I picked up an eircom leaflet in PC World last Saturday which was advertising "FREE online tutorials worth over €3,000". You have to sign up to 3MB broadband to get this "exclusive offer". eircom call this the StudyHub for Junior and Leaving Certificate curricula. Sound good - I must check if I can get this for my daughter Vicki who is doing the Junior Cert this year.
But look at the picture on the brochure (click to enlarge)...
...the note has www.eircomstudyhub.ie written on it.
There is a very mixed message here. Now I don't for one second think that anybody in eircom condones cheating in exams, but I don't think eircom were advised well by the folks who dreamed up this picture. I know this is a tongue-in-cheek photo, but does it send an ambiguous message to students? Is the StudyHub a better way to cheat? Does the brochure imply that students cheat all the time?
Unfortunately cheating in exams does happen every year - students who are caught cheating sometimes face severe penalties. Cheating must never look "cool", and (IMHO) should not be used to advertise products.
Maybe I'm just seeing something that's not there.............?
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