As if using the internet to plagiarize term papers isn’t enough for today’s teachers to be concerned about, six University of Maryland students have admitted to a new wrinkle in the realm of technology-aided cheating: using their cell phones to access answer keys while taking an exam.

In a case that surprised university officials, a total of 12 students were accused of using the text messaging functions on their cell phones to receive messages from people outside the College Park, Md., campus exam hall during a December accounting exam. Those aiding the students accessed answer keys posted on the internet by a professor once the exam began.

But the students unwittingly fell into a sting set up faculty members, who suspected exam-takers were accessing the answer key. The business school professors posted a fake answer key, then checked the exams to see which matched the bogus answers.

It appears most of the 12 students hatched the plan independently of each other and were not connected, said John Zacker, head of the university’s office of judicial programs. The school has seen a few similar cases before, but Zacker said this is the largest scheme uncovered on campus involving cell phones.

“We’ve had isolated cases in past semesters, but not in these numbers,” he said. The case highlights the ongoing struggle schools face as they try to keep up with technologically savvy students. Some students, for example, troll the internet to find prewritten papers and other material to copy and pass off as their own.

Hitotsubashi University in Japan failed 26 students in December for receiving eMailed exam answers on their cell phones, the Associated Press reported. And in Taiwan, a man was caught Jan. 24 receiving questions from students taking a university admissions exam. The man wanted to use the questions to start a school to train students for the test.

The scope of the University of Maryland case is unprecedented nationally, said Diane Waryold, executive director of Duke University’s Center for Academic Integrity. It’s also a sign that students might have a technological edge on their older instructors.

“It’s a generational issue,” she said. “It’s safe to say our students are far more [technologically] sophisticated.”

The six University of Maryland students who confessed will fail the class and have a mark placed on their transcript that indicates they cheated. Five others either met with school officials or are awaiting trial by the school’s student honor council.

The 12th student died over the winter break. Zacker did not know the circumstances surrounding the death and would not release the student’s name, citing privacy laws. The council is also looking for the people who sent the text messages to exam-takers. Some of those found so far were not university students, Zacker said.

The number of students caught cheating at the university has risen recently, from 97 cases in the fall semester of 2001 to 156 cases in the fall semester of 2002, Zacker said.

But the use of cell phones—many of which allow users to communicate using text messages—is a relatively new twist. Many phones allow the messages to be passed back and forth silently to avoid detection. The accounting exam, for example, was monitored by proctors walking the aisles who failed to notice the cheating.

Howard Frank, dean of the business school, said the fake test was posted after professors suspected students were using similar tactics during exams earlier in the semester.

In response to the cheating, Maryland Provost William Destler sent a letter to faculty over the weekend recommending they not post answer keys while an exam is ongoing. However, the school has no plans to bar students from bringing cell phones to class, Zacker said.

Links:

University of Maryland
http://www.umd.edu

Center for Academic Integrity
http://www.academicintegrity.org

To combat a growing shortage of certified math and science teachers nationwide, at least one company is using videoconferencing technology to link states and school districts with prospective teachers overseas.

The program provides a quick fix for schools scrambling to fill vacant teaching slots with highly qualified candidates as required under the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind Act. But the nation’s largest teachers union warns the practice does little to erase the high-risk, low-reward stigma that has driven many home-grown educators to work in the private sector.

“It’s understandable that a lot of states are turning to this type of Band-Aid solution,” said Daniel Kaufman, a spokesman for the National Education Association (NEA). “But it’s a question of, how are [schools] going to deal with this [problem] in the long term?”

To staunch the bleeding at Calumet High School in Gary, Ind., Principal Leroy Miller turned to an unusual source to find a new science teacher when someone suddenly quit during the first week of school: India.

Miller tried to find a replacement through all the usual sources, but without luck. “It was getting difficult to find someone,” he said.

The break came when Robert Beach, superintendent of the Lake Ridge school district, learned of an organization called USA Employment, which links teachers in India to jobs in American schools.

The Texas-based company invites schools that have been unable to fill teaching vacancies with highly qualified candidates to take advantage of the service, which links school administrators with prescreened educators from India who have expressed an interest in working in the United States.

The administrators conduct interviews with the candidates by phone, web camera, or videoconferencing technologies set up by the company and make their selections based on the results of these “virtual” interviews, said Jay Kumar, the company’s founder. Before embarking on the interview process, clients also might choose to view several video introductions prepared by potential teachers on the company’s web site.

The organization already has placed teachers in 25 schools within 15 different school districts, Kumar said. Other states that reportedly have benefited from the service include Texas and Connecticut.

The service seems to have received a warm reception in Houston. Educators there just tapped the company to help fill 50 teaching vacancies slated to begin at the end of February, Kumar said. In Houston’s case, the company even arranged to fly a representative from the district to India, where the official was allowed to make his selections in person. But that is only the practice in instances where a district is looking to fill 10 or more vacancies.

For smaller requests, the service relies on its technology.

According to Kumar, the service works because technology allows principals—who normally are confined to making site-based hiring decisions—to look beyond a shrinking national talent pool and consider candidates from abroad, many of whom have more experience, more education, and are better qualified to fill the positions.

“Technology is making the world so small,” he said. “It’s a global village now.”

At Calumet, Miller arranged interactive online interviews with five job candidates.

Frances Pathak, a science teacher with more than 24 years of experience in the city of Bhopal, stood out during the interviews, which were conducted through a special hookup at the Northwest Indiana Education Center in Highland, Ind.

“She impressed us the most,” Miller told the Post-Tribune of Merrillville, Ind.

He and Maryanne Nicks, head of the 650-student high school’s science department, conducted the long-distance interview.

Pathak arrived at Calumet in November, about a month after she was hired.

According to Kumar, it takes up to 15 days for the employee to secure an H1B visa, which enables him or her to stay in the United States for three years with the possibility of a three-year extension. The visa and the extension are important, Kumar said, because it can take up to four years before the employee receives his or her green card, which allows the employee to stay in the country indefinitely.

It would be a mistake for stakeholders to use international recruitment as a means of ignoring worsening problems associated with teacher shortages, NEA’s Kaufman warns. Instead, the nation’s education leaders must make a concerted effort to address such widespread issues as low teacher salaries, poor working environments, and weak educator-assistance programs.

“Funding and training really need to be stepped up,” he said. “To really fill these positions, there needs to be a long-term commitment.”

For Pathak, the transition has been challenging. She brought her 15-year-old son, Aviral, but left her husband and daughter behind in Bhopal, where she said her career had reached a glass ceiling.

“She’s learning about American children, but there’s no question about her ability and knowledge of the subject,” Principal Miller said. “And she has a real sincerity about her that the kids respond to.”

Pathak is living in Hobart, Ind., in an apartment owned by a fellow Calumet High teacher who brings her to school every day. Another teacher takes her shopping until she can buy a car.

After she arrived, Calumet teachers and staff members surprised her with a welcome shower. They provided items to stock her new home, such as kitchen appliances and supplies.

“They thought of everything,” Pathak said. “There was even a cake with an American flag.”

USA Employment recruits its teachers mostly from India. But the company also has offices in Mexico, from which it already has placed two bilingual teachers in Houston schools.

“It’s been a very delightful cultural exchange,” Kumar said. “People really have been so supportive. They realize the sacrifice [these educators from abroad] are making for the betterment of children here.”

Links:

USA Employment
http://www.usaemployment.org/schools.htm

National Education Association
http://www.nea.org

The infusion of technology into an increasingly digital society has created the need for a new form of basic literacy among students, according to leading educators, policy makers, and corporate executives who convened Jan. 24 in Washington, D.C., to discuss the need for 21st-century skills.

Participants agreed integrating technology into school curricula will play a major role in preparing today’s students for success in tomorrow’s workplace, but they cited two significant barriers to moving from policy to practice: first, stakeholders must arrive at a national consensus about how to teach technology literacy in schools, and second, they must secure adequate funding to provide equal access to technology resources for all students.

“Until we can come together as a community and arrive at a definition [of 21st-century literacy], it is going to be hard to pressure stakeholders into action,” said John Bailey, director of technology for the U.S. Department Education. “The purpose of education is to prepare students for their future, not for our past.”

The 2003 Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Literacy Summit, which took place at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, brought stakeholders from across the nation together in an effort to define what skills students will need to be successful in the 21st-century workplace.

“Because technology has become so imbedded in the way the world does business, the difference between a technology company and a non-technology company has virtually disappeared,” said Karen Bruett, summit chair and director of public sector marketing and business development for Dell Computer Corp. “It’s critical to prepare students for this new and rapidly changing economy and for the shift toward a more knowledge-based work force.”

According to a 2002 study called Digital Transformation: A Framework for ICT Literacy, ICT literacy is defined as “using digital technology, communications tools, and/or networks to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information in order to function in a knowledge society.”

The report—sponsored by Educational Testing Service (ETS) and conducted by the International ICT Literacy Panel, a group of nine representatives from the business and educational fields—outlined five basic skills necessary to achieve ICT literacy:

• The ability to access information in the digital era;

• Knowledge of how to manage information effectively;

• The ability to interpret and integrate the results of research;

• The ability to evaluate the quality of these results; and

• The ability to create new information by adapting, applying, designing, inventing, or authoring information.

During the summit, stakeholders from both the private and public sectors identified three basic necessities for an effective ICT literacy campaign in schools: professional development in IT (information technology) for teachers; equal access to technology resources for students; and strategic relationships between educational institutions and corporate partners.

“We need to devote resources that allow students to understand how to better utilize the technology,” said Kurt Landgraf, chief executive officer of ETS. “It’s one thing if you can turn [a computer] on, but can you use if effectively?”

Throughout the discussion, participants communicated a vision of ICT literacy that calls on students not only to use technology in the classroom, but also to understand how technology can influence the way that they live in society.

“Putting computers in the classroom is not the issue, it’s how we use those computers to utilize the information that is out there,” Landgraf said in a mid-morning panel discussion.

Experts agreed that ICT literacy among students is contingent on stakeholders’ ability to identify and close existing gaps in America’s schools—from disparate levels of technology access, to mastery of core subjects and skills.

They also called on leaders from the private sector to define for educators what skills students will need to make it in the rapidly changing landscape of tomorrow’s technology-driven work force.

Teaching students to be ICT-literate is a challenge for educators, many of whom are less familiar with the latest digital innovations than their students. That’s why schools must invest heavily in IT training initiatives that teach educators how to integrate technology literacy components into existing lessons, experts said.

“The biggest challenge right now is how we teach the curriculum,” said Don Knezek, chief executive officer of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Educators, he said, must understand that teaching technology literacy is a question of integration and should not be viewed as separate from the existing curricula.

One strategic path some schools are taking to integrate technology literacy into the fabric of everyday learning is the implementation of personal laptop computers in schools.

That approach has worked to great effect for educators in Henrico County, Va. A pioneer of the laptop movement in schools, Henrico over the last two years has supplied wireless laptops to more than 23,000 middle and high school students throughout the district.

According to Superintendent Mark Edwards, it’s an investment that already is paying dividends where ICT literacy is concerned.

Originally, technology education in schools was limited by the amount of class time allotted during a given school day, he said. But thanks to the addition of wireless laptops, students can continue acquainting themselves with the technology from home, a sporting event, or wherever else life after class leads them.

“The students have an affinity to use these tools,” Edwards said. “You learn by being involved.”

The success of Henrico’s laptop initiative to date is representative of a paradigm shift in education, moving from traditional classroom instruction to interactive eLearning activities, panelists said.

But in light of the fact that states nationwide are mired in the worst economic crisis since World War II, some educators argue that it will be a long time before schools nationwide can commit to the same type of high-dollar technology investments at work in Henrico.

Still, summit panelists said there are smaller, more cost-effective steps that schools can take.

Joe Simpson, deputy for leadership services and professional development at the Council of Chief State School Officers, urged educators to partner with government agencies and institutions of higher learning to create interconnected virtual networks where information, training programs, and educational resources can be shared at little cost to schools.

Corporate partners, too, are providing resources to teach technology skills in schools. Initiatives such as Dell’s TechKnow program—which allows students who complete 40 hours of coursework to earn computers for their homes—provide a unique opportunity for students to learn about technology literacy, while doing their part to bridge the technology access gap in schools.

The program, which employs students to build computers from the ground up, teaches kids how to make computer repairs, perform upgrades, and install software—all skills technology employers say are critical for success in tomorrow’s work place.

Other companies, such as Microsoft Corp., also are getting into the act. At a press conference during the summit, the software giant announced it would donate 4,000 Windows XP operating systems to run on computers built by students in Dell’s program.

Also at the summit, ETS and ISTE announced a partnership to jointly develop ICT literacy assessment and professional development programs. The materials will incorporate ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), which currently are used by 44 states as part of their ed-tech plans or standards.

Links:

ICT Literacy Summit
http://www.ictliteracy.info

Dell Computer Corp.
http://www.dell.com

Microsoft Corp.
http://www.microsoft.com

U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov

Educational Testing Service
http://www.ets.org

International Society for Technology in Education
http://www.iste.org

A proposal that President Bush plans to include in his forthcoming budget for fiscal year 2004 might give school leaders an extra tool in their effort to compete with the high-tech sector to recruit and retain highly qualified math and science instructors.

Bush wants to more than triple the aid offered to college graduates who agree to teach math, science, and special education classes in poor schools, enough for many to wipe out their federal student loans.

The president’s proposal would forgive up to $17,500 in debt for teachers who enter fields known for chronic teacher shortages and fast turnover. Prospective teachers in those areas often look for work outside public schools because of many school systems’ relatively low pay.

“Frankly, it’s Economics 101,” Deputy Education Secretary William Hansen said Jan. 21. “The private sector will search out folks with math and science degrees in a very aggressive way, and that is the biggest challenge we have.”

A math teacher’s salary, for example, falls more than $15,000 below that of a statistician or an engineer, according to department figures. Intense workplace pressures make special education courses particularly hard to fill as specialists opt for general education or other careers.

Current law allows teachers in poor areas to have $5,000 in loans erased if they work for five consecutive years.

The Bush proposal maintains the five-year work requirement but limits the increased benefits to those in math, science, and special education. The administration settled on the $17,500 figure because that’s the average amount of federal debt owed by today’s graduates, Hansen said.

The proposal applies only to federal loans.

Schools across America face fundamental problems of quantity and quality in teaching. Teacher retirements and student enrollments combined will produce an estimated shortfall of 2 million educators over 10 years, and the Bush education program requires high-quality teachers of core subjects by 2005-06.

The department estimates the existing loan program will help 38,000 students who will begin their college education next year. Of those, 7,000 are expected to become math, science, or special education teachers and could be eligible for the expanded aid.

Bush’s loan-forgiveness plan resurrects an idea that he and lawmakers have championed before. The House approved a broader version last fall, proposed by former Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., but it died in the Senate.

Graham, now in the Senate, said he expects Bush and Congress to embrace a more expansive offer. Graham’s version would extend the increased loan forgiveness to teachers of any subject in traditionally poor schools and to special education teachers in any school.

Teachers would have to maintain their certification to remain eligible.

“What the taxpayers need to understand is you’re not giving people money,” Graham said. “People are having their loans forgiven by having to work five years.”

Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Senate’s education committee, said: “The good news is President Bush recognizes that there is a national crisis when it comes to our teacher shortage, especially in the most challenged schools. … However, as we saw with similar Republican proposals last year, if there is no real money behind the increase in teacher loan forgiveness, it’s just another empty promise to the nation’s schools, teachers, and students.”

Expanding loan help for teachers, particularly those serving poor areas, would be a welcome recruitment tool, said Kim Anderson, a lobbyist for the National Education Association. A comprehensive package, including bigger tax deductions for teachers and more aid for professional development, is what the union wants from federal leaders.

Under the Bush plan, current teachers, not just new ones, would be eligible provided that they meet the criteria, Education Department spokeswoman Jane Glickman said. To be eligible, teachers must have taken out at least some of their loans after Oct. 1, 1998.

The program is expected to cost $70 million a year.

Links:

White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov

U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov

National Education Association
http://www.nea.org