Cell phones are a common device for cheating. One teacher commented, "We have had students who have been caught using photo copies of notes or photo copies of other information during exams," said Peter W. Pappas, a coordinator of the Ohio State University Committee on Academic Misconduct.(1) Although, cheating is not only limited to the United States. Recently in Korea, police expanded an investigation after securing evidence suggesting about 100 students allegedly used cell phones to cheat during the national college entrance exams.(1) Even more sophisticated, in Thailand, forty-six students were banned from the military for life after they tried to cheat in an army entrance examination by concealing cell phones in their shoes.(1)
Students are other forms of technology including, such as, calculators. Programmable calculators can hold text, formulas, even pictures. They are also using theWatch "data banks" on watches, which can hold crib notes. Another form is pagers. Students can use the setting on electronic pagers that allow them to store messages. Students can conveniently call up when the teacher's not looking. In one variant, a high-tech student used a tiny wireless video camera in a hat to transmit images of the test to an accomplice, who sent pager messages (the pager set on vibrate) to indicate answers! (2) A related story regard the GRE: people taking it on the East Coast were reportedly beeping answers to persons on the West Coast. (2)Also there are palm pilots, and other personal digital assistants (and some calculators, too) which allow information to be beamed across a distance via infrared. A student can use a laser pointer (many look like pens) to "write" the answers or as part of a code (e.g., left top side of floor tile = "A" , right top = "B", etc. (2) Students seem to get very creative with cheating in the classroom today. Walkmans are used to record notes, also they take a Walkman to class and listen to it during the test. It is a strategy to have some music on, so if the professor walks towards you by the time they get there the music is playing. (2) Micro-recorders are used when the same test is delivered in multiple sections; questions are whispered into microphone for later transcription. Wireless monitors are used by musicians, this consists of a body pack transmitter concealed under clothing combined with a small flesh-colored earpiece; the wire is hidden under hair and clothing. A cell phone plus a small earpiece can be used for the same purpose. (2) Also cameras have been used. At least one instance of a student transmitting exam questions via a tiny wireless camera and receiving answers via a wireless monitor has been reported. (2) And a watch that incorporates a digital still camera has already been released in Japan. (2)
There is such thing as cyberplagerism now, especially among secondary schools, where students use the internet to cheat on tests, or they do not site the sources they used for their papers. (3) Most researchers concur that the incidence of academic misconduct in our middle schools and high schools has increased significantly in recent years (Underwood and Szabo, 2003; Petress, n.d.). (3) The accessibility of computers, the Internet, and other electronic resources, such as CD-ROM encyclopedias, has made cheating quicker and easier for our current generation of those who are technology-savvy. (3) The study found that 72 percent of the students admitted to seriously cheating on a written work and more than half had copied portions of a paper from the Internet without citing the source. (3)
Internet Sources
1. ©2002-2011 Mobiledia Corp. http://www.mobiledia.com/news/26810.html
2. 2003 Dr. Robert S. Bramucci. http://www.teachopolis.org/justice/cheating/cheating_how_to.htm
3. http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=9&n=9