Here’s something that was bound to happen, but sure, let’s all blame the Apple Watch for it. Some schools and colleges in Britain have put a ban on smartwatches to be worn into an examination hall, citing concerns about students’ use of the wearable for cheating on a test or exam. Details to follow after the jump.
These concerns by school and college administrations are pretty legit, considering there’s a looming anticipation about a significant growth in the currently slow smartwatch market following the release of the Apple Watch in April. These concerns are pretty valid, not just given the standalone features that watches have, like catching up on some quick notes, but the most grave one revolves around how the smartwatches today link up with our phones, providing us with secondary means to communicate over the Internet with others.
It can be hard to tell during an exam if a student is simply checking up on the time or having a peek at an answer that was just received as a message from a friend. You could be sharing it further, right from your watch with your phone neatly tucked away in a container without anyone else’s knowledge.
The move is similar to banning phones in exam rooms, and as such, students are not barred from wearing a smartwatch into a class. As of now, the University of London, and the City University in London have put this practice into motion with students required to remove not just their smartwatch, but any watch they might be wearing, before entering the exam room. If you’re wondering how much of a risk can your Swatch really be, have you seen how fashionable the Apple Watch is? Even the Moto 360 and the LG Watch R happen to be quite the lookers. The move is to completely remove all forms of confusion and doubts across the board.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the countries which are yet to ban such contraptions from the exam hall, should look at this as a sign of things to come, and start investing some time in their studies because these watches can only take you so far for now.
What do you make of this? Do you believe that smartwatches – or any wearable in general – should be banned in an examination hall? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
(Source: BuzzFeed)
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