Plagiarism, intertextuality and the ethical (re-)use of information
Dr Perry Share
Head of Department of Humanities
Institute of Technology, Sligo.
Institute of Technology, Sligo.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010 from 1:10 PM - 2:00 PM (GMT)
Regularly, in the Irish and international media, there are eruptions of concern about ‘plagiarism’ in third level institutions, invariably linked to words like ‘standards’, ‘dumbing down’, ‘cheating’ and, of course, ‘the Internet’. From time to time higher education institutions enact new policies and procedures, investments are made in ‘plagiarism detection software’ and – very occasionally – some scapegoats are ‘punished’ as an example to others.
Arguably there is no real development in our understanding of the issues involved. The more enlightened and resource-rich institutions support comprehensive academic writing centres and programmes; they seek to address some issues of assessment; and they send their staff on training courses and to international plagiarism conferences. Others just turn a ‘blind eye’ to what many of their staff (and indeed students) see as unacceptable practice.
This webinar argues that we need to reconceptualise our approach to ‘plagiarism’ as part of a wholesale reshaping of teaching and learning processes. In particular, the development and ubiquitous adoption of digital technology has fundamentally altered the nature of education to an extent not seen since the development of the printing press. Notions of writing, originality, research, collaboration, identity, learning and teaching are literally up for grabs.
The webinar outlines the pedagogical challenges posed by contemporary and emergent digital technologies; it locates intertextuality and repurposing of materials in a broader cultural context – the one inhabited by all our students – and asks about the implications for our practice. It points to hidden issues of power and authority in the academic and broader worlds and argues that ‘plagiarism’ is an issue related to the ethical use of information.
We will explore – interactively – some of these ethical issues and dilemmas and consider how learners can be supported in ethical decision-making around use/re-use of material: based in the idea that assessment of learning is above all a communicative process. An example from my own teaching practice will be offered for consideration.
Finally the webinar will consider how these issues might be addressed through educational integrity policies and processes at the institutional level.
Please use this blog to post comments and questions before and after the webinar.
Thanks to anyone who participated today. Hopefully I can post up some materials here later and I'd be delighted to read any comments. Perry.
ReplyDeleteHi Perry,
ReplyDeleteI just caught up with your talk yesterday. You raise some good points about originality and I completely agree that we should be talking about plagiarism as a teaching & learning issue.
Two resources come to mind while reviewing your talk. The first is around your examples of how we all "borrow" other people's work in our professional activities, but still expect our students to produce original material. This also bothered me for some time, but I found Teresa Fishman's keynote in Newcastle really excellent this year. Her definition of plagiarism includes the the phrase "...in a case where there is a legitimate expectation of original authorship, in order to obtain benefit, credit or gain". I would consider some of the examples you gave (e.g. creation of policy documents) to be excluded from this, because there is no expectation of original authorship. Of course, the difficulty is that students can't tell the difference. The video of the keynote is available online at:
http://vimeo.com/13646224
The other piece of work that comes to mind is that of Wendy Sutherland-Smith, who gave a keynote at the event on Institutional Policies and Procedures for Managing Student Plagiarism 2009 in Oxford-Brookes. During her talk she spoke at length about the discourse we use around plagiarism. We talk about policies, cases, offences, detection, penalties, punishments... which is very much the language of the law. She asks, if our policies are based in the language of the law, how can we make plagiarism a T&L issue? The recording of her talk is available online, in three short parts, at
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/aske/plagiarism2009/plenaryvideos/index.html
Anyway, great to see these issues being discussed at a national level. I hope this sparks further discussion around the topic.
Best regards,
Sharon Flynn (NUIG)
Hi Sharon
ReplyDeletethanks a million for the response. Glad you found the talk of interest. The phrase you cite 'legitimate expectation of original authorship, in order to obtain benefit, credit or gain' is interesting and challenging. If I set a student an essay on, say, 'The causes of WW2', is it legitimate for me to expect 'original authorship'. And if so, how much originality, and what would 'originality' mean in this case?
I don't have the answers but the questions are becoming ever more complex!
Hi Perry,
ReplyDeletethanks for the reply. I think the question you pose is central to your own argument. Of course nobody could expect originality in an essay on "The causes of WW2". But what is the value of setting an assessment on that topic? What learning can the student possibly achieve from such an essay title? The only skill that can be tested is the student's ability to find, copy and paste.
So, we come back to the issue of good practice in teaching and learning (and assessment).