Recently I saw this article from Buzzfeed being passed around amongst my colleagues, "Watches Banned From University Exams Because Of The Apple Watch." Several have discussed updating their syllabi to exclude smart watches, along with smartphones, and tablet computers from the classroom during testing. 

Part of me thinks that this is due in part to the hype gathering behind the Apple Watch, which is a shame as there has been other smart watches available for some time (e.g. Pebble, Samsung, etc). Nonetheless, the question I have is really how long can we reasonably block the use of wearables in the classroom? 

To me, there seems to be counterintuitive movement, whereby educators are looking to use new technology in the classroom and increase innovation, but still striving to eliminate said technology and reduce testing to the stone age. I anticipate that as time goes on, there will be immense pushback between students and educators, struggling to find a balance between what is socially and academically reasonable. 

The tipping point will most likely come when wearables become so ingrained in our unconscious utilization throughout the day, that we will just assume that it is part of the test taking process. On the converse, we could also see novel anti-testing technology such as WiFi or selective online kill-switches to prevent the use of said devices at selected time.

I would be curious to hear what other educators/teachers/professors have heard being discussed on their campuses and where they see this going.