Working Together – Working Alone

Oftentimes in education we get hung up by two dilemmas: Sharing and Plagiarism. When is what you are doing “sharing” and when is it “plagiarism.” Oftentimes students receive misleading instructions from the various courses they may be taking (and certainly from the internships they may also be doing in the “real world”). I’m not going to try to definitely separate these two ideas today but I will try to lay out the difficulty students might find trying to apply these ideas effectively in the classroom (and beyond). One of the difficulties students face is the simultaneous desire for them to … Continue reading

Teach Your Homeschooler About Plagiarism

The result of my King Day post yesterday was a conversation on plagiarism (that continued as a private conversation)… King’s, not mine. I have yet to confirm (for myself) that King plagiarized, but I thought this was an appropriate time to discuss teaching a child about plagiarism. I recently had the opportunity to teach my child about plagiarism. Recently, when President Gerald Ford’s funeral was televised, I allowed the children to spend the morning watching it, with one condition. They had to write an essay about the deceased president. I was very impressed with my 12-year-old son’s paper, his thoughts … Continue reading

Insuring Words: Plagiarism, Copyright and Publication

Plagiarism and copyright infringement has become an important liability for any writer, website owner or business with publications to consider in the modern world of media. Never before have ordinary people, citizens of the world or well educated members of a society had more freedom of speech then we do today. Personal websites, journals and Blogs have made it possible for anyone to say what they think, feel or believe. The freedom of the Internet, and home publication tools we have today, make it possible to get our ideas and words into the hands, and eyes of nearly any target … Continue reading