Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Ethical Dilemmas in Technology





ETHICAL DILEMMAS in RELATION to INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY



PLAGIARISM: The taking of ideas, writing and drawings, or other similar intellectual property created by others and presenting it as your own. It is generally not a legal issue, such as copyright infringement, but it is an ethical one. Plagiarism is unethical (Bowyer, 2001).

NETIQUETTE: A set of rules (mainly unwritten) to follow while you are online.

Why are more and more students cheating and what can be done to solve this unethical practice?
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 has changed the way our nation views testing and achievement. Educators are held accountable for the academic performance of their students while students are required to meet certain criteria in order to be promoted. As we become more focused on test taking as a measure of achievement, are we encouraging students to cheat their way to a better grade? According to McKeachie & Svinicki (2006) over 400,000 results showed up on Google when "cheating in College" was typed in. Some of the other statistics reported were that cheating among high school students has dramatically increased over the past 50 years, college-bound students who are above average are cheating, and between 75% and 98% of college students who took a survey reported that they have cheated in high school. It is obvious that cheating is not restricted to low performing students.
Why are more students cheating and what can be done to resolve this problem?


Some Important Views......
• Teaching social and ethical issues with computing has become a requirement in Computer Science curricula within the past few years.
• It is important for students to understand the ethical boundaries of technology.
• The Internet offers great riches for the future, but poses many threats.
• Technology requires vigilance.




What do you think about plagiarism and unethical use of technology in educational?




Related links





8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is very true. I, myself, admit to cheating while I was in high school. The links and pics are very informative.

Ask Justin said...

Barbara, In response to your question:
Why are more students cheating and what can be done to resolve this problem?

I ask: Are more students (percentage wise) cheating? If so, my guess is that great information is more readily available on the Internet. This make it easier to cheat. In our days, you would have to know the person and get a hard copy of their work and then re-write the work. Since you were re-writing, it really did not save much time. Now, search, copy, and paste and you're done!

These are big problems and they are important to address in technology courses and through other channels, such as our Library/Media center.

thanks.

CaDeisha said...

Barbara,
You did a great job on your blog. It was very informative. I believe ethics should be a course in high school as well as in undergraduate programs. People cheat in business as well to project desired profit results. The moral fiber of this society as a whole is broken. Therefore, I think social responsible behavior may have to be taught as early as possible.

Joe T. said...

Cheating is a very big concenrn for educators today. I know that I have personally seen students using technology to cheat in class by texting answers, taking photos of tests using their phones and sending them to friends, as well as recording conversations between teachers using their cell phones.

Plagiarism is just another form of cheating and it happens on a regular basis. I have helped teachers find the web sites that the students have used to copy information from over the years. The finny thing is that the students do not think that they are doing anything wrong by copying another person's work because they are actually typing the information and handing it in. They do not understand that they were not the original author and therefore cannot hand it in as their own work.

La'Tanya's Blog said...

I think students cheat for a variety of reasons. Students are pressured to perform well on high-stake testing, promotion requirements and college entrance requirements. They do not believe plagiarism is wrong.

Joan Davis said...

Students today have a lot of pressure on them to make the grade. In Georgia we have the Hope scholarship that all students want. Plus, certain majors are very competitive.

rosa deloach said...

Barbara,
Call it ignorance, but you shed a ray of light of information that I had no knowledge. You hear all the time about students cheating on exams, but on college entrance exams. I agree with Latanya about the pressure to perform. Sometimes we may be asking too much of our students and they feel the pressure to be perfect or too perform. The true fact is some just can't do but we're not willing to accept that. Once again their is individuality for everyone and we must learn to differentiate.
Rosa

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