Smart Devices, Dumb Students and Exam Cheating.

Smart devices, dumb students and exam cheating. A title which is, admittedly, a little unfair to dumb students, many of whom at least have the decency to fail honestly. In this episode of Mark and Pete, we look at the growing problem of exam cheating in Britain, as Ofqual warns that pupils are using smart glasses, hidden earpieces, internet-connected watches and other tiny electronic contraptions to smuggle answers into GCSE and A-level examinations. The old method involved scribbling dates on your wrist and hoping the invigilator was short-sighted. Now, apparently, one arrives wearing a discreet branch of Currys. More than 1.3 million students are sitting major public examinations this year, and although the overwhelming majority will behave perfectly well, proven student malpractice remains stubbornly high. Mobile phones and communication devices account for a large share of cases, with thousands of incidents involving unauthorised technology, removed marks and, in the more spectacular examples, complete disqualification. Pete and Mark ask whether schools and exam boards can possibly keep pace with smart glasses, invisible earbuds, AI-generated coursework and supposedly leaked examination papers appearing online. Some alleged leaks are genuine security concerns. Others are simply scams aimed at nervous teenagers, because even fraudsters understand that panic is wonderfully profitable. But beneath the gadgets lies a rather older problem. Cheating offers achievement without learning, credentials without character and a grade which belongs, in some peculiar sense, to the machine concealed in your shoe. It also punishes honest pupils, weakens trust in qualifications and leaves universities and employers wondering whether an impressive result represents knowledge, artificial intelligence or unusually talkative spectacles. Our Bible verse is Proverbs 20:17: “Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.” The shortcut may seem clever. The certificate may even arrive. Yet eventually comes the awkward moment when somebody expects you to know the thing your smart glasses knew on your behalf. Technology has become smarter. Human nature, rather less impressively, has remained much the same.