There are many sources that students can use for classroom and homework help. Three main sources that students at OHS use are Slader, SparkNotes, and Quizlet. These sources can be very helpful to some students; however, others can take advantage of them and use these tools to cheat on different assignments. Mike Halverson the director of technology and innovation said, “After reviewing the policies and configuration in place, both Slader and SparkNotes are now allowed for students.” The reason that these sources were blocked was that hundreds of sites were being blocked and some of them get inadvertently blocked.

Slader is a smartphone app where you can look up homework answers and submit them to the site. Slader is easy to use, all you have to do is scan your textbook’s barcode and search up the lesson assigned in class. If Slader is used to just write down the answers students will get nothing out of it. Students should try the problem they are given and refer back to Slader for help when they get stuck. Math teacher Mrs. Anderson said, “Oftentimes answers are wrong and students just write down the work which doesn’t better their math skills.” Slader isn’t reliable, as answers are submitted by students and not teachers.

SparkNotes is an online site that you can use for your reading classes. SparkNotes normally contains a summary or an analysis for students to use while reading a book for class. Many students rely on this source for help to understand what they are reading. English teacher Mr. Wanous said, “I don’t think we want to rely on someone else’s interpretation and summaries of a piece of literature, I think that puts us in a box that we forget to think creatively ourselves.” SparkNotes can be helpful for students to understand a storyline. That being said, teachers are drawing a fine line between what helps students and what is simply unoriginal.

Quizlet is a website and app that students use to create study sets, flashcards, tests, and games. Quizlet allows you to look up different study sets based on the topic of what you are learning. Teachers can also use Quizlet in their classes to help students study for their vocab words or their daily lesson. When teachers use Quizlet it allows students to access the study set when they are not at school. Spanish teacher Ms. Cabbage uses Quizlet in all of her classes to create study sets for each of the vocabulary and grammar portions of each chapter. She said, “I believe if students are using Quizlet in a positive way it’s okay to use but I know that students can go and post answers on there so that is something I wouldn’t encourage.”

There are multiple online opportunities that students can use for homework and class help. Students have to be able to use these sites in the correct way to get the full effect of what students are trying to accomplish while using these sites.