Cell Phones And Cheating In School: Where Are The Teachers?

Amy — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:45:03 +0000

A new study by Commonsense Media shows that 1/3 of all students with a cell phone has cheated at least once with their phone. They do this by texting, going online and by storing information on their phone. Amazingly 52% of teens admitted to some form of cheating using the internet. A whopping 1 in 4 students doesn’t feel what they are doing is considered cheating. Of course, out of 76% of parents, although they believe it happens at school, only 3% think their child has cheated. Imagine that!

Now, are these results that remarkable really? No, not really. From writing on the hand to passing notes, kids have always found a way to cheat. Most parents will stick their head in the sand on this issue. Little Johnny would NEVER do that!

My question is where are the teachers? I was a substitute teacher for a while. I never sat at my desk during a test. I walked the room constantly watching and letting the students be very aware I was watching. Students are less likely to even attempt to cheat if they know they are being closely watched. Ask them, they’ll tell you. If I saw a cell phone, I took it until the end of class. Simple. I may not have caught every cheater, but I bet I deterred a lot of cheating and stopped others dead in their tracks.

I know many teachers that use test time to grade papers and do other administrative work only glancing up occasionally. In this day of technology, that isn’t going to work anymore.

Cell phones are not to blame here, although they certainly are the accomplice. Teachers need to be more proactive and parents need to focus on instilling more about the value of honesty in their children. (But, that is a whole other blog post.)

Just my .02 for today.

photo credit: jennie-o

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Cell Phones And Cheating In School: Where Are The Teachers?