Using Technology to Cheat
Technology has become and is a daily part of our life. Having technology makes our way
of doing things a lot easier. On our everyday life we have technology supporting our basic
needs from home, at work, and at school. For the most part technology is used in a positive
way in our daily life. However and unfortunately some technologies are used the wrong
way. Using technology to cheat in today society has become a lot more accessible and
easier to do especially in an academic environment.
Academic dishonesty has been a big issue that many faculties have to deal with all the time
in classrooms in today academic environment. In a report founded by Thomas & OReilly
(2002), “74 percent of American students admit to cheating on an exam. So imagine how
many really are. Forty percent of adolescents say they have stolen from a store and a
whopping 93 percent say they lie.”“ With such a huge percentage of students cheating with
the use of technology, it has become an epidemic that is spreading like wild fire. Since
technology was introduced in the class environment, it has become the number one
concern to some instructors because many students are not using it too learn, but instead
students are using technology to cheat in assignments and other work that may involve
school work.
There are so many ways that students use technology to cheat and so many devices that
they use to accomplish this unethical behavior. The many different things that are
commonly used in today society to make our life easier, but it is used in the wrong way are
mostly small hand-held devices. Such things are cell phones, digital camera, PDA and
lap-tops. These items are so high tech that they are able to store large amount of data that
can be utilized to gather information to be used in assignments, exams and homework in
the ways of cheating. Rather than worry about study for the test, students simply break into
database and change their final grade.
But one question that is being asked is why students get to that point of risking everything
that they have worked for. What can be a way of preventing students from using
technology to cheat? Some reasons that can be mentions for the cause of a student having
to cheat are: getting a good grade, lack of time to do the assignments, not being able to
