Teachers should enforce strict technology policies to reduce cheating

By Elora Brow

Staff Writer

Recently Mira Costa has experienced cheating scandals that are primarily influenced by the use of technology, which has brought attention to the influence of technology on Costa’s students  as well as its effects on their education.  

Math teacher, Linda Gesualdi and Science teacher, Trevor Oystrick, recently discovered their students had been taking pictures of exams and quizzes throughout the year and sharing them with other students. According to principal Dr. Ben Dale, Mira Costa’s technology restrictions say that students should not have their technology out unless it is being used for educational purposes.

Technology has grown to play a large role in the current generation of students and they are learning different ways to abuse the capabilities that technology provides. In addition to taking pictures of tests, students can abuse technology by looking up answers during tests and for homework.

According to a recent student survey, taken by Costa students, 90 percent of students have cheated and 65 percent of these students have used technology to do so. These results clearly prove technology is responsible for more than half the amount of cheating that occurs. If students did not have access to technology in the classroom, then it would be more difficult for them to look up and share answers with classmates.

Although Mira Costa’s lack of enforcement with technology doesn’t necessarily encourage students to cheat, as stated by Dale, it does show them that it is not hard to do so. If the use of technology in the classroom was more strictly monitored, then the amount of cheating taking place could go down in the future.

According to Gesualdi, she now requires to students put their phones in a hanging pocket holder in the back of the classroom for every assessment. This method of controlling technology will completely eliminate students access to their phones during testing, impeding them from potentially compromising the legitimacy of the exam.

All teachers should be required to enforce strict technology policies exactly as Ms. Gesualdi, as students will continue to abuse technology if the issue is not addressed. It should not take a cheating scandal to force a teacher to monitor how technology is being used in their classrooms as teachers would be less likely to encounter this problem.

According to Gesualdi, not only does technology provide easy access to cheating, but it also distracts students in class and instead students do not pay attention to lessons as they choose to spend the time on their phones instead. Technology is not only affecting the honesty and integrity of students but also their education as they are not able to fully absorb course content due to the potential distraction of technology.

Although technology plays a major role in cheating at Costa, students have to use technology to complete their homework assignments and even class work respectively, as internet access is integrated to help complete assignments; at the same time students they must learn to use technology responsibly.

According to Dale, technology has not influenced cheating at all because students will always find a way to cheat with or without technology. Although students might find a way to cheat without technology, it is still much easier for students to do so with it.

Overall, technology greatly affects a student’s education negatively. Although it does not encourage students to cheat, it makes cheating for students much easier. Mira Costa’s lack of enforcement of the use of technology largely increases the student’s ability to abuse the use of technology in the classroom, and strict monitoring of technology in the classroom must be addressed in order to maintain school-wide academic integrity.