Plagiarism in the digital era

This infographic, "Cheating in school: How the digital age affects cheating and plagiarism" by Loreal Lynch in Schools.com (September 16, 2011) provides a visual snapshot of the extent of the problem.

"Many students can’t even distinguish between what constitutes plagiarism and what doesn’t. According to recent research, 71% do NOT believe copying from the Web is “serious cheating.”
Loreal Lynch (September 16, 2011)


Courtesy of: Schools.com

Plagiarism and cheating appear to be an endemic problem in the digital era, facilitated by the ease of copying from the vast resources of the web, general ignorance, lack of understanding of ethical use or a laissez-faire attitude by users.

Digital Citizenship should be an integral part of learning in the digital age and this includes ethical use of resources. Creative Commons licensed resources - finding, using, correct attribution, re-mixing, creating, publishing and contributing to the shared pool - help in reducing the blurring factor as mentioned by Loreal.

The infographic is a good starting point for discussion in the classroom or meeting room.

Blocked websites in schools survey

Sharon Elin has posted the results of a short online survey about blocked websites in schools on her edutwist blog.

"My school district is locked-down tight and fixated on security when it comes to internet access for students."

Sharon's curiosity about 'references to web2.0 sites being used in education by other educators' led to a survey on Google Docs, sent out by Twitter, Plurk and her edutwist blog.
I missed the original survey and only one Australian responded.

Despite a relatively small global response, and one skewed to educators already using social media/networking sites, the 'results', especially the use of comments/pull quotes, make for an interesting read and should stimulate further debate about filtering policies in school districts and jurisdictions and teaching and learning in the 21st century.
Trust and responsibility feature strongly in a myriad of issues.

Read Sharon's blog post , follow the link to the survey questions and results, comments and suggestions on Google Docs. and share.