Another look at Cheating

Place a mental check mark next to each situation below where a student cheated:

1. Student reads Cliff Note's version of The Great Gatsby instead of reading the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

2. Student watches the 1974 movie The Great Gatsby (directed by Jack Clayton with screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola) instead of reading the book.

3. Student listens to an audio mp3 file of an unabridged reading of The Great Gatsby on his iPod instead of reading the book.

4. Student uses a calculator to complete the division and multiplication problems assigned for his math homework.

5. Student writes a program on her computer to solve the advanced algebra problems given for homework. She makes certain the computer displays each step of the solution and carefully copies the information on her homework paper.

6. Student is given a "prepared" calculator to take a state test. The calculator was "locked" so it would only perform a limited number of functions. Student spent the first ten minutes of the test time figuring out how to "unlock" the calculator and then quickly aced the state test.

7. Student does not have time to go to the library to do research on "The Great Depression" and uses the Google search engine and the Wikipedia online encyclopedia instead.

8. Student does not have time to do his term paper on "The Great Depression" and goes to PerfectTermPapers.com to commission the writing of an eight-page original paper. He pays $63.60 and gets his guaranteed "non-plagiarized term paper" one week later.

9. Student does not have access to many sources for researching "The Great Depression" and so talks to his grandparents instead.

The lines dividing the cheaters from the non-cheaters are getting more and more fuzzy.

Ellen Gamerman, writing for the Wall Street Journal, relates the following incident:

It was a situation every middle-schooler dreads. Bonnie Pitzer was cruising through a vocabulary test until she hit the word "desolated" -- and drew a blank. But instead of panicking, she quietly searched the Internet for the definition.

At most schools, looking up test answers online would be considered cheating. But at Mill Creek Middle School in Kent, Washington, some teachers now encourage such tactics. "We can do basically anything on our computers," says the 13-year-old, who took home an A on the test.

What?

Thousands of teachers cringe with the thought. Thousands of others might be saying "what's wrong with that?"

The definition of what constitutes "cheating" had changed over the years. Some of today's educators may be surprised to know that in 1994 individuals taking the SAT were permitted to use calculators by the College Board. And some will be shocked to realize that before 1994 those calculators were not allowed (Texas Instruments sold the first handy calculator in 1972). In the seventies and eighties calculators were at the heart of a fierce debate among educators: to permit them or not? Thirty years later that debate is moving from the hand-held adding machines to a new breed of hand-held devices -- cell phones, PDAs and miniature computers like the Blackberry and the Nokia 770.

More schools are permitting students to use "extraordinary means" when taking some quizzes and tests. Some teachers are building "googling" right into their assignments. Others permit text messaging their friends for help in finding correct answers. "We've got to teach kids to use the tools to access information," according to Gregory Thornton, the chief academic office of Philadelphia Public Schools.

To some, this sounds like one huge "open book exam." And some creative educators are meeting the new technology half way: take the test with an open computer and the highest grade you can get is a "B." Your choice.

What's important is that we understand the options out there for our students and we provide a framework for dealing with those options. Carefully define what constitutes "cheating" and just as carefully delineate how it will be handled.

Elizabeth Dole speaking to the Duke class of 2000 at commencement said this: "In the final analysis, it is your moral compass that counts far more than any bank balance, any resume, and yes, any diploma." Principles of honorable conduct have formed the basis of civilized society for millennia. Those seeking to elevate them should be commended. Those seeking to subvert them should be punished.