Cheating using cellphones and other mobile devices—such as sending friends test answers by text message or searching the Internet during quizzes—is widespread among middle and high school students, according to a nationally representative poll commissioned by Common Sense Media.
The prevalence of cheating on tests, plagiarizing online content, and helping classmates do the same using digital devices suggests a growing need for school lessons around technology use and ethics, argues the report released last month.
More than a third of teenagers with cellphones, for example, admit that they have used them to cheat in school, while just over half have used the Internet to do so. Most of the students who responded did not think that storing notes on their cellphones to use during a test, or downloading online materials to present as their own, was a serious offense.
