Wikiality

So there’s this shepherd boy who was a little bored and for entertainment decided that he would cry, “Wolf!” and see what happened.  The villagers came to his rescue as they thought a wolf was attacking his sheep.  When they arrived there was no wolf, but there was a smiling shepherd boy.  After this episode happened several times, the boy’s sheep were attacked by a wolf and when he cried for help for real, no one came to his rescue. 

I can’t think of a better summary for my view of Wikipedia.  As you enter the website, www.wikipedia.org the catch phrase states “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.”  My first thought is really?  Yes, it’s true.  Select edit, start typing, hit save and instantly FICTION becomes FACT.  A fact anyway for those who believe everything they read and surprisingly enough, that is a whole lot of people.

My assignment was to change something in Wikipedia and record how long it took to have it changed back.  This was a very difficult concept for me as I don’t do the “WRONG” thing on purpose.  I registered and gave all my info to Wikipedia and at the same time hoped they wouldn’t see what I would change. 

I decided to add some true information about fashion design.  I went in and added about 40 words in 2 long sentences.  I waited for it to be changed for days and nothing happened.  So I thought that I must have to make something false for it to change, and went back to the same page and changed the location of a fashion school from Taipei to Hong Kong and waited for days…and still no changes.

Assuming, that the area I chose was too specific and apparently fashion designers already knew everything and never had to check for information, I went to the main page of Wikipedia and picked a current week’s event and changed the number of dead in the Sabarimala Stampede in India.  There is a graph showing the statistics to the right of the story which clearly states a different number of dead, but alas the number I typed has not been changed back as of the date of this story. 

Clearly, no one is watching.  I explained my assignment to two girlfriends at dinner last night and both said, “You can change things in Wikipedia that aren’t true and they will be listed as fact?” I said yes and their reply was “Why would anyone want to use that as a source of information ?” Those were my sentiments exactly. 

If I used Wikipedia as a source for my papers and my grade was lowered because of incorrect information, I would stop using it as I couldn’t trust the source just like the villagers stopped running to help the boy.  Students need to be given guidelines when deciding what sources to use. If I were a teacher, I would instruct my students to carefully pick their sources.  If information is not verifiable in at least two spots, don’t use it. I know that getting information for free is good, especially for students, but free information that is wrong could “cost” you a good grade. 

The moral of the story is stated at the end of the Aesop Fable retold in the first paragraph.  It is “Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed. The liar will lie once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth.”[i]

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[i] Aesop’s Fables were written prior to current copyright laws and are therefore in the public domain.

Picture credit:  http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll14/frugal_dougal/swine_flu/boy_cried_wolf.jpg

The New Age of Plagiarism

Plagiarism isn’t new.  It seems it has evolved and taken a new form.  According to a quote from a journal article by Harned and Sutliff, “Technology didn’t cause cheating-it only made it easier.”[i]  That which is easier, will become what is done more often, and issues regarding plagiarism continue to evolve with the technology.

Originality has become hard to define and we constantly see an ever-changing synthesis of existing ideas.  What if we are putting together thoughts or ideas that we have researched and synthesized into a new understanding for ourselves?  The result may not be original, but it represents a new level of understanding and a validation of learning.

Let’s take a look into art history.  Many artists spent days and even years to painstakingly recreate every detail of another artist’s masterpiece. This was considered flattery in the highest form and helped the “copying” artists develop and define their techniques.  It was a learning process that was not viewed as a crime but rather a “success” of learning.

In an abstract presented by Ms. Amy Besnoy, at the International Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society in 2005, this question was posed.  Students have easy access to technology “that enables them to dance around academic integrity by cutting and pasting, photographing notes and test messaging test answers to each other, do we throw in the ethical towel or do we, as educators, consider this an opportunity to change our pedagogical approach?”[ii]

Original thoughts are indeed a product of time and effort, much like original music or play-writing.  As written words, those original ideas are sacred and when copied or used by others, credit must be given to their creator.  I feel the answer to the plagiarism question becomes more about what our society values.  Do we reward only the original ideas? 

Our educational grading system seems to be more focused on the end result of original ideas.  Many college courses determine your course grade (or a large portion of it) using the grade of the final paper or test.  The time and learning acquired during your coursework in preparation for that paper/test is only evaluated by your ability to produce an exciting paper or high test scores.  This creates a high pressure atmosphere for the student and a win or lose situation.

In contrast, a system of grading that takes into account preparation, research and effort put into learning the course content might be a better reflection of learning and therefore a better way to determine a course grade.  Grading in that way would put the concept of plagiarism out of the spotlight as the student would need to show work in progress.  It won’t be the end of plagiarism, but it would put the focus on the learning process for the student and not just the end result or grade as the goal.

If you would like to do further investigation on this topic, I recommend the following webinars and websites:
http://plagiarism.org/plag_webinar_college_campuses.html
http://plagiarism.org/plag_webinar_high_schools.html
http://www.2010.techandsoc.com/index.html

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[i]  Harned, P. & Sutliff, K. (2002) Academic Honesty: Teaching Kids Not To Take The Easy Way Out. Our Children, v27, 4-5.

[ii] Besnoy, Amy (2005-February)”Academic Integrity in a Cut and Paste World:  Lost Cause or Pedagogical Possibility?” Presentation at the International Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society, University of California, Berkeley-San Francisco

Picture Source: [url=http://www.blingcheese.com][img]http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k154/actrices/web-plagiarism.jpg[/img][/url]

Educational Technology Posts

My main focus is using technology as a teaching tool.  So here I go....