Cheating in the Classroom: Texting During Exams

In an article that discusses the high tech uses of cell phones in the classroom many students consider the use of these devices to be ethical even during an exam. They do not perceive it as cheating, and why should they? If teachers do not vocally condemn the practice how are students to know what they are doing is wrong?

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=59609

Though on its face this is undoubtedly cheating and could be classified as unethical you have to look at the different ways technology has become a large part of our society. If you take a look at calculators for example, would you consider it to be cheating if a student were to save multiple equations or look up the periodic table to help them find the answer on an exam? Who dictates what is ethical and unethical?

Students turn to technology for help because they have not learned the critical thinking skills that are needed to figure out these answers. Society has opted to simply give them the answers instead of allowing them to find those answers. With the internet making it easier to find answers by merely putting the search term into Google society has destroyed the old ways of discovering through hard work the answers we need to solve our problems. Technology has been great in many aspects of life but it should be only used in the classroom to present information, not discover answers.

Society has created students who believe that those with the highest exam scores will succeed when in realty professionals and bosses who are hiring are looking for those who can think intuitively, creatively, and realistically. Google and Yahoo cannot solve all questions and as a society we need to shun these unethical practices in the classroom. We need to begin to start asking the students the questions instead of handing them the answers.