High Tech Cheating at School
A recent survey highlights the prevalence of high tech cheating at school.
35% of teens report using cell phones to cheat and more than half report using the Internet to cheat on school assignments, tests, and quizzes. They use cell phones to take pictures of tests and send to friends, to warn friends of pop quizzes, to text answers to each other and to store notes they can refer to during a test.
Interestingly, about 20% of teens don’t see these activities as cheating.
This information raises some questions we should probably address in our schools.
1. Should cell phones be allowed in school? If not, how do you keep them out? If so, what restrictions should be in place?
2. Is there a way to integrate the use of cell phones in classrooms that promotes responsible use and does not penalize those teens without phones?
3. Are we doing a good enough job teaching and learning about issues of digital ethics?
The full report and parent tips are available at Common Sense Media.
July 9, 2009 @ 12:49 pm
Really thought-provoking blog, Paul. Cheating continues to be an ongoing issue in high schools and colleges across the US and probably will continue to be for as long as we have traditional tests and quizzes. I remember being amazed in China at learning about a practice during Confucius time that folks found cheating would be barred permanently from pursuing any other types of exams (ones that included opportunity to obtain civil service jobs with the reigning govt at time) and would have names permanently displayed on stone carvings for all in town to see forever. Man, talk about harsh, but the attitude was that cheating was a SERIOUS offense and had lifelong consequences. I think part of the answer to cheating lies with our students themselves. When I became sponsor of Beta Club 4 years ago, a small group of Beta members expressed deep concerns with the rampant cheating at CCHS and wanted it to be addressed. We invited the principal to come to one of our meetings and address the student concerns. At that meeting, Kelli Daffron got permission to research student-run honor courts in high schools. She spent a lot of time that year researching them and put together a proposal which we submitted to leadership and Central Office. The proposal for a student-run honor court was even shown to the school attorneys to make sure it would work and not be in conflict with other policies. After getting approval, we started the CCHS Honor Court (http://cchshonorcourt.wikispaces.com) three years ago. It’s been a challenging journey getting the court up with protocals in place, documents created and getting administration on board. But, it works because it is based on one of the most powerful motivators to teenagers: peer pressure. It’s difficult for most teens to sit before a court with the majority of them their peers. The students are the ones who came up with the current honor code at CCHS (which I find so admirable). The court does not see its sole job as “catching” cheaters and “punishing” them. In fact, we don’t see hearings as “punishment” at all really. Rather, it’s our hope that we can raise awareness of the consequences of dropping or sacrificing one’s personal integrity. This really ties into one of the points you make in your blog: that many students do not view “cheating” with cell phones as really “cheating.” Our HC students want to do more things to raise awareness of what cheating is and why it’s important to have and maintain personal and academic integrity. To that end, we’d love to do some type of survey of our own student body to analyze attitudes and strategize to come up with ways to raise awareness.
I personally am in favor of actively teaching students how to use technology (Ipods, cell phones, ect.) in school with integrity. I think teachers need more training to do so. I know one thing I’ve done during exam time is to have students take out their cell phones, turn them off and put them in a basket I pass around so that it’s not an issue. I know they do that in some college classrooms. Sooner or later, students have to learn how to be responsible for phones and other tech, so I think it’s an opportunity we can embrace in high school with some clearly established parameters. Yes, there are definitely ways to integrate cell phones in high school classrooms, but we need more training on it. When I was at the NCTE Conference last November, I kept going to session after session where creative uses of technology were featured. I realized that technology is a rapidly-flowing river. The students are in that river, going fast. Educators, in the meantime, are standing on the sidelines and discussing whether or not we think our students should be in that river and what we should do about it. Some of us stick our toes in, some of us refuse. Some of us are heatedly arguing while others are trying to take students out of that river. Others decide to take the plunge and dive in, hoping to learn how to navigate and help our students at the same time. But all the time, the river keeps flowing rapidly. I guess the choice of how we’re going to respond to the river is individual, but I’m ready to dive in. Thanks for posting such a provocative blog.