Masuk Free Press

Every day, Masuk students stare at their screens for hours on end in an effort to sift through Google Classroom posts, online quizzes and virtual assignments. A deviation from pen and paper, completing assignments online offers a whole new wealth of resources to students. They have online dictionaries, calculators, and the entirety of Google at their fingertips. 

These resources allow students to consult outside information, ideas and often answers to assist them with their work. For some assignments such as online tests, this would be absolutely considered a violation and academic dishonesty, but the critical question is, can you really blame students for using the internet to help with everyday assignments?

“I think that consulting the internet is helpful with homework assignments. It helps to increase productivity and get it done quicker,” said junior Olivia Cottrell. 

While not every single source on the web is accurate and reliable, using the internet as a resource in place of a textbook is a massive lifesaver. You are quickly able to find direct information on your term or an answer to your question, instead of having to sift through a heavy, 700 page textbook for hours on end. While books will never stop being a reliable source, students are not always able to spend 45 minutes sifting through an index in order to locate one sentence of information on a particular topic.

Teachers tell students to “just try their best,” but in a world where grades are so crucial, students feel as though they must do everything they can in order to achieve a top mark. Teachers appear shocked when they find that students consult online resources to complete online assignments. This is rather ridiculous, considering that when they assigned the work, they know that answers are just one tab away. It’s entirely unrealistic to expect that students, especially when under pressure, will not do everything they can in order to ensure success. 

“I think the reason why students use outside resources is to keep their grade up and keep their GPA up,” said junior Jocelyn Allen. “Now that there’s the added pressure from colleges moving away from SAT scores to have a really good GPA, when you have one assignment that’s worth quite a bit and will tank your grade, students might find it more important to keep their grades up than focus on retaining the information.”

Considering the many pressures to get on that honor roll, it is naive to think that students will not do what they can to get a leg up when the opportunity presents itself. Frankly, it is rather unrealistic of teachers, especially when teaching a rigorous course, to feign shock at the idea of students using shortcuts

Asking students to turn a blind eye to the resources available to them is counterproductive to the way they will live the rest of their lives. There are little to no careers where adults are not permitted to use the internet to assist them and learn more. Having to filter through benign websites to find actual, helpful information fosters critical thinking, and learning to gather and sift through information is a useful skill, usually extremely helpful for future endeavors. 

It is true that just looking something up is not learning, but having to understand and apply the information you discovered does help to solidify the concept in your brain. This is also an advantage for students who may not have understood the way that their teacher was teaching the concept. It provides another route to understanding, leading to in-class success.

While a quick clarifying Google search could be considered relatively unproblematic during an online homework assignment, it is obviously not morally sound for an online test or exam. Unless teachers are using computer programs that allow them to monitor the students’ tabs, there is no real way to prevent the misconduct. Students doing work at home are at an even greater advantage, as there is no way to monitor their internet usage.

“When it comes to cheating, I think it depends on the teacher if we’re talking about whether they expect it. I think some teachers try to see the best in students, and hope that they will just try their best to complete the assignment the best they can for their own good,” shared Madison Poisson. 

Ultimately, academic dishonesty will always be wrong. However, there is a difference between using the internet to further your knowledge for an assignment and simply looking up test answers. There is no real harm in utilizing the ever-adapting and highly practical resource, and students should not be condemned for exploring it, as long as they do so ethically.