Schools Starting to Ban iPods

Almost a year ago, I wrote an article about students using their gadgets to cheat in class. At the time, banning cell phones in the classroom was a hot topic once teachers discovered students using the phone's camera and text messaging capabilities to cheat on tests. While some schools succeeded at banning cell phones from the classroom, the majority of them simply asked students to leave them in the locker before heading to class or risk having them confiscated. Now it appears small gadgets in the classroom are once again being scrutinized across the country, and the iPod is a main target this time around.

An AP report (Schools Banning iPods to beat cheaters) says schools in Mountain View, Seattle, and even Ontario, Canada have already enacted a ban on digital media players after students were caught downloading cheat notes onto their iPods. One student said kids use voice recorders to record test answers before exams, while another says students have been known to download notes and hide them in the "lyrics" text files.

It was only a couple of years ago that a number of universities handed out free iPods to students so they could download lectures at their own leisure. Now they're banning them? In my opinion, it doesn't matter how much technology they ban from the classroom because students who want to cheat will always find a way to do it. Ban tech, and they'll just go back to passing notes or writing answers on the brim of their baseball caps because that's what cheating students do. I don't believe schools should completely ban technology from the classroom, but instead work on ways to enforce their rules on tech or start surprising students with impromptu tests. That'll get them to learn. What do you think?

Related:
Is Tech Making Cheating Easy?
Should Cellphones Go to School?
Teachers Put iPods to Work
Getting in Gear...But is the Gear Allowed?