Crib sheets must no longer be folded and hidden up sleeves or read on a student's knee while taking tests. Smaller, more powerful wireless phones now resemble computers in their multi-function applications and some students are using them unethically in university classrooms.
A recent push by a committee in the Mississippi State University faculty senate aims to ban phones in all classrooms. This resolution will likely appear before the full MSU faculty senate later this semester.
The University of Memphis code of student conduct currently has no policy specifically directed at wireless phone use or possession in University classrooms.
"I have not received any cases pertaining to students using cell phones to cheat," said Dwayne Scott, associate dean of student affairs or judicial and ethical programs at The U of M. "To my knowledge there are no organized movements regarding cell phones in classrooms."
New concerns about students using phones to cheat are focused on the camera and messaging functions available on many wireless handsets.Pictures and text input could allow a student to create the equivalent of a digital crib sheet to take into an examination or record test material to give to another student.
When asked about technology-assisted cheating in the classroom, U of M associate physics professor John Hanneken said that he'd seen it on television.
"I've never heard of any instances of it here," Hanneken said. "A good policy would be 'If I see a cell phone out during an examination, you fail the examination.'"
Many course syllabi at The U of M include policies addressing wireless phones in the classroom.
An introduction to management course syllabus in the Fogelman College of Business and Economics states, "All beepers and cell phones will be turned off before entering the classroom and not be turned back on until after class is over."
One U of M student said a math professor was explicit about his phone use policy.
"Someone was caught text messaging test answers across the classroom in the past," said Travis Green, a sophomore history major. "Phones still ring occasionally in class, but they are turned off quickly when people get the evil eye."
Other U of M students don't see the possibility of cell phone-assisted cheating as a potential problem.
"I don't know anyone who has used their cell phone to cheat in class," said Charlotte Tinker, sophomore education major. "As far as phones going off, it's not really a problem in my classes."
Dwayne Scott said that he hasn't received any reports from faculty about wireless phones causing distractions in classrooms.
"For the most part, I think that this is an issue that professors and instructors are regulating in their own classrooms," Scott said.Professors who see the issue as a major concern are dealing with it on a class-by-class basis since there is no blanket U of M policy.Students know to turn them off, but phones continue to ring in the classroom, Hanneken said.
"I don't see any sort of ban on cell phones as the answer," he said. "We've got enough rules here."
