I don’t know if it’s become prevalent, but I do know it’s more obvious…an awful lot of students are cheating on their research papers, at least in literature studies, based on the google hits I get. This search term says it best:
cheat webs for homework
Spinning gets a load of hits because of the listing of books and the reviews that I’ve done as well as some of the writing terms that are often headlined in the posts. Plus I’ve got almost four years and well over four thousand posts, most of which are literature-based.
How very sad that in addressing the problem, the blame is often put on the academic institution, from the instructors to the course syllabus and the school itself, as well as the corporate world that the school is preparing the students to face. Too tough, too competitive, too stressful, they claim.
How about the students? How about too lazy? Students are really not being asked too much, not pushed too hard, at least no more than they were decades ago. Only difference is that decades ago the kids graduating junior high could read.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
I’ve often wondered how much real learning is happening, even when students aren’t cheating, but because they do have so much access to information on line. I read recently that information read online just doesn’t have the same impact as information read in print. Before search engines, researching a paper usually meant a trip to the library, using the card catalogue and research section, photocopying some information, checking out books and actually reading a lot to gather and then distill information. I think the physical act of doing all of these things truly helped me internalize information on a much deeper level. There weren’t nearly as many sources available, which I think also had a beneficial side effect. All the work was done in long hand and then typed out. The idea of an education is to train a student to think and to reason (I think) and I suspect the internet may not be helping that.
I think that in so many ways the internet has made so much information available it’s wonderful. This is tempered by the fact that some of it is questionable or merely opinionated (I laugh at all these students maybe lifting ideas from my reviews since they are not backed up, even by me!). It is also true, as you point out, that the mechanism of research can reinforce the learning; copy and paste just ain’t gonna do that.
I don’t know if my opinions have more validity than others’ ’cause I’m a student, but I totally think laziness and lack of discipline that cause all the cheating and shortcutting. But keep in mind: Not all people are cut out for academia. Some are writing those papers on Beowulf with no intention to retain information; they’re doing what they have to do to get whatever degree they want. So, the shoe fits. It’s not fair, definitely not. However, the students who are dedicated to learning will go the extra miles and miles to learn so that they can sound informed in the classroom, in the future, in the world at large.
Ignore that typos. Thx.
SHEESH. I meant: Ignore THE typos. Regardless of my inability to type this morning (it’s still early, people), please consider my humble opinion.
Ignore that typos. Thx.
I cannot honestly say I know why there’s a duplicate of that ^ comment. What’s going on? Sigh. Sorry, Susan for butchering your lovely post. Feel free to delete this extraneous nonsense.