Passing notes in class, writing the answers on your hand, telling your friends in next period what was on the test, peeking at your neighbors’ answers, or simply whispering the answers to each other were just some of the ways cheating occurred in school. Today though, kids have become a little more high tech about cheating, and as one professor at Florida International University puts it, “smarter about it.”
8th grader Christian Mendoza who attends Devon Aire K-8 Center said, “It’s easier and smarter to use your cell phone to cheat as opposed to whispering the answers to each other and getting caught.” Not getting caught has and always will be the challenge.
According to a poll by San Francisco-based Common Sense Media, “national research shows that 35 percent of students admitted to using their phones or other high tech ways to cheat.”
Today children as young as 5 are toting around cell phones, and with smart-phones being the craze, most teenagers are bound to have internet access, cameras and of course text messaging on their phones.
So what are teachers in Miami-Dade County doing to combat and prevent the issue of cheating with high tech devices?
Science teacher Rita Ramirez implements simple, common sense strategies, “I monitor my students’ hands during test taking and make sure their hands are always on the desk and cell phones have been put away.”
According to Miami Dade district/school operations, while it is not a violation to have a phone in school, it is a violation of the Code of Student Conduct if the “possession of a cellular telephone which disrupts the educational process; the use of the cellular telephone during school hours; and the possession or use of a cellular telephone which disrupts or interferes with the safety-to-life issue for students being transported on a M-DCPS school bus.” Additionally, Board Rule 6Gx13- 6A-1.112 states that “Access and use of the Internet is a privilege, not a right, and its use must support the educational objectives of the District. Students must always get permission from their teachers prior to using the Internet. In addition, the District prohibits the transmission of materials such as copyright material, threatening or obscene material or material protected by trade secret, which violate local, state, and federal law or regulation, as well as the use of the Internet for product advertisement, commercial activities, political campaigning or solicitation.”
Admittedly, every school and every teacher has taken on the challenge of cell phones in the classroom in their own manner. Some teachers collect phones at the beginning of class and return them at the end of school. Some schools have implemented warning systems, much like the behavioral warning system, that warns students that they could have their phones taken away.
At Arvida Middle School, P.E. coach Juan Ramirez stated that, “during standardized tests I make them empty their pockets, turn off their phones in front of me, place them in their book bags and place their book bags in the front of the classroom.”
But cell phone cheating is not the only problem teachers have to deal with when it comes to high tech devices. The Internet itself has provided a whole new world of cheating or plagiarizing opportunities for students. As a result, software’s like Turnitin.com have surfaced “providing a service to determining the originality of texts based on comparisons with their internal database and net-wide searches.” As such, teachers can “catch” cheaters in the act. However, it also serves to help students avoid inadvertently plagiarizing (in the case they have not learned how to properly quote, paraphrase or summarize with appropriate citations).
Many instructors, however, opt out of software’s like Turnitin.com citing that it is a violation of intellectual copyright protection, among other complaints. Those who refuse to use it come up with other solutions.
Writing instructors like Ben Lauren at Florida International University utilizes Certifications of Authorship whereby creating a written and signed contract between himself and each individual student that each essay they submit is the original work of the writer. Other methods instructors/professors/teachers at any level can utilize to prevent plagiarism would be to simply create original writing assignments that would require the student to use their own voice and find the answer within their own minds rather than on the World Wide Web.
The fact that students of the millennial generation are high tech, and of course are going to implement high tech methods to cheat, perhaps should have teachers and administrators questioning the manner in which education approaches the issue of testing and whether or not it is a reliable method of determining and measuring what a student has learned; whether it be in the course of a chapter, a semester or an entire school year.
In the meantime, instead of buying CliffNotes or SparkNotes at the bookstore, Litcharts is the “newest, fastest and smartest series of literature study guides on the web” and is available as an application for your iPhone or iTouch at the low price of $0.99 per book guide.
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