the new school year with smart phones that run apps that make text messaging look like a stone tablet when we look at how engaging and functional they are. We need to put these devices to good use.

The trade-off for integrating these tools into the classroom is that we’ll have to teach students when it is and is not appropriate to use mobile devices in class.  I think these lessons are worth it. And who knows, maybe our lessons in restraint will stick with students when they’re at movie theaters, restaurants, dinner tables, or even their own graduation ceremony.

Make Ear Contact

A few weeks ago I went on vacation in New York City. Naturally, I used the subway as my major mode of transportation. There’s an unwritten rule on the subway- no eye contact. I’m not saying New Yorkers are unfriendly but people keep to themselves while in transit by staring off into space or keep their head down in an exhausted stance.

New since my last NYC visit is the increased use of headphones. It looks like the new rule is don’t make ear contact. I suppose it’s good practice if you want a peaceful, uninterrupted commute to your next destination but it’s not a behavior you should employ when interacting with other.

Yet I see more and more students doing this. They’ll come to me before school and try to talk to me with headphones still in their ears. I’ve seen students walking home from school with plugged ears while carrying out a conversation. It’s like telling your friend, “I’m listening to you until my iPod serves up something better.”

We’ll no more. The new Gadget School rule is Make Ear Contact.

Explain to students that it is rude to talk to others with headphones on. When in conversation, they must give others their full attention. Eyes AND ears.

Every movie, musical and play starts with a reminder for us to turn off gadgets such as cellphones. I think we should do this in our classrooms too. The gadgets our students carry are not going away. Exclaiming that “they shouldn’t even have them in class” isn’t realistic. We must work with these devices. Schools need to stop the bad technology behavior not the technology. 

Enter Gadget School. If we don’t show students proper gadget etiquette, who will? Just imagine restaurants in the future if we don’t teach tomorrow’s diners that it is not okay to jabber away on your cellphone between the salad and the main course. 

Here are a few simply Gadget School posters to get things start.

Please Silence Your Cellphones

Silencing a cellphone seems like common sense. Or is it? Some students put their phone on vibrate but during a quiz this can still be noisy. Talk to your students. Let them know that you’re trying to ban distractions not devices.

Ask permission to record others

Insist that students ask before they take pictures, record audio or grab a video using their gadget. It’s rude to record others without their knowledge. Students need to learn this or our future will be one giant paparazzi world.

That’s it for Gadget School for now but there will be more to come. Please share your suggests for other Gadget School topics in the comments below.

Trying to enter grades on a laptop is a nightmare and it really slows you down. But never fear, there’s always a gadget to the rescue.

Pick up one of these keypads to give your fingers the extra space they need.

Go Cheap (Numeric Keypad with Retractable Cable – $18.99)

Go Wireless (Logitech Cordless Number Pad – $32.30)

Go Crazy (USB Wireless Keypad with Track Ball – $37.00)

I think the Flip camcorders are a little overhyped. It might be a great little camcorder to carry in your pocket for a night out on the town but we’re not sending our students to shoot video in the clubs. If you’re looking to just record short video clips, many affordable digital cameras can do the job and you’ll be able to use that camera to take great still images too. Here are a few reasons why I don’t flip for the Flip:

• No removable battery: Yes, you can recharge it but when the Flip’s non-replaceable battery stops holding it’s charge you’re finished. School shelling out money for the Flip might think twice if they knew the Flip’s days are numbered. (UPDATE: Flip’s older model- the Ultra- uses AA batteries)
• Missing expandable memory: Need more memory? Too bad. Flip’s memory is also non-replaceable. I want a camera that you can pop memory cards in and out of.  Then you can have students record video, take out their card for editing and pass the camera on to the next group so they can start recording with another memory card while the other group is editing.
• Too expensive: starting at $150 and going up and over $200, the Flips are too expensive for their limited set of features. Instead, spend your money on a digital camera that also does video or you might want to consider spending $300 on a real digital camcorder.

If you must have a camcorder with the flip-out USB feature, check out the Kodak Zi6. This camcorder is slightly bigger but it has an expandable memory slot and macro mode. It’s powered by standard rechargeable AA batteries and it comes with a free charger. The Zi6 is a little cheaper too.

Check out these video reviews to see how the Zi6 compares to the Flip models.