How Students use Smartphones and the Web to Cheat

(535 Words)
For safety and convenience, ever-increasing numbers of schools are allowing students to bring phones to school. A great deal of these are smartphones with web access. Unfortunately, these provide a myriad of ways for students to cheat on everything from tests to quizzes to class work. Teachers should understand the different methods that students may take so that they can implement precautions to prevent such behavior.
A smartphone is like the ultimate cheat sheet. Unlike a traditional cheat sheet in which students can only include a finite amount of information that they think will be on the test, the children can use the web to access almost anything that they need. If teachers have their notes on the Internet, then they can get to that. They can Google a vocabulary word and literally find thousands of web pages explaining it. With a smartphone and access to the World Wide Web they will likely be able to find out everything they need for the test.
Another way that students utilize their smartphones in order to cheat is by texting each other. Why pass notes when you can just text the answers to your neighbors instead? They can ask the others in the class or someone outside of the class. It does need to take a long time. One student may send out a quick text with the multiple choice answers, which the other students write on their papers. In under 30 seconds they can have all of the answers to the test.
With the above scenarios, you can prevent cheating by making certain that smartphones are away during the actual tests and work. The students may hide them under their papers, in their hands, or on their laps. Even keeping them away will not stop all cheating, however. For instance, a student may say that they have to go to the bathroom. They may take their smartphone with them and send out the answers to a different class or to another student while they are in there. Alternatively, they may look up the answers on the phone. When another students goes out to the bathroom, they can then look at the answers from the first student.
A student may also use a smartphone to e-mail out the answers. It may even occur after the test. Students can quickly e-mail questions or other answers to a variety of people who will be taking the test in different periods. The students will then either get the answers directly or be able to use their phones to look up the information themselves. Even five minutes between class may be enough time to do this.
There have even been cases in which students have cheated across states. Standardized tests are sometimes the same, but because of the time changes in different areas, they start at different times. One student may send the information from their smartphone literally across the country to other students.
It is important for teachers to understand the potential for cheating via smartphones and the web. These devices should be completely away during schoolwork and tests. Clear and reasonable consequences should occur if a student is caught cheating in this manner. With diligence, cheating will be minimized.