A poll conducted by Common Sense Media found that 17 percent of students said they had taken pictures of quizzes and test questions. Nearly half said they had used cell phones to warn others about quizzes. 25 percent admitted to texting answer to tests to friends. About 57% said they knew classmates who did. The poll said that one in four texts were sent by students during the week during class time.
Obviously something needs to be done since 83 percent of teens have cell phones and nearly two-thirds use them at school. Parents want children to have cell phones for safety reasons. Many of these students work after school so there is that reason for them to have the phones. So, banning them is not the solution either.
Cheating has always been around; it simply has become more sophisticated and while there may be good reasons for students to have them in school, the implications of students who become doctors, lawyers or achieve high SAT/ACT scores because of their ability to cheat frightens me.
The entire community needs to come together to come up with workable strategies. We need to manage the change that technology brings. This means that schools need to bring the community – parents, businesspeople and educators to develop some way of working this out.