Cheating Evolution: The Role Of High-Tech Gadgets In The Educators Vs Students Plagiarism War

The evolution in high school cheating is similar to the evolution of life on the Earth. With high-tech development, high-tech cheating appeared. Learn what gadgets students use now to cheat and what educators can do to stop it from happening.

Cheating Evolution: The Role Of High-Tech Gadgets In The Educators Vs Students Plagiarism War

The evolution of life on Earth started billions of years ago, new species appeared and have been changing over the course of time and still keep on transforming.

High school cheating has been evolving for a long time, too. Being eager to get good grades making minimum effort is rather tempting, don't you agree? This evolution can be divided into two main eras: pre-digital and digital.

What did cheating begin with?

The beginning was quite primitive. Students used to write tiny paper cribs and hide them wherever possible – in their sleeves, pencil boxes, or even on the back of the student sitting in front of them. One more safe and proven method was also popular – using one's own arms as a cheat sheet by noting formulas, dates, etc, just like ancient tribes used to make cave paintings.

Later on, even water bottles became a favorite thing to be used during tests. Cribs were glued to the water bottle so that a student could see the answers.

High-tech progress makes cheating more sophisticated

Technological progress changed everything. With computers and printers on hand, students invented new methods of cheating. From that time on, students typed cribs and then printed them out and distributed as many copies as they needed. No extra time was wasted, and there was no manual work.

With high-tech devices updated, cheating methods further developed, too. For example, headphones are used by a great many plagiarists. You know how it works: You have an earpiece on while writing a test, and your mate dictates to you the correct answers via the device, and as a result, high grades are guaranteed.

Smartphones and Internet access still remain popular. Everything you need is right here online. The main thing is not to be caught. One more widely used cheating method is recording answers as MP3 tracks to listen to them via headphones.

Sure, all these tricks are rather common– every student knows them well. But cheaters are about to go on honing their skills. Just check out what Chinese students invented for cheating:

● Shirt with headphones

Supplied with several cables, this shirt is a real spy device. It looks pretty simple until you see all the hidden headphones. A little camera records your test and shows it to your friend, who's providing you with correct answers.

●Glasses and a coin

Glasses have in-built cameras, which can take pictures of the test. A coin is used as a remote control, enabling a student to send signals to his or her "assistant" asking for help.

●Wallet with a camera

A wallet can have a hidden camera. The main problem is that you have to place it so that you can record what's written on your test. The downside is that it looks weird when a wallet is on your shoulder like a pirate parrot.

●A pen and headphone

While writing, your helper receives the answers you've written and then tells you if they are correct via a headphone. By the way, all these crazy inventions are already sold online. Even James Bond would be jealous.

Are educators as tech savvy as students?

Educators seem to be very inventive as well when it comes to catching cheaters. What else are they supposed to do? For example, a Remote Proctor Suite system suggests an innovative solution for students who are studying online. Thanks to a record-and-review online testing model, it's possible to identify a student biometrically as well as exam environment.

No doubt this system isn't affordable for every high school, so educators should fall back on less-advanced means. Particularly, plagiarism checkers, such as Unplag, PlagiarismDetect, and others are helpful. They can help a professor understand whether a student's paper was copied from the Internet, but only after the student has handed in his or her paper.

The list of anti-plagiarism software is quite long. Most of them work online, which means that educators don't need to install any additional programs to start using them. Thanks to these tools, educators don't need to search for plagiarism manually, which saves a lot of time.

This means that cheating will be uncovered sooner or later. So cheaters, beware.