Article #7

I can't believe 50% of students admitted to cheating in 2002. That just seems like a lot of students are cheating and kind of makes me upset because here I am working really hard to make sure I cite everything and study hard, but to think that possibly 50% of my classmates are not doing the same. That just does not add up to me. What does this mean for this generation that cheats?

I'm going to go on a rant know. I just don't understand what are these students thinking when they cheat? In the short run they get good grades but what about the long run? What kind of professionals are they going to become? What is the point of going to school if all they are going to do is cheat? They are cheating themselves and their future employers and clients. Studying is supposed to be hard. School is supposed to be hard. I’m getting so tired of the up in coming generation that is all about instant gratification. It’s all about getting the newest and greatest technology as fast as they can. About getting the best grades the easiest way possible. Where is the hard work ethic? I got a laptop last year; I did not have the money to get one before then. I got my first cell phone when I was 21yr, my family nor I had the money to get me one before then. I had to work for my phone and laptop before I could get it. Now days I perceive I could be wrong, but laptops are becoming more common for teenagers to have and I know phones are. I think the up in coming technologies could be responsible for the increase in cheating, mainly because it made it easier to cheat and therefore more tempting to cheat. Don’t have any data to back that up but it’s just what I think.

Another thing that really erks me is that students are redefining what "cheating" really is. So now students are cheating but they really don't believe it's cheating when they take other peoples work and say that it’s theirs or download notes into their calculator. I feel like I have to be really careful because how much of this line of thought have I absorbed into my way of thinking. Have I or now I'm sure that in some way plagiarized without evening thinking twice about it. What is really sad is that teachers don't really care if a student uses other people’s work they just have to cite it. I admit citing is a pain in the but. For all my dietetic classes I have to cite in APA and for my one writing class I have to cite in MLA, but if that is what the teachers want, it’s their class and they can set the criteria any way they want. It adds a little more time but in order to get the grade that I want I have to follow the teachers rules. 

I say job well done for all the teachers and Universities that are fighting back.  I think Christe is ingenious for setting up fake web pages and signs-up for her own class under an assumed name. Once she has caught the person she uses the situation as a teaching opportunity to actually help the student become better.