Comments on: How exactly do you define cheating?

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:29:49 +0000

First of all, I agree with you. Cheating is cheating. However, that being said, if a student were to go to one of those sites, download a paper, and quote a passage from it, synthesize it and share their own comments about it’s validity, that isn’t cheating is it? IN fact, at that point we’re dangerously close to calling that research, aren’t we?

With that in mind, how do we ask our students questions that they CAN’T find a pre-written paper to on the internet? Or leverage those tendencies for our own needs?

For example: Compare a character in Hamlet to a character in a TV series that is on television right now. How might that character have been influenced by SHakespeare and how do the character traits differ?

How would Romeo and Juliet’s story be different if they had access to today’s technology? Discuss one scene in depth and share the implications for the story over all..

And so on.

I’m not saying those are great assignments, but they’re examples. I just figure it’s our responsibility to give assignments that aren’t able to be answered by papers that are 5-10 years old.

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!

By: Leslie Healey

Leslie Healey — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:15:42 +0000

This one is tough for me. I teach literature and composition to teens. I abhore tests: I am not teaching the material as much as I am teaching the critical thinking and analysis they will require to survive as adults. Does an educated person use or need Shakespeare? you may feel not. Can a teacher teach 21st thinking and analysis skills with Shakespeare? You bet.
But I am constantly discouraged by the laziness of those students who steal essays online (or pay for them, doesn’t matter to me). Most of them do not steal good essays. Many lack the ability to read for any length of time or at an adult level. You will not convince me that it is a waste of time to read Beowulf, Shakespeare, Achebe or the Bhagavad-gita. School has become a game to be played, and though we need to clean house, that does not assume that EVERYTHING about school is broken. Cheating is cheating, whether is is online or not. I am going to stop now. It is depressing!

By: Teach42 » Blog Archive » Cheating? I don’t think so.

Teach42 » Blog Archive » Cheating? I don’t think so. — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 02:24:06 +0000

[...] a fascinating topic that needs to be revisited a few hundred times in the next few years. I wrote about it a few months ago. This just isn’t a topic that̵ [...]

By: larry thmpson

larry thmpson — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 04:10:57 +0000

AMEN! The only thing that truly counts, is: RESULTS…RESULTS…RESULTS!

I am not arguing morals or ethics here!!!