Increasingly, schoolchildren 13-17
are using their cell phones to cheat in school instead of paper notes, writing
on arms or on the brims of hats.
According to Commonsensemedia.org, 83%
of high school students have cell phones, and over half of them since they were
twelve. Compared to even five or ten
years ago, this number is drastically changing.
Even more startling, over 35% of
students with cell phones admit to using them to cheat on tests. 52% of these students say that they used the Internet
on their smart phones to cheat.
Commonsensemedia.org states that the problem lies within the mindset of
students and parents. Parents whose kids
have cell phones are unaware and unwilling to consider that their kids use
their cell phones in school. 65% of kids
admit to using their phones in school, whether for cheating or other reasons,
but only 23% of parents think their children do this. Additionally, many students do not even
realize that they are cheating or doing something against school policies. One in four students think that accessing notes on a cell phone, texting
friends with answers, or using a phone to search the Internet for answers
during a test isn't cheating.
This sort of cheating carries over into the home as
well. 38% of students say they have
copied things from the web and passed them off as their own work. It also
carries over into college, but not in the same ways. “My teachers don’t seem to care if I have my
phone out during class. I could cheat
but it would be difficult. Tests are
really different than in high school,” says a University of Wisconsin-La
Crosse.
