After reading Lisa Renard's article "Cut and Paste 101: Plagiarism and the Net", I decided to focus my blog posting on "cutting and pasting". It is true that the original form of "cut and paste" came about in the early years of school. Students would have to use their scissors to cut out shapes or other pictures and paste them on their paper. It was a simple task for students to complete and done by many.
As technology evolved, a new form of "cut and paste" came about. You could select a piece of text with your mouse, drag the cursor over, and select copy. Pull up the application you needed to use and click paste. Boom! Everything was right there just as simple as your original cut and paste but just a little less messy! It became the quick and efficient way to copy and paste. However, this "cut and paste" wasn't seen to be proper in the eyes of educators and businesses. But aren't students doing the same thing that they did before just minus the glue?
Students would cut out someone else's work, glue it on a paper, and claim it as their own. Aren't students doing the exact same thing but with the use of a computer?
Now don't get me wrong, I am by no means saying that copying and pasting someone else's work is ok. But I see how students don't recognize cutting and pasting as a problem. It was ok for them to cut and paste in elementary school, so why is it not ok anymore?
I think the main problem is that students don't know how to properly cite someone else's work and honestly don't even know that they have to. Renard discusses that there are three types of internet cheaters. You have the "unintentional cheater" who has never learned how to properly cite their work and when confronted don't understand that they did anything wrong (Renard 1999). Your second type of internet cheater is known as the "sneaky cheater". The sneaky cheater understands that plagiarism is wrong but also knows how to get away with it (Renard 1999). The last type of cheater you can find is the "all or nothing cheater". These types of cheaters wait till the last minute and then decide to find a paper online and turn it in with their name on it (Renard 1999). I feel that the majority of students fall into the unintentional cheater category. I know that in elementary school or even middle school no one taught me how to properly cite my sources or give credit to the author of the paper. It wasn't until high school that I was given even an ounce of instruction on this. If students are only showed a few times then they won't remember it! No one got on their bike for the first time without training wheels and road for hours and hours and never needed someone to show them again. Its unrealistic to think that students who are unintentional cheaters can learn if they aren't given opportunities to have guidance from teachers on this topic.
Renard also discusses some ways to prevent this online cheating problem. She suggests for teachers to avoid the common writing prompts and make the prompts related towards the students. Ask students higher level questions that relate from the text to themselves. Those questions would be more beneficial to the students in the long run anyways.
Will internet plagiarism every go away? My answer would be no. There will always be people who are in a bind that need something quick or the lazy student who doesn't care to do the work to start with. However, I feel that if we can show the unintentional cheater how to properly cite and give them less chances to use the generic teacher assignment then there would be a decrease in internet plagiarism.
We need to start in the elementary school level guiding students through properly citing sources and giving credit to work that someone else has done before we allow them for years and years to get away with using the "copy and paste" technique throughout school.
Now my question is...how can educators explain the difference between scissors and glue sticks and the mouse and internet?
Reference:
Renard,L. (1999). Cut and paste 101: plagiarism and the Net. Educational Leadership, 57 (4), 38-42.
http://abbynet.sd34.bc.ca/~dereck_dirom/035EEE2E-002F4E0D.2/Cut%20&%20paste%20101.pdf
Great post Lauren,
ReplyDeleteI have to say the connection you made to the conventional cut and paste in elementary school is so true. Teachers often print out work for students to cut out and paste, calling it their own work. If students are, "cutting and pasting" since elementary school why would they think there is anything wrong with it in the future. Wither students are coping and pasting images or information, changing it and calling it their own, they should still understand the rules of plagiarism. It is a fascinating connection you made and it really opened my eyes to why children are so ignorant to the proper way to "cut and paste."
Also, I like the way you broke down the different types of "cheaters" mentioned by Renard. After reading the article,"Cut and Paste 101: Plagiarism and the Net," and your post I see the very different ways people are plagiarizing information, wither it is intentionally or innocently.
Happy Blogging,
Katie
Hi Katie
ReplyDeleteI really hadn't thought about how students would take something such as cut and paste so literal but its very true! I think many students just don't understand and especially the younger students!