“the EQAO plans to provide the province’s educators with more explicit test-giving directions”

great, more work for well-paid bureaucrats. Here’s a hint - use pictures for clarity.

re: consequences for cheaters - that’s what the outcome usually is when the investigation is “in house”. Perhaps the EQAO knew all along that the consequences were moot and that’s why they released this story in the first place?

When my children were in school, I didn’t like most of the teachers’ attutides about their work; their refusal to respect authority; their sense of entitlement; etc.  They were not people whom I wanted setting an example for any children.  Now children are also learning that it’s OK to cheat, and their phones are welcome in classrooms!  Having such poor role models and very few rules is bad for our children, and society as a whole.  I am glad however to see though that some teachers are actually coming forward and disagreeing with the status quo.

Todays cellphone is also a calculator, a translation devise for ESL students, a dictionary, a calendar, a TDL, a planner, an atlas, a thesaurus, etc. It is in effect a small laptop. Keeping them out of class no longer makes sense.

Isn’t that wonderful!  Today’s cell phones are also very distracting.  Calculators shouldn’t even be allowed.

Cell phones although useful, not at all particular valuable doing school work in the classroom. Much quicker to look it up in the text book, or dictionary.Great for distraction, being bored, or cheating. As for translation, it all depends on the application, Some are good, some are so-so and others are just poor. Calculators are being relied on far too often, where children do not have a solid foundation in basic arithmetic facts. Their reliance on the calculators to do simple calculations, actually makes them less efficient and takes a longer time to complete one problem, compared to students who do have a solid foundation in basic arithmetic facts.

Dean,

Believe what you will.  No one is here arguing against anything that will improve student performance.

Your assertion that cellphones have other uses is simplistic, reiterates failed policies, and ignores their detrimental effect.  For the past three decades, students have had enough technology thrown at them to choke an elephant - and their reading comprehension and numeracy are worse than ever.  Yet the ministry keeps telling us to use even more technology.  Geez, you would have thought that after a quarter of a century even the MOE would catch on.

I write all of this as a computer science/math teacher.  I have not seen technology improve any student’s comprehension in anything (except computer science).  The Ministry approves math textbooks that use computer programs to illustrate trigonometry.  I have watched students struggle for hours (yes, even with step by step written instructions) to get a right-angled triangle drawn on the computer, then try to get the program to calculate the TAN of 30 degrees.  They could have done it much quicker, and learned more if they had used a paper, pencil and ruler.