Last year in France, some teachers decided to apply their own rules and restrictions about what calculators can be used during the BAC exam and what you can use on your calculator. Until 2018, although devices like smartphones or other things that has a touchscreen or storage memory are banned from exams, certain calculator models, which includes the TI-Nspire, are exempt if the exam allows the usage of said calculator, and under the current laws, viewing TI-Nspire documents is allowed.
However, it seems that certain teachers did not get the memo about student rights and what the rules exactly are and instead decided to act at their own discretion. Some students were even subject to psychological abuse once said teacher spotted them browsing their TI-Nspire documents list.
This year it is happening again and there are now even teachers who banned the TI-Nspire outright. So basically, even if the TI-Nspire is allowed during certain exams, then it's still possible that you will receive an unfair treatment if you are unlucky enough to run into a teacher who has a slight penchant for certain communist regimes. The worst part is that most other allowed calculators can also stock similar files, yet they are allowed, and many students last year were falsely accused of cheating and got into serious trouble.
Starting 2018 there will be many restrictions about which calculators can be used in France exams (eg an exam LED will be required, and I think you won't be able to use programs nor apps, so if your calc lacks 3D graphing support then you can't use third-party 3D graphing apps) and what can be viewed/used on said calculators, but it's still not 2018 AFAIK, yet it looks more and more like the same issues as last year will happen again this year.
Source: https://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18551 (also see last year's new about this https://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=16816 )
Here are the consequences if you get caught cheating at the BAC or post-BAC in France (or if a teacher falsely reports you for cheating): https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F22211
Academical consequences:
-Blame
-No more diploma mention
-Temporary ban from BAC/post-PAC exams (maximum 5 years)
-Temporary or permanent ban from all public and superior school institutions
OR
-Permanent ban from any diploma title exam delivered by a public or superior school institution
Legal consequences:
-9 000 € fine
OR
-3 years of jail (I am serious. If you don't want to fight against false accusations, then don't bring a TI-Nspire at the BAC)
I wonder if anybody have run into similar issues at school in your respective countries? I know in USA some teachers only allowed 1 calculator model for a while (eg the TI-Nspire), but I am more curious about incidents with teachers making their own rules.
Woah woah woah. What the hell are you on about? Why the stalinist remark? Those teachers are probably mainly misinformed, not changing rules as they see fit. Of course this can result in some annoying things, but it's not on purpose I'm sure.
Trust me, I read some remarks from actual teachers on TI-Planet and quotes from French teacher forums or Univers TI-Nspire over the years. There are teachers in France who are so much against the use of programmable calculators during exams that they pretty much prefer implementing their own rules than following the existing governmental ones. Some teachers have a definition of cheating that's vastly different than the official one (or at least, what definition will last until 2018) and have openly expressed their disdain about the use of Nspire documents on TI-Planet forums. No matter how critor and others tried to knock sense in their head by telling them the law is the law and that students were still within their rights for the next two years, the teacher wouldn't budge. Some topics had to be locked as a result.
Also last year a list of colleges that forbid the TI-Nspire or had abusive rules was made public and many of them were reported to authorities. Yet, this year we see a repeat of last year's incidents, which is a sign that some teachers don't care and will act at their own discretion. As for the stalinist remark it's an hyperbole yes, but given that every incident except one targeted one group of individuals in particular (Nspire owners) and that some students were subject to psychological abuse by teachers involved (for example, the teacher would remain behind the student desk, watching him, for the entire duration of the exam to ensure he won't look at his calc again), there are definitively some similarities with certain dictatorships out there.
So no, it's not just misinformed teachers. Sure, some might be misinformed or be technology-illiterate, but there is also a group who has such a strong disdain for cheating that they think they can apply their own definition of it on unsuspecting students. And while I personally think that viewing documents on a calculator during an exam is quite borderline, students still have the rights to do it until 2018.
EDIT I changed the topic title :P (so this is why it says Last edit by DJ on every post), but the situation still borders on some dictatorial regimes to a certain extent (you can go to jail for cheating in France, and with the abuse above this means you could indirectly get jailed for using a TI-Nspire <_<)
Wow this rally sucks <_<. Especially for people who think rules are made to be broken :trollface:
Teachers are a pain in the ass neck sometimes.
Quote from: alexgt on June 06, 2016, 09:36:29 PM
Wow this rally sucks <_<. Especially for people who think rules are made to be broken :trollface:
Nah, the issue is really that once it's time for the BAC, not only you have tiny chances of running into an overzealous teacher inventing his own rules (either due to being misinformed or due to strong opinions), but the risk of this happening is much higher if your calculator is a TI-Nspire series model.
Wow. That's terrible. Sounds like what happened to me when I lost my CE for good, but with waaay more serious consequences.
Wait, did you cheat in tests or were caught checking unauthorized programs during exams? O.O
No. I had my CE on and next to a movie question sheet during science class. <_<
So basically, I got a detention for nothing.
Many teachers in France are crypto-communists so that doesn't impress me much...
For my part during my BAC I had all necessary data in my HP48G...
That must have been ages ago O.O. The HP 48g has been replaced by the 49g or so around 1999 and since 2003 the main French HP community website shut down. I think from 2003 to 2013 there was virtually nobody using HP calculators in French schools.
Also over here during math exams, we could bring 1 sheet of paper with all our formulas and notes on it and we could store notes on our calc as we see fit. The rule was that we only use 1 sheet of paper (that they provided), so the challenge was fitting as many notes as possible on it. But this was not considered as cheating because all Quebec national math exams were centered on problem solving, so even if you had the best math programs out there, they were useless if all they did was giving the answer, because the exam forced you to write down the entire problem solution. I wish they did the same thing elsewhere in the world instead of instating stupid graphing calc restrictions such as requiring an exam LED or clearing everyone's RAM.
Yeah, that sucks. I took the Algebra 1 New York Regents yesterday, and the teachers had to specifically clear everyone's RAM.
At least he didn't ban certain allowed calc models, but it still sucks if someone spent hours making programs. That said, always backup your stuff on a regular basis.
Quote from: Dudeman313 on June 17, 2016, 04:30:38 AM
Yeah, that sucks. I took the Algebra 1 New York Regents yesterday, and the teachers had to specifically clear everyone's RAM.
>They always clear ram
>They never clear archive
%1OO logic
Some clear both.
It all depends on the calc you own and where you are.
So this isn't related directly to the jail/extreme punishment thing when falsely accused of cheating at exams with a TI-Nspire CX, but now here is something new this year: Certain French schools decided to ban the TI-Nspire CX entirely. All other previously allowed calcs are still allowed, even if they have similar features added via programs or even some superior ones. Also since it's only certain schools doing it, it can be hard to know it in advance and it sucks if you bought that calc in August, only to realize you won't be able to use it at the finals: https://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=214385#p214385