CSNbbs

Darn those meddling school administrators... :laugh:

Quote:School Foils Cheats by Blocking Phone Signals

1 hour, 35 minutes ago  Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo!

ROME (Reuters) - Mobile phone-savvy teenagers tempted to cheat their way through exams by sending text messages or scanning pictures of tests could be thwarted by a device that jams signals inside the school walls.
 
The Enrico Tosi Technical Institute school in northern Italy has found a way to foil the next generation of would-be tricksters with the help of military technology.

"Most schools try and confiscate phones before exams, but this way we can be sure nobody slips through," said Benedetto Di Rienzo, the head of the school in Busto Arsizio which is testing the devices for the Education Ministry during exams this week.

The box-like units, called C-Guard, were developed by experts from the military and defense industries for Netline Communications Technologies. They jam signals in an 80-meter (262-foot) radius in enclosed spaces.

They could eventually be installed across Italy to prevent cheating during university exams.

Di Rienzo said they have been so successful that the school plans to start using them during regular classes -- a measure likely to ruffle feathers in mobile phone-obsessed Italy where not even the teachers like to be left incommunicado.

"We hope to keep complaints to a minimum by turning the instruments off during lunch breaks," he said.

very cool. Cell phone jamming. I think our school could use that to stop incomming calls during class.

back in my day, cell phones were big with no text/photo messenging

When I was in high school, people werent allowed to have cell phones or pagers (do people even use pagers anymore?) because it they were associated with drug dealers. Cell phone use has grow exponentially since then. But im not sure if they are allowed to have them in school now or not. Its amazing how much things have changed in just 4 years.