"Digital Cheating"

A recent national survey on "high-tech cheating" in school has produced some predictable hand-wringing on the part of education adults. The concern is not only about the numbers of students who have admitted to using their cell phone to cheat on an exam (about 35%), but the even higher number (about 50%) who think it's ok to do so.

For the benefit of the adults in the room, here are a few examples of what students have admitted to: storing information to look at during an exam (26%); warning their friends about a pop quiz (48%); downloading a paper from the internet to turn in (21%); and using the internet to find a teacher's manual that has problem solutions (32%).

To me, this is not only an issue of what it means to "cheat", it raises the question: what is the proper role of assessment in education?  Today, the "real test of competency is not in a regurgitation of data; it is in applying that data to real world problems in order to create new knowledge."

What is the value in measuring whether students are able to memorize a piece of information that they could look up on the internet in a matter of seconds?

Already, students - generally on their own initiative - are using technology to find alternate explanations of material they didn't understand in class.  They would also like the opportunity to record class lectures to listen to later - but the typical school policy prevents access to technology during the school day that students have at any other time. (Surprisingly, only 9% of teachers in the survey thought that cell phones were a distraction that should be banned from the classroom.)

The article concluded by calling for a national discussion on the concept of "digital ethics."  I hope the adults don't turn it into a national "lecture", instead - our students may have something to teach us about the nature of learning in the digital age.