Cheating is a major problem worldwide, especially in college, vocational training, and military entrance exams.
India's northernmost states of Jammu and Kashmir are solving the problem of cheating by installing 800 mobile phone signal jammers in testing centers throughout the state.
A recent high-profile case illustrates this problem: Wasim Ahmed, an Indian student from Nawab Shah Engineering College, was found cheating. He put a smartphone in his underwear, a microphone in his shirt, and a Bluetooth receiver in his ears. He whispered these questions to the allies over the phone, who gave him the answers.
Behaviors like Ahmed have been repeated around the world, although the details may vary.
Earlier this month, a scandal broke out in the medical school of Rangsit University in Thailand. Four students were found cheating in the entrance examination. Two of them were wearing glasses with built-in cameras, and three were wearing smartwatches. Glasses took photos of the test questions. During the break, the candidate returns the glasses to the photographer and sends the photos to the allies of the temporary "command center" in other places. The colleague studied the problem and sent a text message to the candidate, who can see the text message on their smartwatch. The good news is that they have been captured. (This is not
The problem of internet connected devices being used for cheating is so serious that Iraq has actually shut down most of the country's internet to prevent sixth grade students from cheating.
Internet assisted cheating seems to be a major issue. But the real problem is that most exams are built around an outdated learning concept. If cheaters can cheat by obtaining data from the internet, then there is no reason to remember this information from the beginning.
We are all becoming information superheroes, with real-time instant messaging and communication, artificial intelligence robots, and all the knowledge in the world at our fingertips.
At the same time, our most advanced computers cannot be compared with the human brain, and may never be compared with the human brain, although futurists always tell us so. When we teach and test human creativity instead of human memory, everyone lives better and cheating becomes outdated.
Alternatively, even better, all exams should be "open smartphone" exams, where the ability to use smartphones to study facts, details, and answers is a part of the test content. Because this is how the world operates now. The students taking the exam today will always live in a world without mobile internet.
When people use cell phone jammer, they almost always try to solve a different and larger problem than what they think is being solved.
In fact, smartphones do exist. There is wireless communication. You can access the internet from anywhere.
