Tech Makes Cheating Easier Too

I was reading this month's issue of Reader's Digest and came across a rather interesting article about the downside of technology in the classroom. More and more students are using technology to cheat. It talks about some of the past cheating scandals such as the 44 business and economics students at Simon Fraser in B.C. who all handed in papers that got them suspended. Also, that case from Carleton University, where the students cheated on an essay about professional ethics.

It goes onto say that portable digital devices like the MP3 player and the Internet are making cheating that much easier for students. In the article, one nineteen year old student of Toronto talks about how he cheated his way through high school using his cell phone to store information.

"It would be hard to understate technology's role in the current wave of academic dishonesty. Students flock to online term-paper mills that sell reports on virtually any topic."

What I liked was that teachers appear to be fighting back. They are using sites like Turnitin.com to check student work for plagiarism. The site uses a huge database of books and journals and previously submitted papers by students.

The article states that the site searches "50, 000 to 60, 000 students papers a day, 30 percent of which contain a significant amount (more than 25 percent) of unoriginal material."

The other smart thing we can do is limit technology during test taking times. I know this has been done at the Parry Sound High School. Although from what some students tell me, the policy isn't as stringent as the teachers may say it is there.

Anastasia Rioux

Foxman, Stuart. But Everybody Cheats! Reader's Digest. Montreal, Quebec. October 2006.