The Increased Need For Academic Integrity In A Digital Age Essay

1/14/11

SeanneDanielak                                                                                                                                                                                      

Student ID Number: 0000499631

Age Of Plagiarism Assignment

EDU 590 - Professor: Mr. Bruce Umpstead

The Increased Need For Academic Integrity In A Digital Age

          "Class, if you highlight any text or picture, and then you hold down the control key while also pressing down 'C' on the keyboard, this commands the computer to remember, or 'copy', what has been highlighted. Then, you can easily paste all of that into another medium by holding the control key again while pressing down the 'V' key this time. Isn't it amazing how much easier life is now"? This is fairly close to what I say at the beginning of the second lesson I teach my 6th graders each trimester this year. The class I teach is music, with a focus on technology. This is a very basic lesson that teaches an important tool that the students will not only utilize in my class but will be used throughout their lives. Many of my students do not have access to a computer on a daily basis, so they are not able to retain a lot of this elementary information and need to be reminded each year on how to do this easy computing. However, after reading recently about the sudden increase in plagiarism cases throughout this country, it does honestly make me realize that I have missed some very important steps in this process. A few of the missing links include the explanation of how abused this function can be, reminding them (or teaching them) what plagiarism means and emphasizing the importance of valuing one's own work.

          From the time we initially begin school, academic intergirity is instilled in us. Kindergarteners "tattle-tale" on each other for mimicking movements and creating the same picture in a draft book. In middle school, students will usually go out of their way to impress their friends as individuals as well as their teachers as intellectuals. However, it seems that with the increase of extracurricular activities, high schoolers seem to be consumed with so many other things that they probably look for answers to save themselves some time (even if it requires giving up one's own integrity to do so). The thought to plagiarize most likely crosses their mind at some point, and if they have not been properly taught the implications of doing it as well as the immoral value of it, they may be inclined to walk down that road.

          In a recent experiment, I attempted to "trick the system" as I plagiarized an essay and tried not to get caught through submission of the assigment. I found out through the process that it is more time-consuming than I imagined to copy and paste someone else's writing off of the Internet and then change it to sound as though it wasn't ripped off. It probably wouldn't have taken me very much longer to actually write my own essay including my thoughts and research. I realize that if I had not attempted to paraphrase it and just left the writing as it were, it wouldn't have taken so long, but either way by doing this project, I lost the sense of accomplishment that one receives after completion of an assignment. As I stated to my husband, I didn't get that "runner's high" after I finished the race. It taught me a lesson on the significance of valuing my own work and the importance of instilling that into my students as well.