Hello Everyone, As a philosophy instructor, I agree with much Bob says here. The goal in much of what I teach is not to coerce students into memorizing vast amounts of information. It is to have them understand ideas and concepts, see relations between concepts and to use these concepts and relations in a variety of ways. I use papers, open book exams, take home exams to help them learn to do this. Take home exams that require students to solve problems and to think rigorously and in original ways are challenging in spite of, and maybe more challenging because of, all the databases on the internet. Smart pens just are not smart enough, at least at this point. The paragraph on honesty is also something I agree with. I try to be honest with my students and I try to present them with reasons to be honest with me and with themselves. When the SPI forms asks whether the I treat students with respect, I interpret this as meaning, in part, that I respect them enough that I apply high standards of integrity in my classes and I expect them to meet them. Are students dishonest? Of course, at times, they are. We should be aware of this and make sure that their are consequences. However, for me the goal is to try to have them see the value of personal integrity. Of course this raises significant questions about accountability and assessment. Tough and thankless? Multiple choice tests from test banks about what philosophers have said and argued for would be much easier than what I do. This is where the issues in the second paragraph come into play for us. What are our standards? What do we want to accomplish? Apologies if I have blown this into a whole other set of issues. I see all of this from the perspective of my rather peculiar disciplinary commitments. Michael Koch From: <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: Teaching Breakfast List <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:53:44 -0500 To: <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Let Me Know When You See One - Posted to TB List by Jim Greenberg Hi all, Is this really a problem? I remember as a student having great expectations for open book tests - I wouldn't need to know anything, just look it up. Was I surprised to learn that you need to know a lot to look things up, not to mention the time factor. I quickly learned that I needed as much preparation (perhjaps more) for a good open book test than for a closed book one. If exams merely require students to regurgitate facts, then I suppose this device is a potential problem. If exams require students to do something with the data, then I believe the threat is much less. (Perhaps I don't understand enough aboput what this device does.) I also believe that more needs to be done to encourage students to work honestly. This is crucial for their own growth and development, and also for the world in general. If teachers don't do this, the "me first" approach will rapidly become "me only." I believe we see much of this in the business and political world already, and would hate to see it get worse. Being retired, it is easy for me to write this; implementation may be tough (not to mention generally thankless). Bob -----Original Message----- From: Teaching Breakfast List on behalf of Jim Greenberg Sent: Tue 11/13/2007 9:25 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Let Me Know When You See One - Posted to TB List by Jim Greenberg Tbers, What would you do if a student came to class with one of these to take notes? http://www.flyworld.com/whatis/index.html Mr. James B. Greenberg Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center Milne Library SUNY College at Oneonta Oneonta, New York 13820 blog: The 32nd Square at http://aristotle.oneonta.edu/37_the_32nd_square email: [log in to unmask] phone: 607-436-2701 fax: 607-436-3081 IM: oneontatltc "Ignorance is curable, stupidity lasts forever"