{"id":553,"date":"2007-10-13T11:16:06","date_gmt":"2007-10-13T11:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/34.95.25.178\/maggie\/2007\/10\/13\/but_thats_cheating\/"},"modified":"2007-10-13T11:16:06","modified_gmt":"2007-10-13T11:16:06","slug":"but_thats_cheating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.golding.ca\/maggie\/2007\/10\/13\/but_thats_cheating\/","title":{"rendered":"But that’s cheating!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last spring, I encountered a case of plagiarism in one of my Cont. Ed. courses; for an essay assignment, a student submitted a slightly reworded version of an on-line essay available through one of the many Internet study guide sites. At the time, I posted my response<\/a>, which provoked a few cheers from some of you.
\nThe following addresses the issue of academic ethics in the context of the Internet, and is my first journal entry for the latest M.Ed. course I’m taking, ‘IT and the College Classroom.’ There’s also an interesting thread dealing with academic ethics over on Siobhan’s blog<\/a>, so if you can still stand looking at your screen once you’re done here, go check it out.
\nThe advent of the Internet has had a profound effect on education, and this effect is both positive and negative. In positive terms, the Internet has exponentially expanded our academic horizons. We have access to research and commentary from fellow academics from around the world. We can read out-of-print books, see rare film adaptations, and hear long-forgotten radio plays, thanks to the ongoing global academic effort to share more and more knowledge among more and more people. The academy in particular, perhaps, benefits from the same non-profit-oriented open source spirit that has given us free software such as Open Office, Linux and Moodle.<\/p>\n


\nThe negative aspect of all of this sharing is that it\u2019s now exponentially easier to find a 500-word essay on the symbolic nature of setting in \u2018The Yellow Wallpaper.\u2019 In the current Cegep system, students take English courses because they are required to do so. The Ministry of Education (and Leisure and Sports, but that\u2019s another rant), correctly places supreme importance on the students\u2019 ability to communicate in the language of instruction, hence the requirement not only to complete four English courses, but also to prove proficiency in a provincial exit exam that tests students\u2019 ability to read and write analytically. However, the reasons for the requirements \u2013 however good the reasons may be \u2013 are not communicated effectively to the students, or, for that matter, to teachers in other disciplines. As a result, students take English courses, resenting the time and effort required. They avoid reading as much as possible unless the instructor builds reading quizzes into the syllabus, and they look for shortcuts when it comes to writing assignments. Since they don\u2019t see how and why English courses are important, students tend to place their English homework at the bottom of their list of priorities, which leaves them scrambling to finish assignments at the last minute \u2013 enter the on-line essay fix. Presumably, the rationale is that if the student cannot conceivably complete the assignment in the remaining time, submitting a plagiarized essay is a viable option because the worst that can happen is that the teacher will \u2018catch\u2019 the student and give the essay a zero \u2013 at which point the student will present his\/her sob story about academic pressures and\/or problems at home, and hope that the teacher will allow them to resubmit. The best case scenario, obviously, is that the teacher doesn\u2019t recognize the plagiarism and assigns a high grade for such insightful, well-written work.
\nWhat this comes down to is a few more responsibilities for the teacher. First of all, English teachers in particular, and all teachers in general, should explain and reiterate the importance of communication skills. Regardless of a student\u2019s discipline, s\/he will need to develop these skills if s\/he is to be successful in the world outside the academy; in fact, the high-tech revolution has made this truism even more relevant. If you can\u2019t communicate effectively, as a listener, a speaker, a reader and a writer, you won\u2019t get very far in the virtually-expanded world. Secondly, teachers \u2013 again, across disciplines \u2013 need to work together to define academic ethics in this \u201cnew\u201d academy. Before we start disciplining students for perceived missteps in their use of Internet sources, we need, individually and collectively, to determine what constitutes appropriate use of these sources. Finally, we need to recognize that our job includes teaching students how to successfully and effectively exploit the apparently limitless resources of the Internet. In the past, English teachers have taught students how to use on-campus library facilities, and how to collect and incorporate a limited number of sources from \u2018hard\u2019 texts, such as books, magazines and newspapers. It only follows, then, that today\u2019s English teachers should be teaching students how to apply the same skills to web-based resources. After all, it would be remiss of us to overlook the fact that with rare exception, our students have unlimited Internet access \u2013 and they can count on one hand the number of times they\u2019ve stepped into a library to do research. So rather than simply vetoing all web resources lest these resources prove inappropriate or inaccurate, not to mention too easily copied and pasted and submitted as student work, teachers need deliberately and aggressively to teach students how to navigate search engines, evaluate web resources, effectively incorporate sources, and correctly document these sources to avoid any possible whiff of plagiarism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last spring, I encountered a case of plagiarism in one of my Cont. Ed. courses; for an essay assignment, a student submitted a slightly reworded version of an on-line essay available through one of the many Internet study guide sites. At the time, I posted my response, which provoked a few cheers from some of … <\/p>\n

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