Is Tech Making Cheating Easy?

With so much new technology emerging every day, it was only a matter of time before schools began to accept it into their classrooms. After all, technology is a big part of a student's life. When I was in high school, it was fairly uncommon to see students with cell phones or laptops on school grounds—even though these tools were readily available. Today, most kids in school have a cell phone, and the situation has gotten so out of control that schools are already moving towards banning them in the classroom. Besides being disruptive, cell phones and other technology are also being used to [gasp!] cheat .

Cheating is common among students—that's no big secret; but when you hear about kids paying thousands of dollars to pass a test, well that's when you know students are seriously under pressure. Desperate students in Vietnam, paid over $3,000 for an elaborate setup consisting of wigs and shirts wired to mobile phones that would allow them to cheat on their college entrance exams. According to ABC News, police also confiscated mobile phones, earphones, and SIM cards that were used to call in test questions and answers.

It's no surprise to hear that this is a global epidemic, and that students are finding new ways to cheat via text messaging, cameraphones, email, PDAs, iPods, and Bluetooth technology. But none of these are quite as ripe with cheating possibility as the Internet. If you head on over to Superiorpapers.com. or Masterpapers.com, you'll find a whole team of people at your disposal who are more than willing to write thesis papers or even doctoral dissertations for a few dollars. The sites operate like any other business offering customer support, money back guarantees, and a toll-free number.

So why are students going to such technological extremes to make the grade? A USA Today's article "Study examines why students cheat" may gives us some insight as to why all the cheating. After one college professor discovered that 47 of his 64 students had cheated on a take-home exam, he and another professor decided to survey the cheating students, and found that, while they knew cheating was wrong, they rationalized their behavior by putting the blame on the system, the environment, the context, and even the professor. Some of them said "they were simply taking advantage of technological opportunities." Many students also try to justify their cheating saying they are too busy juggling jobs, extracurricular activities, and want high GPAs or time to spend with friends and family.

But just like students, teachers also have the power of the Internet at their disposal. Teachers can find sites like Turnitin.com, where they can check the originality of their student's work. Submitted papers are compared against more than 15 million papers on a database, as well as other sources on the Internet. But the biggest problem may be a teacher's ignorance of high-tech cheating. At one high school, out of 19 teachers polled, "only two were aware that students use text-messaging to cheat." Most teachers didn't grow up with this technology, so it's no shock that they don't really understand how it works.

So my question is to the teachers out there: what is the most outrageous form of cheating you've encountered? And what can teachers and parents do to prevent high-tech cheating?