Cheat to Win? No Way
Technology provides wonderful tools that have proven to boost academic success. But some students think it's a blessing in helping them boost their GPAs when they're not confident they could do it on their own. We're talking about exams, and we're talking about cheating.
Using cell phones to cheat on exams is a growing epidemic, and the culture of cheating is a disease that erodes the value of your education. Students may think they triumph when they beat the system, but their actions can backfire, with consequences that can range from failing a test to failing a course to being disciplined to getting kicked out of school.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, rapidly improving sophistication in cell phone technology has spurred students to consult the Web for answers, to text-message their peers, and to use software, such as ChaCha, to text-message networks of users. A larger danger, according to Professor Donald McCabe of Rutgers University, is that the ease of cell phone use can make cheating an addictive behavior. They see people succeed in cheating, and they don't want "to be left behind." So if your professors ban cell phones in the classroom, or at least during test time, appreciate their efforts in ensuring fair play in the academic setting. After all, technology also makes it easier to uncover evidence of cheating, too.