“The internet has been marvelous for old folks like me.”
I agree wholehearted, but we did develop the skill set to research and disseminate a much more limited (usually) data pool when we were younger.
Kids today can and do google their homework in many subjects, and even worse, schools have often just given up trying to actively prevent wholesale plaguerism in homework assignments.
Blame the schools, blame whomever, but the bottom line is that many kids today are turning in work where they cut and pasted the info, never had to write or process it, and thus aren’t learning it.
Not really. I'm a prof and a frequent visitor to an academic web site. Plagiarism is an oft-repeated topic and professors aren't afraid to give students an 'F' and send them to an academic review board. Professors can also use programs such as 'Turnitin' (turnitin.com) that search for plagiarized material. My university has a license for this product and students can be required to submit their papers into the program.
It seems that many students 1)were never taught proper citation in high school. They just don't know how to show the difference between their thoughts and someone else's. 2) Think that profs live in the classroom and don't know anything about the internet, searching, etc. and 3)Are so stupid that some of them have even plagiarized their own professor's work and didn't think they'd be caught!
I also think that there is an assumption that kids know how to do everything online and it really isn't true. They may be expert users, but they aren't really skilled in it, such as in determining authentic info on the web, etc.
I'm fortunate to teach on the graduate level and in a discipline where the students are well-read and write well. Though I warn about it in my syllabus (automatic 'F' and a report to the Dean), plagiarism isn't a problem for me.
“—— but we did develop the skill set to research and disseminate-——”
True.
I spent hours in the Boston Public Library’s research room. No copiers around then,just tons of hand-written notes.