{ title: 'The Prospector (Helena, Mont.) 1916-2015, February 09, 2005, Page 12, Image 12', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about Chronicling America - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/TheProspector/2005-02-09/ed-1/seq-12.png', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/TheProspector/2005-02-09/ed-1/seq-12.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/TheProspector/2005-02-09/ed-1/seq-12/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/TheProspector/2005-02-09/ed-1/seq-12/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
About The Prospector (Helena, Mont.) 1916-2015 | View This Issue
The Prospector (Helena, Mont.), 09 Feb. 2005, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/TheProspector/2005-02-09/ed-1/seq-12/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
ETHICS ON THE HILL 12 t ] s anti-plagiarism software the right choice for Carroll professors to use? Though perennially a problem on college campuses, plagiarism has become a bigger issue with the rise of the Internet. Various surveys list the amount of plagiarism at colleges from 36% to as high as 80%. This semester the library has begun a subscription to an anti-plagiarism program called Turnitin.com. This Internet service checks papers against an ever growing database of written work. We asked our respondents about the benefits and drawbacks of this solution to the problem. (We did not submit their essays to Turnitin.) A turn to more thinking by David A. Messenger Assistant Professor of History I believe that the average Carroll student is really interested in engaging in the classes they take, and thus plagiarism is really the farthest thing from their mind. Yet I accept that it will happen— and it has in every one of the ten years I’ve taught at universities and colleges. A recent Seattle-area survey of high school students indicated that 71 % had cut-and- pasted materials from the Internet directly into their assignments without paraphrasing or indicating the original source (Seattle Times January 18, 2005). Therefore using a variety of methods and tools to stop plagiarism, make it less likely, and find it when it occurs is a responsibility of the class instruc tor. I don’t find grading papers boring—-in fact I enjoy it immensely, comparing it to a con versation with my students about the subject. Through writing, a student tells me about what they find interesting and worthy of analysis; what they really care about. Plagiarism is evidence that a student does not really care about the issues that we could explore. The uneasiness a professor gets when suspecting plagiarism is intense. You feel as if someone has violated your trust but you can’t go talk about it with another facul ty member in case it actually turns out not to be true. So you gather all the tools you have to prove your suspicions are wrong. Now the hunting of plagia rists, while generally depressing, is not all torment. Watching far too many episodes of CSI has created in me a ‘love of the chase’ that I really cannot experience except in historical research and in tracking suspected cases of plagiarism. In both cases, I want to use all tools available. And, with so much material available in cyberspace, the Tumitin.com database makes a convenient tool. I have used this service at other institutions as well as here at Carroll. I have caught plagiarists with it, and cleared other students of my suspicions. I don’t believe that there’s any ethical problem about using this resource in the course of doing my job—and my job is not just to show up for class and grade your work, but it is real ly to encourage an appreciation for intellectual study and for critical thinking. Some may object that using Tumitin.com assumes that students will plagiarize. I dis agree—it is simply a tool that acknowledges some plagiarism will occur and it has no place at Carroll College. * Turn on honesty by Dr. K. Mike Franklin Director of Counseling Services I must confess that my knowl edge of Turnitin.com is limited to a half hour presentation on the program and a quick look at the web site. Furthermore, my experi ence with student papers at Carroll is limited as I only teach in an adjunct capacity for Alpha Seminar. Having said this, I view Turnitin as a technological tool that can be used by professors to save time and encourage honesty in research. However, there is a possible dark side. Turnitin could make stu dents paranoid, thinking the pla giarism police are out to get them. Personally, I don’t know how sen sitive Turnitin is. Let’s say I pre pare a paper in which I state, “After being held captive of my own fears of the plagiarism police and overcoming them, I now shout ‘Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last!”’ Do I need to worry that I will get a failing grade because I used the same language Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., did and I didn’t reference his speech with a proper citation? This is where professorial discretion is required. A major benefit of “Turnitin” is that the program is a time saving device for professors by automati cally checking papers for duplica tions. The professor can quickly see what is duplicated along with its source and can make a decision whether or not to pursue it as pos sible plagiarism. Time is not spent We need to by John Gleaves Junior, Philosophy/Theology Major Despite the fact that plagiarism is clearly wrong, using an anti-pla giarism website is not the way that Carroll should handle this prob lem. I am quite disappointed to hear that Carroll Students would be asked to turn their work over to a private company’s national data base and that the school is paying money for the program that could clearly be better spent. However, what troubles me most is one sim ple question that no one is asking: Is this how the Carroll community wants to deal with a clear problem of student integrity? If the faculty of Carroll believes there is a problem with plagiarism, it does not make sense, in light of our values-oriented tradition, to ask students and teachers to utilize this website. This approach does not resolve the problem of plagia rism in a manner fitting of our institution’s legacy and values. Carroll College has long been a value-oriented College that believes it has a duty to educate the whole person. Carroll avoids this duty when instead of teaching students about integrity and respect, it uses software to catch plagiarism. Furthermore, I am surprised that in the search by the professor who has to play detective attempting to track the source. Turnitin does the investigative work ahead of time. Turnitin would also encourage honesty. Character cannot be dic tated but behavior can be legislat ed. That is, attitudes cannot be controlled but undesirable behav ior can, in the sense there are rules against plagiarism with associated penalties for violations. Should a student be tempted to plagiarize, Turnitin may be the edge that encourages him or her to resist. In summary, the benefits of Turnitin as a high-tech, time-sav ing teaching assistant doing the donkey detective work of checking sources and encouraging honesty out weigh the drawbacks of possi ble student paranoia and professo rial misuse. In some ways it helps level the playing field of students turn it out no student has yet cried out about the offense to his or her integrity. I do not doubt the honesty of my work and will allow it to be tested, yet if you test my work, you show that you do not believe that my character is deserving of that respect. Often I have seen a pro fessor leave a classroom during an exam, demonstrating a belief that the students have the integrity not to cheat. I enjoy that level of respect and I imagine other Carroll students do as well. If there is a deficiency in integrity among the students at Carroll College, anti-plagiarism software is not the answer. A bet ter solution would be an honor code. Asking students to sign their name to a document’s authenticity shows the respect for the student and demands of the student a high er standard. It is not too late to take a student’s word or to demand that a student’s word be worth something. Community only works if we can trust each other and we need that trust as well as meaningful consequences when that trust is broken. Therefore, despite the appeal of technology to curb pla giarism, the College should inves tigate means to solve this problem that are consistent with Carroll’s tradition and approach towards higher education. and professors seeking excellence in education... technology has made research easier for students with the Internet, and now technol ogy has made correcting papers easier for professors with Turnitin. 1 1 Note to the Plagiarism Police: If there is any duplication in this article, it was not intentional. The Philosophy Club spon sors “Ethics on the Hill,” a regular column on ethical issues at Carroll. If you would like to suggest topics for future consideration, con tribute to this column, or respond to positions taken here, please write to John Gleaves care of The Prospector. WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 2005 VOLUME 88^ NO, A
