Cheating can be referred as finding an easy way out using dishonest means. This can include cheating in exams for students. Writers whose work involve doing essays can also cheat by using other writer’s words and phrases as their own; an action referred to as plagiarism. This article tackles the various ways that students use to cheat and how parents can monitor their kids to prevent cheating.
Cheating in schools came with existence of schools. Before the advent of technology, students wrote on crib sheets they had made and held them tightly using their arms or tucked them up their sleeves to be used for cheating during tests and exams. They also used to scribble on top of desks. There was also a time when a major cheating scandal was unearthed in New York City where kids from one school were selling Chemistry Regents exams to students in other schools.
The web and other connected devices have made cheating easier. Some of the most used methods of cheating include cut/paste plagiarism, file sharing and text messaging of answers. Parents should know some tools used by students use to cheat so that they can advise them accordingly. Below are some of the ways students use to cheat.
The first cheating tool we need to discuss is plagiarism. This is using someone’s words and phrases, then passing them as your own. In the world, we are living today, committing plagiarism is as easy as cut and paste. Tools like Grammarly, Turnitin and Plag Tracker can be used by instructors, tutors and parents to detect plagiarism.
The next cheating tool used by students is Text messaging. An example is the Stuyvesant cheating scheme. Due to poor invigilation, students were able to share answers with other students. Some mobile applications can be used to monitor your child’s text messages e.g. My Mobile Watchdog. This app has the functionality to disable even a child’s phone when they’re in school.
With technology came, online markets. Some websites on the web are dedicated to the purchase of term papers. Parents can be able to counter this since students do not have their Paypal accounts or even credit cards. The only way that these purchases are made possible is by the help of an adult. However, cash transactions are difficult to stop.
Another tool used for cheating by students is BitTorrent File Sharing. Downloading media files and music for free without the original author’s consent violates piracy and copyright laws. Parents should be made aware since it is both an ethical as well as a legal issue.
The last tool we’ll talk about is the SmartPhone Crib Sheets. Nowadays, kids can store a lot of data in their Smartphones. During tests, kids can surf the web for answers so long as the invigilator does not catch them. Again, mobile developers have come up with mobile applications that encourage this form of cheating.
The type of cheating being carried out these days is just an upgrade of what used to happen. The only difference is the readily available cheating tools and the ease at which cheating is carried out. Parents have to play their role and make sure their kids are not cheating by going through their essays and making sure they understood them and did not just copy and paste it from the internet, use some of the monitoring tools described above, and to others, set a good example. By doing this, we can help curb cheating.