Common Sense Media announced the results of a national poll that exposes the use of digital media for cheating in school. The poll was carried out by The Benenson Strategy Group which discovered that over 35% of teens confess that they cheat by means of cell phones.
Additionally, more than half disclosed that they use Internet as a media, to cheat. One of the things noticed, is that most of the students don’t think that they have cheated. The outcome emphasizes the need for parents, educators and leaders to initiate a nationwide discussion on digital ethics.
“The results of this poll should be a wake-up call for educators and parents. Cell phones and the Internet have been a real game-changer for education and have opened up many avenues for collaboration, creation, and communication. But as this poll shows, the unintended consequence of these versatile technologies is that they’ve made cheating easier. The call to action is clear: Parents and educators have to be aware of how kids are using technology to cheat and then help our kids understand that the consequences for online cheating are just as serious as offline cheating,” commented James Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense Media.
Children have always come up with different conning ways; however the equipments they have nowadays are the most dominant. This poll disclosed that kids text answers to each other during tests with the help of notes and information stored on their cell phones. Additionally they even download papers from the Internet and transform it as their effort. The children do not fear of being caught since the digital world is distant and mysterious.
Common Sense Media is requesting parents and educators to lend a helping hand to kids for developing a set of rules to be followed in the digital world. These guidelines also stress that the policy of right and wrong in their offline lives is applicable even in their online lives. Additionally, it’s important for the parents to know and accept the media their kids are using. They should have a candid discussion about cheating and its repercussions.
Educators need to be extremely cautious about the amount of hi-tech cheating occurrences in their schools. They also need to converse with students about it, and set up rules and consequences for the classroom. The poll also reveals that 41% of teens believe that storing notes on a cell phone to access during a test is a grave offense, while 23% do not think so. 45% of teens consider that texting friends about answers during tests is a serious cheating crime, while 20% disagree.
Further, 76% of parents state that cell phone cheating takes place at their teens’ schools, but only 3% think that their teen has used a cell phone to cheat. It is also noted that nearly two-thirds of students with cell phones use them during school, in spite of school policies against it. Moreover, teens with cell phones send around 440 text messages weekly and 110 per week while in the classroom.
Along with the poll, Common Sense Media is also unveiling a policy paper, ‘Digital Literacy and Citizenship in the 21st Century’. It presents their vision for educating, empowering, and protecting kids. They aim at developing the skills, knowledge, and ethics for the present digital world.