Academic dishonesty is nothing new. As long as there have been homework assignments and tests, there have been cheaters. The way that cheating looks has changed over time, though, particularly now that technology has made it easier than ever. A study by the Josephson Institute of Ethics interviewed 23,000 high school students and asked them a variety of questions about academic ethics. Of the teens surveyed, 51 percent said that they had knowingly cheated at some point on an exam but that they did not feel uneasy about the

behaviour. A Common Sense Media survey found that 35 -percent of students had cheated via smartphone, though the parents surveyed in that particular study did not believe their kids had ever cheated. In many cases, students did not realize that strategies like looking up answers on a smartphone were actually cheating at all.

In today's classrooms, students who cheat are rarely caught. There are no formulas written on the insides of hands or students looking across the aisle, or whispering answers to their classmates. Today's students use smartphones, tablets or even in-class computers to aid their cheating attempts and leave no trace of their crimes. Since cheating through technology is not listed specifically as being against the rules in many school policies, students do not view the actions unethical.

The technology is being adopted so quickly that school districts cannot adequately keep up with cheating policies, or even awareness campaigns that alert students to the problem with using technology to find answers in a certain way. From a young age,students learn that answers exist conveniently at their fingertips through search engines and expert websites.

Schools must develop anti-cheating policies that include technology and these policies must be updated consistently. Teachers must stay on guard when it comes to what their students are doing in classrooms and how technology could be playing a negative role in the learning process. Parents must also talk to their kids about the appropriate ways to find academic answers and alert them to unethical behaviours that may seem innocent in their own eyes.