Internet plagiarism rising in schools
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jun/20/internet-plagiarism-rising-in-schools
Internet meant a great increase in the amount of free information, and students no longer had to wait three weeks for a book in the library. That has a downside, however. Internet plagiarism has risen considerably in school over the past years. It is very easy to just copy-paste things from the internet and handing it in as your own work. Mobile phones and MP3 players are also frequently used to cheat. A lot of schools and colleges now use the Turnitin database to check the work of pupils on plagiarism. There will be a three-day international conference at Northumbria University to share ideas on how to catch cheaters. Two of the ideas suggested are digital storytelling and earlier tutoring on how to reference sources.
I find this very interesting as I regularly catch myself committing plagiarism, though unconsciously. What happens is that I remember sentences from the text I’ve read and write them down identically or almost identically. Furthermore, some sentences are quite hard to change if you want to keep the message intact. Copying whole pages is something I never do, obviously. As it is such as big problem in the UK (and probably also in other places) I think the conference is a good idea. If some students are even willing to pay money for essays, then they are really on the wrong track. Telling pupils of the dangers earlier and teaching them how to use and reference sources is a good idea and will be sufficient for most of the students.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with what you are saying. Allthough I think that those databases that they use, should be very picky before calling someone's work plagiarism. I think the internet is a great contribution to a lot of educations, provided that students use it responsibly.
ReplyDeleteI think schools should check a student isn't using a mobile phone or MP3 player during an exam, students should be required to leave those in their bags. I think universities should check more for plagiarism. I am always very careful to try and put something down in my own words when I use a source for information.
ReplyDeleteI think the conference is a very good idea to teach students how to refer to a source or how to restate a sentence instead of doing the act of plagiarism. I know the internet is very easy to use as a source but that makes the plagiarism even worse, just because it is so easy. The database is a quite good idea when used responsibly. I also think students should always be checked for ´lost´ mp3 players and mobiles on the desk. They have to be removed, it is natural as they can be used for cheating.
ReplyDeleteI think everybody is thinking to hard when it comes to this problem. Everybody tries to find a solution while their is one already. There is this special programm on the internet, and for schools, where teachers can put a text or document in a special search machine, this machine marks the words that are plagiarised. If someone has commited plagiarism for more than 15 procent he or she will fail or has to do it again. So why put so much energy in something that is so easy to solve?
ReplyDelete