There is an active website, www.education-pages.co.uk (the Frank Carver
website) where Frank and his friends are publishing their essays. I have
asked Frank, by e-mail, if he would consider including some note about
plagiarism, but although he acknowledged my e-mail, he believes that
publishing more work will allow fewer opportunities for plagiarising, and
also believes that the teachers are at fault for not recognising plagiarism
in an instant. Or I believe that is what he is saying. I print his e-mail
reply below.
(My message) I wonder if you might consider putting something about
plagiarisation of your essays and how this isn't considered to be good
professional practice? At present, students might feel that copying, or
close translations of your > essays, is the solution to their study skill
problems.
(The reply) First of all, thanks for getting in touch.I suppose that I
could put some sort of disclaimer. I'm not sure it would have
much effect on anyone who is likely to copy my work and pass it off as
their own, though. I quite like the idea of writing something a little more
substantial about the ethics and practicalities of plagiarism. Thanks for
the idea - I'll add it to the queue for after my next set of PGCE
assignments! The internet provides so many resources that are so easy to
copy, and I personally feel that the solution to plagiarism is education
rather than legalism. I have encountered many tutors/assessers who seem
unaware of the sources that their students are using, and it is this that
seems a dangerous trend to me. In the modern world of massive availability
of information, trotting out the same old assignments and using the same
assessment techniques each course is worryingly out-of-touch.
From my point of view (and it may seem ironic), the solution to the problem
of people copying from my work is actually to make it more available, and
more popular. If a tutor has seen my essays, they are much more likely to
recognise my work if a student hands it in. If a tutor has recommended my
site to the students, I can't imagine any students being so naive as to
copy my work.
Does any of that make sense?
I'd love to hear your opinions.
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