Before the main column, you might be wondering who that guy is in the picture next to this column. After almost eleven years in this spot, I figured it might be time to update the old headshot, especially since I’ve gone through at least 3-4 different frames for my glasses since I started in August of 2012. Now back to our regularly scheduled program…
Cheating in school refers to any behavior or activity that violates the academic standards and ethical codes of conduct set by the institution. Some common forms of cheating in school include:
Plagiarism: Using someone else's work or ideas without proper citation or attribution.
Copying: Reproducing someone else's work or answers without permission or acknowledgement.
Collusion: Collaborating with others to produce work that is not entirely one's own.
Fabrication: Falsifying data, results, or sources in academic work.
Impersonation: Pretending to be someone else to gain an advantage in an academic setting.
Cheating during exams: Using unauthorized materials or methods to obtain answers during exams.
Bribery: Offering or receiving rewards in exchange for academic advantages.
It's essential to note that each institution may have its own specific definition of cheating, so it's essential to refer to the academic guidelines set by your school or college. Cheating is a serious academic offense and can lead to severe consequences, such as academic sanctions, suspension, or expulsion.
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Wow, that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
I have to admit, though, I cheated to write it. Naturally, there’s a story.
One of my classes was reading a story last week. They had some questions to answer along the way. I noticed one student showing another their answers. When I said that wasn’t okay and was, in fact, cheating, both students argued it was not. One of them said she couldn’t figure out the answer and the other was just showing what they got so the first student could get an idea.
No, that’s cheating. If you look at the list above, that’s known as collusion. I want you to figure it out on your own. I will help guide you if need be. And if you get it wrong, so be it. The idea is that you often learn just as much from mistakes as you do from successes.
I’ve heard a lot of students justify this type of behavior in recent years. “It’s not cheating. I’m just helping.” Showing someone the answer is not helping, it’s giving.
And now we have ChatGPT. This form of artificial intelligence makes writing and answering easy. That’s where I got the first part of my column. I typed in “What is considered cheating in school?” and it produced that answer in about ten seconds. Wow.
Where are we headed as a society? Has nobody read the books or seen the movies where the robots gain intelligence and take over?
One of my students suggested I could just use AI to write my column every week. I was aghast. That would take away any sense of accomplishment or pride I would have. (I’m a bit wary of the fact that 162 of the words this week are not my own.) The student just shrugged and said, “But it would be easier.”
There's the rub. It’s easier to cheat. I won’t pretend to be an angel; I cheated at times in my younger years. I’m not proud of it, but at the time it seemed to be the easy way out. I hadn’t studied and spent the time to learn the material, so I tried to get around that by cheating.
Another form of cheating I see more of is the example I used above. This often involves good students who are afraid of getting things wrong. I had one student approach me with a multiple choice question and said they weren’t sure if they had the right answer. I responded that they would find out when we corrected it. “That doesn’t help!” they exclaimed. Well, I’m not going to just tell you if you’re right or wrong. I will help lead you toward the right answer, but telling you that you are right or you are wrong is as good as giving you the answer at the start.
Work hard. Don’t fear mistakes. Artificial intelligence and its relationship to cheating will have to be addressed by schools pretty quickly. There are plagiarism checkers already; we will probably need AI checkers. But sooner or later, the computers will outsmart everything we can come up with. They’re created to do that, and it’s scary.
But don’t worry, I’ll only allow MY intelligence to write this column. You might think it’s a low level of intelligence at times, but that will only reassure you that these are my words!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is agley, which means awry or wrong, as in, “The AI-created essay went agley when the student realized he had asked for a paper about pulling when he meant polling.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!