Net students 'think copying OK' (BBC)

The "Google generation" of students often do not understand what plagiarism is, says an expert on the issue.
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Prof Brown, of Leeds Metropolitan University, will tell an international conference that the net has made copying and pasting too easy.
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Prof Brown, pro vice-chancellor for assessment, learning and teaching at Leeds Metropolitan, will be speaking in Gateshead this week.

In her presentation for the conference, she says students do not necessarily see anything wrong with copying other people's work.

She says they say things like "if they are stupid enough to give us three assignments with the same deadline, what can they expect?" and "I just couldn't say it better myself".
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/5093286.stm

I doubt the Web is to blame, though it has sure made copying easier. Even before the WWW had grown so big, and before most students used it routinely, I noticed my students saw nothing wrong with copying results from their classmates. If two did an experiment, and one of them had problems, they would just put down the 'good' results as their own. If they got caught at it, they never seemed to realize that they had even been 'caught' -- they simply saw nothing wrong with it, and acted like it had never been against the rules in any of their previous experience. Losing points for it was a real shock, or so it seemed.

I think the problem may have more to do with the impression that there is only one "right" answer, and that getting that answer is what counts (unfortunately, they are often graded in precisely that way), not the PROCESS of working it out as part of their individual development. Of course, I didn't understand that perfectly myself when I was a student, but I knew that we were EXPECTED to do our own work. When 'teamwork' became the mantra of education schools, the importance of individual achievement was downplayed, and even dismissed. But 'teamwork' tends to retrogress into letting the good students do all the work, while everyone else just writes it down. You can't build a capable team from incapable individuals! Teach the individual FIRST, THEN form teams, and teach them the ADDITIONAL skills needed to work together, on top of more basic skills. We can't blame the Web for that wrong turn.

I don't think it's just this generation. My parents, who think themselves honest people, think nothing of keeping extra money given them as change. (Adversely, they'll tell you right away if you short them.) Children learn bad habits just the same as good ones, immoral behavior as easily as ethical practices.


edit: My parents, to clarify, are in their 60's.

I last attended college in 2000 ran out of money and came back this last semester; I was amazed the level of citing your work that was needed now because people copy and plagarize so much from the internet and such. I mean I got papers marked down when I didn't cite my source when I was the source on a subject. I would try to explain "hey I lived this through life experience" to support whatever point I was trying to get across and I would have my work treated like I stole it from some website since I couldn't cite some article or book that the info came from.

you were suspected of plagarizing (no footnotes, etc.), you were given a hearing, and if found guilty, politely asked to leave college. I was so afraid of this rule that when I did my senior thesis, nearly every other paragraph had a footnote (if the material did not have an original opinion or analysis from myself). Some footnotes were three inches in detail as I used at least four reference books for accuracy on footnotes.

sometimes my footnotes had footnotes. :rofl:
I too went to college before the advent of the internet. Pounded out my papers on an Underwood. Spell check? Puhhhhleeeease. It was called a dictionary. Some of my papers were held together with whiteout! Then xeroxed to make them look good. *S* Those were the days....

year of engineering for cheating.

4 years washed away because they cheated.

previously earned credits would most likely be transferable to another school.

how easily you would get into another engineering program.

I knew one of the TA's who had taught them and he said that he felt any future programs would suspect all their work had been completed through cheating.

In real life you use material from a lot of sources, why not during school? I mean, even original thoughts came from somewhere else in your experience. I think learning how to manipulate the system is educational.

the new tools are getting VERY sophisticated and powerful...

nt

"When 'teamwork' became the mantra of education schools, the importance of individual achievement was downplayed, and even dismissed. But 'teamwork' tends to retrogress into letting the good students do all the work, while everyone else just writes it down. You can't build a capable team from incapable individuals! Teach the individual FIRST, THEN form teams, and teach them the ADDITIONAL skills needed to work together, on top of more basic skills. We can't blame the Web for that wrong turn."

I'm currently going to school, just 22 more weeks!! The thing that drove me nuts about this BA program was their insistence on everything being done in a "teamwork" environment. Exactly what you're describing is what happens. They say you can't survive in the "real" world without being able to run a team and be a part of a team. But they don't realize that at least in the "real" world, everyone wants to get the project done because their job relies on it. In the "real" college environment, I tend to be the driving force and everyone else gets my grade.