CHEATING AMONG STUDENTS IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY: SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS VIEWS IN ILORIN SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT, ILORIN, KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

OGUNLADE, Oyeronke Olufunmilola Ph. D, BELLO Olanrewaju, OGUNLADE,Amos AkindelePhD And Aderonke Soetan (PhD)

AT THE 7 TH INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE DATES: MARCH 4TH-6TH, 2013 PLACE: VALENCIA (SPAIN)

Cheating in the digital age is becoming rampant. Students use the internet to purchase papers, cut and paste information, and send instant message to their friends for sharing home work. This study examined cheating with mobile technology among secondary school students in Ilorin south local government, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. The study was limited to ten (10) schools in Ilorin south local government, a total of one hundred and fifty (150) students were involved in the study. Questionnaire was the major instrument used to gather relevant data. A total number of one hundred and fifty students were involved in the study.

 Mobile technology is exactly what the name implies-technology that is portable.  Examples are Laptop, notebook computers, palmtop computers, mobile phones, global positioning system (GPS) and wireless debit/credit card payment terminals.  Mobile devices use a variety of communication technologies such as Bluetooth; that connects mobile devices wirelessly fidelity (WiFi); a type of wireless, local area network technology, third generation (3G), global system for mobile communications (GSM) and general packet radio service (GPRS) data services; data networking services for mobile phones, dial-up services; data networking services using modem and telephone lines (Campbell, 2007).

 Mobile phones are also particularly useful computers that fit in individuals pocket, are always with him or her, and are nearly always on (Prensky, 2005).  Cell phones are becoming more and more sophisticated, incorporating.  Secondary school students especially are using the camera features on their phones as a means of copying another student’s test paper or taking pictures of their notes to use during a test (Gerald, 2006).

Purpose of the Study.  Specifically, this study found out students ’views on cheating and the use of mobile technology among secondary school students in Kwara State Nigeria. Specifically, the study found out ;  technology equipments and their applications by secondary school students to cheat in examination.

 The study figured out effects of cheating and reasons why secondary school students cheat during examinations.  Finally, the study investigated the strengths and weaknesses of mobile technology in education.

 1.How do students use mobile technology applications for examination cheating in secondary schools?  2.What are the technology equipments used by secondary school students to cheat in examination hall?  3. What are the reasons for secondary school students’ involvement in cheating during examination?  4.What are the effects of cheating in examination on secondary school students involved?  5.What are the strengths and weaknesses of mobile technology in education?

 The study covered the secondary schools in Ilorin, Kwara State. The researchers made use of Ilorin South Local Government where ten(10) secondary schools were purposively chosen and fifteen (15) students in each school were selected randomly for the research

Related literature to the study were reviewed Examples are; Cheating has become common place in secondary schools, largely because students are using technology to gather and share information in rather innovative ways (Kharif, 2008). Norris ( 2009), said some female students actually hide their phones in their under- wears and when confronted by the invigilator claim that they are only adjusting their sanitary towels to make it firm.

Electronic cheating among the secondary school students, the cell phone technology seems to have provided a smart way to beat the effort of government and civil society groups to stamp out the menace (Ojerinde, 2011). Advanced cellular phones with internet access (such as blackberry or iphone) enable secondary school students to send, store and download information using the internet and/or texting features in the examination hall (Lynn DeNoia, 2004).

Another part of the problem of examination cheating is the grade. Students often see the grade as the goal of the course and do not focus on what they have learnt. Since the grade is the goal, students will do whatever necessary to achieve the grade (Olasehinde, 1993).

 The target population for this study were students of secondary schools in Ilorin, Kwara State. The sampling technique used for this study was random in which one hundred and fifty students were selected.  The researcher selected a total number of 150 respondents from ten selected secondary schools Ilorin South Local Government, kwara state which means 15 participants in each school.

 RESEARCH QUESTION 1: How do students use mobile technology applications for examination cheating in secondary schools?  The method of analysis is the percentage method, which was used to calculate the percentage number of respondents that checked “YES” or “NO” on each question being answered.

Results on the use of mobile technology features across secondary schools in Table I are as follows. The number of respondents was 150 in all. The table indicated that 54.7% of students did not make use of camera feature of phones to copy another student’s test paper may be because of their unawareness of it or how to make use of it. 66.7% indicated that the use of Bluetooth to cheat in examination is not new to them. 67.3% of students used phones with the aim of cheating in examination. 68.7% expressed that they did not use browser on the mobile phone may be because it consumes time and not reliable due to network failure sometimes.

The result revealed that 100 respondents representing 76.92% said that they own computer with internet connection while 30 respondents representing 23.8% of the respondents said they did not have access to internet connection on their computer. 99 respondents which represented 66% of the respondents had access to internet through cellular network on their mobile phones while 41 respondents representing 34% said they did not have access to the internet through mobile network. When asked whether they had access to internet through wifi connection on their phones, 25 respondents representing 16.67% of the total number of respondents for the study said they did while, 125 respondents representing 93.33% said they did not have access to the internet through wifi connection on their phones.

RESEARCH QUESTION 2: What are the technology equipments used by secondary school students to cheat in examination hall?  Results on the use of technology equipments to cheat in examination hall are shown in Table II. The table shows the number of respondents to be 150. The result of the study revealed that 93.3% of the secondary school students in Ilorin South Local Government are used to swap text messages through cell phone. This means that the chance of cheating with text answers is very high.

 RESEARCH QUESTION 3: What are the reasons for secondary school students’ involvement in cheating during examinations?  Results on the reasons for secondary school student’s involvement in examination are shown in Table III above. The table shows the number of respondents to be 150.  The result of the study revealed that 92.7% of secondary school students cheat in examination because everybody does it. This means that they have taken cheating as priority in examination.  86.7% agreed that the pressure to obtain good grades make them to cheat in examination. This can be said that too much emphasis on certain grade energize students to use every means to involve in examination cheating.

 RESEARCH QUESTION 4: What are the effects of cheating in examinations on secondary school students involved?  Results on the effects of examination cheating on secondary school students are shown in Table IV. The number of respondents was 150 in all. 88% accepted that if found cheating in examination demoralizes their personality.  This means that they do not want to be caught while cheating. 60% showed that they cannot be proud of what they got by cheating.  This implies that they cannot defend whatever they got by cheating. 68% agreed that cheating violated teacher’s trust in them. It can be said that the fear of teachers enable students to cheat smartly. 66.7% did not care about students who did not cheat in examination since the end determines the means

 Over-emphasis on good certificates and paper qualifications enable students to be involved in electronic cheating.  Communication by electronic mail, computers and by text messages encourage cheating.  The use of computer technologies in everyday classroom activities distracts learning attention.  The use of internet in assignment without properly monitored gives the students the chance to cheat in examination.  The erroneous believe that everybody cheats in one way or the other encourages students to involve themselves in such act.  Encouragement on the use of Global mobile communication by parents, guardians and teachers in the classroom energizes the students to cheat during examinations.  Purchasing of smart phones for students enable them to be aware of the immoral ways of using handsets.  Copying other people’s work during examination from internet pretending to be their own ideas. 

 Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made;  Basic infrastructural facilities should be made available to intensify the interest of students in learning and usage of mobile technology equipments in an educational way.  Government should make sure that square pegs are in square holes that is recruiting teachers of different disciplines in educational sector not accountant, physicist, chemist, marketers and so on.  Parents should forget the service of ilocoparentis rendered by teachers. They should teach their children moral standards especially in the use of mobile technology equipments since charity begins at home.

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