iPod, iCheat

When I took geometry summer classes at my high school I was tearing my hair out over a problem that I could not decipher to save my life. But when I glanced up I would see a handful of my classmates very, very obviously sending each other answers to the test via text messages. I know I probably failed the test anyway but still! I would have appreciated failing and knowing that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand the material. Instead, whatever grading curve was originally in place and could have possibly added a little cushion between myself and the giant letter ‘F’, was cut even tighter by the text message cheaters.

Technology is the closet thing to power. When you’re at the age where technology becomes second nature everything else is fair game. School isn’t easy. Most of us can testify to that. When you’re backed into a corner and say a very, very scary test is looming, and you haven’t studied because – well – in all sincere honesty – you just had other important things to do. For many, cell phones have become the go-to device for quick and easy communication. And like the situation I showed earlier cell phones became the quick and easy way to cheat and maybe not getting caught.

With the rise of public admiration for the all-mighty iPod, cell phones may become new method preferred by 4 out of 5 classroom cheats. Though the iPod’s primary use has been for music and movie addicts, a useful feature that allows the user to upload whole documents into their little player, or recording the answers on an audio file before hand and then stealthy playing them back without anyone noticing . The iPod has become a pocket failsafe for students in a crunch, or just the ever-growing lazy generation. If kids were sneaky enough to use their phones to message answers across the room, pulling out the iPod and scrolling down the play lists probably won’t be any difficult.

If this isn’t a sign that the youth culture is on the verge of taking over the world – then the youth generation has been severely underestimated.