Thanks, Ms. Linder, for your thoughtful and forthright commentary. You inspired me to write my own blog entry on the topic.
As for the long-term viability of the venerable "paper," I don't think the format of the product is itself the problem. And I disagree that assigning papers in today's world is anachronistic in the way that teaching FORTRAN is. That said, there are papers and there are papers. If a student is asked to write a "report" that is no more than a reporting (or pasting) of facts and figures, then, yes, we are looking at an obsolete skill (unless we're trying to prepare students to write for Wikipedia). But if we're trying to teach students to learn, for example, how scientific communication works, then they need to know not only how to do the physics (biology, chemistry, math, etc.), but also how to explain the way the new knowledge relates to previous literature, fits into the larger scientific discourse, has or does not have logical flaws, and what, if any, impact it has on society. All of this activity involves reading, writing, and critical analysis, and therefore will be subject to the efforts of plagiarists.
I could go on, but I already did in my blog posting. I'd love to hear to some student perspectives here!
Plagiarism at Uni
Thanks, Ms. Linder, for your thoughtful and forthright commentary. You inspired me to write my own blog entry on the topic.
As for the long-term viability of the venerable "paper," I don't think the format of the product is itself the problem. And I disagree that assigning papers in today's world is anachronistic in the way that teaching FORTRAN is. That said, there are papers and there are papers. If a student is asked to write a "report" that is no more than a reporting (or pasting) of facts and figures, then, yes, we are looking at an obsolete skill (unless we're trying to prepare students to write for Wikipedia). But if we're trying to teach students to learn, for example, how scientific communication works, then they need to know not only how to do the physics (biology, chemistry, math, etc.), but also how to explain the way the new knowledge relates to previous literature, fits into the larger scientific discourse, has or does not have logical flaws, and what, if any, impact it has on society. All of this activity involves reading, writing, and critical analysis, and therefore will be subject to the efforts of plagiarists.
I could go on, but I already did in my blog posting. I'd love to hear to some student perspectives here!