From the parenting abilities of male emperor penguins to how Vikings built their
longships, the internet is an indispensible resource for any child working on a homework
assignment. There’s so much info out there that, as long as you teach them not to
believe everything they read online, your young learner can get really involved in their
subject. If they get really interested, the web is the perfect place for them to explore this
new topic independently.
However, it’s not all sunshine, flowers and voyages of discovery as child safety and
parenting website http://quib.ly observed. Their findings are summarised below:
What’s the problem?
The internet also makes it very easy for your kids to cheat, whether or not they know
they’re doing it. They can copy and paste information, copy it down verbatim into
workbooks, download pre-written assignments and even buy their own unique piece of
coursework. This is no good for their educational experience, no good for teaching
children that hard work pays off and it prevents children from learning on their own. If
you’re worried about plagiarism and cheating online, here’s a quick guide.
What counts as plagiarism?
This is a tricky one. Technically plagiarism is anything which involves directly using work
from another source and passing it off as your own. But, when it comes to homework, a
slightly softer approach may be sensible…
If your children are at primary school, looking up information, identifying it as the facts
they need and assimilating it all into a piece of homework is all part of the learning
process. It shows they understand the subject and have done their own research,
correctly using the most important points. At this age, a little bit of copy and pasting
may be at the teacher’s discretion – it is wise to encourage your young ‘uns to put all of
their work into their own words, however, to boost comprehension.
At secondary school, the stakes are higher and teachers are much wiser to plagiarism.
It’s fine to research online, but all information used must be presented in the pupil’s
own words, demonstrating that they really understand the subject matter. Teachers are
often pretty wise to plagiarism and may use online plagiarism checkers, particularly for
GCSE coursework, to ensure all work is original.
How else can kids cheat online?
Downloadable essays are all over the internet, on a huge range of subjects and at a
variety of educational levels. You can even order a custom piece of coursework to avoid
being caught for plagiarism – this kind of cheating is impossible to prove, even if
teachers had the time and resources to combat it.
Students may also share their work with contemporaries, allowing them to rewrite their
own essays based on precisely the same information.
The prevalence of these problems has lead to many teachers calling for an end to
assessment via coursework. In controlled conditions, coursework can still be used, but
pieces set over 3 week periods make it too easy for students to cheat.
What can parents do?
We all want our kids to do well at school, but online cheating really only cheats students
out of valuable learning experiences. Parents who are concerned about plagiarism or
downloaded essays should talk to their children about their coursework and homework,
asking about their sources and thoughts about it. If you believe your child may be using
One Response
It’s such a difficult one, but on balance, although I hate the stress exams cause, I do think it’s probably the right way to go to combat this problem