Brave New World: Technology Vs. Tradition

Teachers and students have mixed reactions to the idea of taking an exam on the iPad.

Last week, the Talon met up with CB students Winston Limhengco (’14) and Odin Phenix (’14) to get their thoughts about taking tests on their iPads.

This is the first semester that students at Christian Brothers High School were required to purchase iPads for academic use. In the past, students have taken their tests and quizzes with paper and pencil, but this year the school is trying to switch it up.

Coming into this year, Winston felt like the teachers wouldn’t really use the iPads for tests. His conjecture was not actually that for off.

“Only about one of my teachers actually use them [for exam],” the senior remarked.

Several other students all seemed to come the same conclusion. Odin and Winston agree that teachers don’t use iPads for exams due to three main reasons: teachers either don’t fully understand how to use them, are limited by the subject they teach, or think students can cheat too easily on the iPads.

Teachers are still trying to get used to the leap in technology that our school has undertaken. Teachers at Christian Brothers have had to undergo the change from using simple pencil and paper test taking methods to extremely elaborate and versatile compact tablets. These tablets can access information about almost any subject in just a few swipes.

With such easy access to the internet, the Talon asked Winston and Odin if they thought it was more tempting to cheat.

Winston felt like it is “way more tempting to just go look up the answers”. With such easy access to the internet the temptation to cheat is definitely way greater. Although temptation is one main concern of many teachers, it may not actually cause students to cheat more.

Odin agreed that it is definitely more tempting to cheat on an iPad compared to paper, he also argued that it is actually much harder to do so, commenting that teachers can “see your hand movements”, which would make it easier to tell if someone is cheating.

Generally while taking a test students should have very basic motions and gestures. As the only thing a student should be doing is bubbling answers it is very apparent if he or she is off task.

Overall iPads offer a very large amount of new possibilities. Some of these teachers will try to use the iPads to their full potential and be forced to work out an assortment of kinks. Other teachers will only use the iPads minimally and rely more on the traditional pen and paper test taking methods.

Either way, there is definitely room for improvement with iPads and students are excited to see all the different uses and innovations our teachers will be able to create for this school year.