When taking an exam, students are usually asked to put away their smartphones and other electronic devices then asked to take out a pen or pencil. It’s a common practice at TCU and other universities intending to curb academic dishonesty.

But like tablets and smartphones, emerging technologies are making their way into classrooms, and they’re not on most teacher’s radars just yet. Technologies like smartwatches could give some students an unfair advantage come test day, if misused.

Smartwatch models are already on the market from manufacturers such as Pebble, Samsung, Motorola and LG., but the technology has been slow to catch on with the general public, possibly because most smartwatches sport a $300 plus price tag.

Or it could be that most people deem the technology as a novelty reserved only for tech enthusiasts.

For geology graduate student Mike Eldredge, his smartwatch was a gift from his brother who works for Samsung, and he uses it mostly to be notified when he receives text messages or phone calls, he said.

“Most of the time I have my phone on mute, and so I like to wear the watch because it’ll vibrate when I get an incoming call,” Eldredge said.

And while he doesn’t condone cheating, Eldrege recognized how easily a device like his could be used to store text or photos of notes and go undetected by teachers during exams.

“A lot of people are just surprised to see a smartwatch,” he said. “Even fellow students, they’ll ask, ‘What kind of watch is that?’ So I don’t think professors would even have a clue. I don’t think they’re ready to face that issue.”

Traditionally watches have been seen as fashion accessories—not as mini computers—which could be one of the reasons why the technology may not be on teacher’s radars and why wearable technology poses more of a threat for academic dishonesty.

But that could all change as Apple prepares for the release of its first smartwatch model in April. As with MP3 players, smartphones and tablets, the company has had great success bringing products into the mainstream market where others have failed.

And it’s safe to say that the same will hold true in the smartwatch market, which could mean an increase in the number of students wearing the devices.

While the TCU student handbook doesn’t specifically refer to wearing smartwatches during exams, it does prohibit any material and/or devices not authoried by the person administering the test.

It also prohibits collaborating with, or seeking aid from, other students and buying, selling, transporting or soliciting (in whole or in part) any parts of a test or assignment without an instructor’s permission.

But using technology to get the upper hand on exams is nothing new. According to an articles on Mashable.com, most cheating today is “just a high tech version of what’s always gone on. The difference is that it’s much easier and the tools are readily available.”

Professor of Religion Dr. C. David Grant has taught at TCU for 30 years and claims he can remember when programmable calculators first started popping up in classrooms.

“That was the first kind of technology issue that came up,” he said. “It was programmable calculators, long before PCs or laptops, much less cell phones and smartphones.”

Grant now requires all students to place smartphones in their bags when taking a test to eliminate the temptation to cheat, he said. But smartphones aren’t his only concern.

“I’ve been pondering Google glass and what to do if that starts showing up in the classroom,” he said. “And I think what I’ll do essentially is what I do with other technologies and say, ‘You’ll need to take that off.’ Likewise with folks who have smartwatches on.”

But even though the technology has changed, the temptation to cheat is still the same. Society has only intensified that desire by placing more emphasis on the end result and less importance on the road it took to get there, Grant said.

70 percent of college students have admitted to cheating on an exam, according to statistics from test security provider Caveon. However the number of instances of cheating at TCU is low compared to the national average, said Assistant Dean of Campus Life Nick Whitesell.

Faculty Senate Committee Chair Jan Quesada said the committee has not yet addressed the issue with smartwatches, but it will be taken up for discussion and consideration in the future. Quesada said she has rarely observed or suspected cheating in her classroom but has procedures in place to discourage it.

In the meantime, the committee has developed an honor code in conjunction with the Student Government Association, which they are currently trying to get in place for the university, Quesada said.

Mathematics teacher Margie Nowlin hadn’t really given the matter of smartwatches in her classroom much thought.

“I’ve heard of smartwatches. I knew they were coming out, but I don’t sit anf think about, ‘Oh, they’re going to have these watches,’“ she said.

Nowlin said she doesn’t require students in her statistics class to memorize formulas. Instead, she looks to see that they understand and can apply the concepts they’ve learned.

“I don’t worry about it as much,” she said. “Maybe I should.”

Nowlin said she encountered one student using an advanced calculator to gain an unfair advantage over other students.

“But with a watch, it’s another thing,” she said. “or a phone, if you’re taking pictures of your notes and then you’re able to somehow look it up, that’d be a different thing. Or students sometimes taking tests and taking pictures and giving them to friends. Now that’s a possibility.”

But smartphones and tablets are different because teachers usually ask students to store the devices before taking a test. So will teachers be ready if and when smartwatches become as commonplace as the technologies before them?

Associate Professor of Computer Science Dr. J. Richard Rinewalt said, “As devices get smaller and smaller, the opportunity for dishonesty going undetected is going to increase.”

One overseas company is marketing it’s smartwatch as “the first watch for easy studying.” Plus 385’s Kupi24.com smartwatch is tailored to fit large amounts of text on a tiny screen and includes an auto-scroll feature for text so users don’t raise eyebrows by constantly touching their watch. Hut what distinguishes this watch from others is an emergency button that locks the watch if suspicious teachers try to inspect it.

“What do you do with these watches?” Nowlin said. “Make everybody take them off and leave them at the door? I don’t know.”

But that’s exactly what some universities have already done. Last year, Artevelde College in Ghent, Belgium banned smartwatches from all examination rooms. And Rotterdam College in the Netherlands has done the same.

Students are already prohibited from wearing smartwatches while taking the GRE exam. The policy specifically prohibits phones, smartphones, PDAs, digital watches, smartwatches and other electronic, recording, listening or photographic devices from being brought into the testing center.

SAT guidelines aren’t as specific, but they do prohibit the use of mobile phones or smartwatches, MP3 players, tablets and any other personal computing devices. The list also includes pagers or texting devices and any device capable of recording audio, photographic or video content, or capable of playing it back.

While it is not specifically mentioned on the list, smartwatches do fall under on or more of the categories listed. When asked if he’ll ban smartwatches on exam days, Grant said he may well have to.

“The best way to do that is simply to say, ‘You have to have all your watches up,’” he said. “There’s a clock in the classroom. You don’t need a watch. Rather than go have to determine what kind of watch it is.”