detect Mobile phones From The BBC

[ianniow]

Schools are being sold detection equipment to catch mobile phones used secretly in exam rooms by students
BBC News - Hi-tech battle with mobile phone exam cheats

[RabbieBurns]

Its for times like exams they should legitimise Jammers.

I bought a wifi jammer and a mobile phone/3g/gps jammer from asia... great fun playing with them and even used research from the wifi one in my dissertation, but unfortunatley theyre highly illegal ;p

[maniac]

We've been using them here for years, two little white boxes on the walls of the exam hall that pick up the signal type used by a mobile phone and then announce very loudly in an irritating voice that a mobile phone has been detected in the room. Obviously they can be switched off when the room's not being used for an exam. The only problem is if someone walks past the hall with a mobile it can trigger them, but it's supposed to be out of bounds when there's an exam on anyway.

Mike.

[john]

That would be annoying for me, and other staff who have them that keep them on even in exam halls as we are on-call for exam problems etc when needed.

[enjay]

Remember this is broader than just mobile phones - as the article says, MP3 players could also be used to cheat.

The limitation of the detectors which Maniac describes (I've seen them in hospitals before, too) is that they only work within a few metres for a phone which is turned on so the student could turn their phone on once they were sat at their desk.

@John - what do the exam regs say about invigilators having mobile phones, or being "on call" to other bits of the school while invigilating? Assuming it wasn't okay, or the signal was blocked, it presumably wouldn't be impossible for a message to be sent to someone nearby who then walks in. Our Admin Office is right by the exam room, and someone must always be in there during an exam, to either relay urgent messages in if needed, or to respond to the 'big red panic button'.

[Gibbo]

@John - what do the exam regs say about invigilators having mobile phones, or being "on call" to other bits of the school while invigilating?

That was my concern too. We have a hard-wired telephone and 2-way radios, and it's always been that way at previous schools.

[john]

We have a telephone in our main exam hall, well do now I've installed one, but before that used mobile phones as two way radios are bad in our building and it stayed at the front of the room and was for use in an emergency. We do ALAN tests in our school and for instance I set the exam off with the invigilator but then go back to my day to day work, they have to be able to reach an IT Person so have to call me, which they use my mobile for which is fine but I could be in a normal exam taking in extra paper or something thus my phone go off as its on still.

Put it this way I don't sit there in the exam on the phone talking or texting anyone! Its usually on vibrate but it may happen.