New poll reveals students use cell phones, internet to cheat; parents are unaware
Primary Topic Channel: Research
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A new poll conducted by the nonprofit organization Common Sense Media suggests that students are using cell phones and the internet to cheat on school exams. What's surprising, however, is not just the alarming number of students who say they cheat, but also the number of students who think it's OK to do so.
Common Sense Media commissioned the research and consulting firm Benenson Strategy Group to conduct a poll of teenagers and parents on the use of digital media for cheating in school.
The Benenson Strategy Group conducted a total of 1,013 nationally representative online interviews with students in grades 7-12, and 1,002 online interviews with parents of seventh through 12th-grade students, between May 28 and June 5. The surveys included 846 teens with cell phones and 839 parents of teens who have cell phones. Twenty-eight students and 27 parents also agreed to be interviewed more extensively.
According to the poll, more than a third of teens with cell phones (35 percent) admit to cheating at least once with them, and two-thirds of all teens (65 percent) say others in their school cheat with them.
Of the teens who admit to cheating with their cell phones, 26 percent say they store information on their phone to look at during a test, 25 percent text friends about answers during a test, 17 percent take pictures of the test to send to friends, and 20 percent search the internet for answers during tests using their phones.
Also, nearly half (48 percent) of teens with cell phones call or text their friends to warn them about pop quizzes.
What's more, just over half of students polled (52 percent) admitted to some form of cheating involving the internet.
Twenty-one percent of students say they've downloaded a paper or report from the internet to turn in, while 50 percent have seen or heard about others doing this; 38 percent have copied text from web sites and turned it in as their own work, while 60 percent have seen or heard this; and 32 percent have searched for teachers' manuals or publishers' solutions to problems in textbooks they are currently using; while 47 percent have seen or heard this.
Even more concerning is that many students do not consider this behavior as cheating. Only about half of students polled admit that cell phone use during tests is a serious cheating offense, and just 16 percent say calling or texting friends to warn them of a pop quiz is cheating; instead, they believe they're simply helping a friend.
Students who cheat using the internet generally view plagiarism as more serious an offense than other types of cheating, yet more than a third of teens (36 percent) said downloading a paper from the internet was not a serious offense, and 42 percent said coping text from web sites was a either a minor offense or not cheating at all.
Student-parent disconnect
One reason so many teens are using technology to cheat during exams might be because most parents don't realize their child is engaged in such activity.
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Focus of Assessment
"What do we want to assess?" Facts? Ability to solve problems? something that has specific solutions/answers? or it's the skills/process that we are looking out for? To cheat, information technology is not the only means.
Posted By: lohky, 2009-07-11 4:57 AM
Using technology to cheat
I remember, many years ago, when using a slide rule, during a physics test was considered cheating. At the same time, we were being taught to use a slide rule as a physics tool. Then, it was cheating to use a graphing calculator in Algebra and Calculus when the graphing calculator was part of the curriculum. If using technology to take a test is cheating, then the types of questions being asked are flawed. Teachers who are asking "content" questions will always view an outside source as a cheating tool. Teachers must learn to ask questions that demand the use of high level investigative processes that use all of Blooms Taxonomy. Textbook oriented teachers will always stumble at the feet of technology. If the teachers understood technology better, they would then be capable of designing a learning/testing environment that would fully enable students to stretch their technology brains while using technology to prove that they are 21st century learners. Many of us have argued, for years, that tests must catch up with technology. When they do, we will finally be testing students for skills they will need in their future. Currently, we are testing students on skills that we needed in the distant past. Finally, by pejoratively phrasing the issue implying using technology is "cheating", begs the larger question. Why are those who should know better, buying into the idea that the use of technology is cheating, when the problem lies with the deficient and unskilled instructors and not with the technology. David Paulson President/CEO Friluft Educational Technologies, Inc. davidapaulson@mac.com
Posted By: davidapaulson, 2009-07-06 2:24 PM
Agree with bfrey
What are the asssessments testing? If all the answers can be found with a cell phone, is the problem the phone or the test?
Posted By: dowd425, 2009-06-29 3:35 PM
Assessment Needs to Change
In an age where the answers to many questions can be found on the web, it's time for the education community to consider that 20th century assessments don't work well in the 21st century where connectivity to a vast knowledge base is in your hand. Perhaps we need to help students figure out how to leverage the tools they have to amplify their ability to think and make decisions. A well rounded student today must be an ethical citizen on the web, yet few of our schools have figured out how to fully take advantage of these technologies. With the advent of the iPhone and other smart phones that have a multitude of applications available at your finger tips to answer all your questions, I think the best thing we can do for students is help them to ask the right questions and be publishers of their ideas. Rather, we think old models of assessment will get the job done. I think those days are swiftly ending.
Posted By: bfrey, 2009-06-29 1:14 PM
The Future Is NOW
Toffler suggested it in "The Third Wave"; Orwell's "1984" showed clearly the pervasiveness of technology and how it would change everyday life. Now we have a poll to tell us what we already know - with the growth of technology and immediate access to information comes the decline of integrity and ethical behaviors. Students no longer value learning in the traditional sense; what they value is immediate gratification, however shallow and temporary that may be. Their self-esteem is built around a material world and the integration of technology is part of that world. To them, "getting the answer right" is the goal; actually knowing the answer has no value. By "getting the answer right" - regardless of the means by which that answer was achieved - they reinforce their hollow self-esteem and make themselves look good in front of their peers. They live in the moment; knowledge is simply information for the moment. With technology at their fingertips, they feel that remembering information is a waste of time and that academic study is an invasion of personal time. While we haven't embraced the cloning and soma parties of Huxley's "Brave New World", we effectively have adopted that society's attitude about knowledge, learning in general, and the value of life.
Posted By: ltcdavis, 2009-06-24 8:50 AM
Really?
As a high school teacher in a district that has a no electronic device policy that is clearly stated in the handbook & who enforces it in my classroom, the number one person phoning the student DURING the school day is a PARENT! If a cell phone rings during my class, I answer it & "take the message" for the child. It rarely happens more than once per hour per year. Beyond that I follow the school policies and collect the electronic device. My recommendation is to make all school buildings, like hospitals, unable to operate a cell phone. You will end all cell phone violators from the students to the staff. Other than that, quit making excuses for students cheating. It is simply unethical & if that is their mode of studying in school, they will face a difficult situation in college when the stakes go higher and the sin can be stamped onto a transcript!
Posted By: stashasimon, 2009-06-24 12:14 AM
New Thinking Needed
How many of us as middle school and high school students warned our friends about pop quizzes, shared test questions/answers with others, passed notes during class, or even copied material for a report directly from an encyclopedia? The only thing that has changed is that kids do it all electronically now. I believe that is it far more important to know HOW to find an answer than remember so much by rote. For more than 25 years now, I have heard so many teachers comment that we need to stress higher level thinking skills, yet most of these very same teachers still give assignments and assessments that are purely knowledge based. Banning the technology only takes it underground (as the study seems to show). Teachers need to be creative and tech savvy. Just as adults collaborate, do research online, and utilize every available technology to their advantage in the workplace, students need to learn the finer points of collaboration, research, and utilization of technology. What better place than the classroom where they gain content and understanding as well. Will a few be sidetracked or try to buck the system? Of course! How many of you check your own Facebook pages or just “surf the ‘Net” during working hours from either your computer or your phone! Our students are no different. Challenge them with the practical, the authentic; don’t bore them with the out-of-date!
Posted By: jsmith005, 2009-06-22 4:32 PM
Test the brain not memory
I totally agree with elisabethraab. Where are teachers? In our particular Moroccan context,cell phones are absolutely forbidden in schools during lessons and of course tests. Yet the teacher has to remind students of this. The other point is that testing focus should get students used to brain work.test questions should deal with knowledge not information.Or as airskeeter has put it: "How about transitioning from tests to assessments of knowledge application?"
Posted By: benbrahim, 2009-06-20 3:28 AM
lock downs
As a middle school teacher, yes i'm concerned about children cheating, but more than that is the inability to take emergency drills seriously and not being able to ensure all phones are off. In a lock down drill, simulating what to do in the most life-threatening situations, kids (who are allowed to have phones turned off) have gotten on theirs to text friends and play around. I'm not allowed to take phones...
Posted By: akc3577, 2009-06-19 12:30 AM
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Cultural Paradigm Shift
I think the questions we should be asking actually should have more to do with how we change our perceptions of assessment, values education, and media literacy. Cheating exists, and students are going to find a way to do it. I agree with Frey; as teachers, it is time to us to look beyond traditional assessment methods and meet students where they are. As for the burden of teaching students what is cheating and what is not, this is values education, which is an equal burden for parents and teachers. Lastly, I would call upon schools to do more to help students not only learn the technology but the responsible use of technology. It is proven that the United States lags behind in media literacy. In order to compete in the information economy, especially in light of the producer-consumer participatory media culture, media literacy is going to be imperative for our children to continue to compete.
Posted By: david_bruceporter, 2009-08-06 11:10 AM