It occurred to me today that the times, they are a-changin’.

I have, for a few years now, been developing a relationship with my favorite student of all time. As that student moved on to college, with an interest in the computer sciences, he and I stayed in touch, and I’ve even served as his ‘mentor’ during an opportunity that he had, through his college, to set up an internship with an IT professional (even though I’m not sure that I meet that definition). There was even a semester in there where this young man was just volunteering in my school district, to assist me with my duties and to learn from me whatever I might have to offer him as instructions for being an IT professional (even though I’m not sure that I meet that definition).

Then, last month, I was drowning in the start of the school year, which is an annual thing for me, every September, except that this year, the problems all seemed to be significantly more difficult, because of the six-month summer vacation that preceded this fall’s start of school –> courtesy of the coronavirus. I was more stressed last month than in most Septembers in recent memory, and people in the district were noticing my distress. So, the administrators in the Central Office in our school district asked if someone could be hired to assist me in doing the work that I have to do, as the sole proprietor of a single-person IT department.

And now, I work in a two-person IT department. And I recommended, for my coworker, that former student of mine.

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Since I didn’t get his permission to write about him, I’ll call him George, for the duration of this post, not that it will matter much, since most of the people who read this blog are my coworkers (who would know George’s real name) or my close family and friends (who may also know George’s real name). George and I have been, over the course of the last few years, talking about a lot of different things, as we’ve spent so much time working together.

One of the things that George often likes to talk about are his college experiences. While many of them have been good and enriching experiences, George is often wont to lament the experiences that he has had in college that have been disappointing to him. George often tells me that he learns more from working alongside me than he does in his courses in computer science at his college. Late last week, George and I were talking about cheating.

George would have me believe that he is the only student in his college’s computer science program who doesn’t cheat their way through most of the coursework in the program. Now, whether or not George really is the only person that doesn’t cheat (I’ve never had any reasons to question his honesty in the past, so there’s that), and whether or not George is being hyperbolic when he describes himself thusly, the conversation that we had about cheating and education got me to thinking, as I am often likely to do.

I started out this blog post with the intention of writing on the subject that I am just now getting around to raising, via all of this backstory about George and the associated flotsam. So, without further ado…

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I have been of the opinion, for a number of years now, that education is in a different place than it used to be, and I, fortunately, got a front-row seat to watch the change unfolding right in front of me, over the last couple of decades.

In case you haven’t noticed, we are living in the twenty-first century, and this century –at least, in the industrialized world– puts most people smack dab in the middle of the information age. This information age, inasmuch as it developed inside of the lifetimes of anyone who would call themselves a middle-aged adult, or older, has been something that we’ve grown accustomed to, as the internet has given rise to a wider availability of information to people who would not have been as privileged in days gone by.

What the information age means for educators is that it changes the paradigm that students just need to receive our transmissions of information in class.

Nineteen years ago, I worked alongside a number of seasoned teachers who mentored me in all manner of different aspects of what it means to be an effective teacher. The majority of those teachers, who’ve since gone on to their retirements, would have agreed with the philosophy that education is largely about the teaching of skills and the transmission of critical information from the teacher to the student.

And, while I’ll agree that education still is, and forever shall be, about the teaching of skills, in our current information age, the transmission of any amount of information on any subject can occur through electronic means just as effectively, and probably much more efficiently, than through any antiquated educational endeavor.

Students don’t need teachers to transmit information to them.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many things I’ve learned from watching YouTube videos, as an example.

And, while we’ll never be able to successfully teach children to read, or successfully manage conflict, or manage their own workloads, or learn to think critically, etc., via YouTube videos, we still have –and I’m often guilty of this myself– many teachers who treat classrooms like places to disseminate information.

Today’s students don’t look at things that way. When they want to know something, they go to the internet to find it.

So, what does this mean for George?

Teachers who have problems with students who cheat in their classes, or on their assignments, should take a long look at what they’re assigning as graded work in their classes.

Have you ever seen a student cheat at conflict resolution? No, you haven’t.

When students cheat on an assignment, they are operating under a couple of different understandings that are important to note: 1) the student understands that the work is to be graded, and must therefore be completed, but the student also knows that 2) the work is of little real significance and can therefore be cheated on without any real risk at missing out on anything important.

Additionally, teachers who create assignments that students can cheat on are, more than likely, just creating assignments to check to see whether or not the student received their information-transmission.

While there’s certainly more to be said on this subject, and a couple of related subjects, this might be a good place to take a break. More on this subject on Wednesday, in Part 2.