Tech & Biz

Students Blaming Tech for Missing Homework

by jordan | November 19, 2008 at 08:33 am

258 views | 20 Recommendations | 14 comments

This is The Dog Ate It 2.0: modern-day excuses for not turning in one's schoolwork have grown in complexity, with a social-engineering twist... students are relying on their teachers' lack of tech-savvy to get away with skiving on schoolwork.

Long-suffering Brit teachers are now apparently offered 15 different yarns a week, with many kids trying to "pull the wool over teachers' eyes by blaming modern gadgets that older staff members have failed to master", according to a survey by e-tailer Pixmania.

Most are pretty straightforward IT mishaps: "the computer crashed"; "the internet was down"; "the printer didn't work"; and "it was deleted by accident". However, top award for inventiveness went to the student who claimed dad's PC was ransacked by Russian hackers who made off with the homework.

However, a dog could concievably eat a USB drive, or at least bury it.

recommend Add a comment

Paschen

at 08:40 on November 19th, 2008

Your intro is well put here, very well in deed. As well as the conclusion if I may add.

Patrick Price Photographer

at 11:23 on November 19th, 2008

Interesting Story Jordan! Times they are a changin and with them all the old tricks.

jordan

at 12:40 on November 19th, 2008

Thanks, guys. I was gonna update this, but a cat coughed up a hairball my laptop.

corbinse

at 13:55 on November 19th, 2008

Hmmm.. I am suprised my daughter has not tried this one yet. They missed the Virus, malware and adware infected computer locked up and wiped the hard drive.

d zody (not verified)

at 16:58 on November 19th, 2008

My problem with students is the excuse that they don't have any ink in their printer and so could not print the assignment. They will do their work at home with an application we don't have at school, come to school to print, and be unable to. No matter how hard I try to get them to save as rich text format. I have just started telling them that the "cannot print" excuse will not fly with me.

Blue Crush

at 15:36 on November 20th, 2008

Yup, that was my kid's favorite excuse. Either it didn't work, or it was out of ink. I like that you have a counter attack with the "rich text format". Maybe teachers should be putting that on project instructions.

1dphotography

at 17:07 on November 19th, 2008

Photo taken by Wandy Sosa

1dphotography has contributed a photo to this story.

whohaugh

at 18:37 on November 19th, 2008

i blame tech for missing lots of things....

whohaugh has contributed a photo to this story.

vinceinbarca

at 01:08 on November 20th, 2008

All to many parts, I need all of them but sometimes it would be nice to cut all the cables. And the funny thing is that a lot of things i own and need diden't find there way to the picture. And I'm lucky to use a laptop, otherwise i had to buy a larger desk.

vinceinbarca has contributed a photo to this story.

Small Saul

at 08:43 on November 20th, 2008

Small Saul has contributed a photo to this story.

Terri Potratz

at 09:44 on November 20th, 2008

This is not new, when I was in university 8 years ago we used the ol' "my computer crashed, can I have an extension?" all the time. Sometimes, it was even true!

yuls.source

at 12:10 on November 20th, 2008

I totally agree, Terri..it does happen sometimes, and it is the most frustrating thing in the world when you spend all this time on a paper and than your computer crashes..

ChocoAngel

at 14:41 on November 20th, 2008

This is my place but also not at all it since I changed the arrangement a lot of times . I am a craft artist and I have 3 tables in total .. 1 for my craft *the plain one with tiles and one for computer and homework while the other is just for books handling . I studied a Bachelor degree in Medical Lab Technology and since I graduated .. I use them mainly for crafts and computer designing .. feel free to visit : chocoang3l.deviantart.com to see my art :) . Thank you

ChocoAngel has contributed a photo to this story.