Copyright and plagiarism -- teaching ethics to tomorrow's citizens

1. Copyright and plagiarism -- teaching ethics to tomorrow's citizens Carol Simpson, Ed.D.University of North Texas This program includes copyright protected material used under the Fair Use guidelines of US Copyright Law. Further use is prohibited.

2. Relax Let’s talk

3. An ethical basis • We live our lives ethically. • As children, mother establishes right and wrong

4. Ethics from mom -- Anita Renfroe, Total Momsense

5. An ethical basis • We live our lives ethically. • As children, mother establishes right and wrong • Not moral or immoral • Not legal or illegal • “Ethical” takes into account the greater good, and the integrity of the profession or the job

6. Why is ethics important in a school context? • 71% of students don’t think through consequences and plan ahead • 65% don’t respect values of people from other races and cultures • 76% don’t believe their teachers really care about them. The Search Institute

7. Whose ethics? • Religious ethics • Personal ethics • Situational ethics • Professional ethics

8. What is the climate re: ethics? • Students complain that pressure for grades force them to cheat • Teachers complain that pressure for standardized test results or college acceptances force them to cut ethical corners • Faculty may feel they are only the enforcers

9. What is affected by ethics? • Plagiarism • Students: cutting/pasting into homework • Faculty: taking work from workbooks, professional books, etc. • Copyright • Students: adapting art into posters • Faculty: making copies of a cartoon for each teacher’s mailbox • Cheating

10. The more competitive the school, the more cheating goes on

11. The brighter the students, the more they can get away with plagiarism. Dr. Joy McGregor

12. Plagiarism • to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own • to use (another's production) without crediting the source • to commit literary theft • to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source. - Plagiarism.org (quotingMerriam-Webster Online)

13. A Plagiarism Statement Plagiarism is copying: retyping, cutting and pasting, or paraphrasing. All students in this course are warned as follows: • Do not quote or paraphrase published sources, including assigned readings and Web-based sources, without explicit reference to the original work. Credit the source using appropriate citation style according to the required academic style manual. • Do not insert parts of class lectures, online modules, or tutorials, including examples, into your own work. • Do not insert parts of previous students' work into your own work. The previous students have given written permission for their work to be displayed for illustrative purposes only.

14. Plagiarism Statement, cont. • Do not insert parts of current students' work into your own work. That student trusts you to respect his/her intellectual product. • Do not use portions of your own work without citation. If the work was previously submitted for credit in another class, you must have written permission from the teacher of that class and the instructor in this class to use the material. • You are expected to study and learn from the materials provided, then to use your own words in your assignments, or clearly credit sources using appropriate citation style. • It is wrong to blindly copy another person's intellectual content or syntax. It is particularly shortsighted--and glaringly obvious--when a student copies another student's errors. • You do not have to police every word you write, just be aware of your sources. It is not necessary to credit sources for definitions of basic concepts that are general knowledge in the field, but it is wise to reword them.

15. Why do students plagiarize? • Nervousness and insecurity • Ignorance about proper citation • Deliberate effort to deceive -- Plagiarism.com

16. Many types of plagiarism • turning in someone else's work as your own • copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit • failing to put a quotation in quotation marks • giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation • changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit (also called “tracking”) • copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not - Plagiarism.org

17. Turning in someone else's work • How to identify • Just doesn’t sound right • Use web search engine to locate unique phrases that may be out of character • Use a plagiarism detector • What to do • This is cheating. Consult student code of conduct

18. Copying words or ideas without giving credit • How to identify • Teacher expertise • Check Works Cited/Bibliography against paper • Use web search engine to locate unique phrases that may be out of character • Use a plagiarism detector • What to do • Assess cause

19. Failing to identify quotations • How to identify • Just doesn’t sound like student work • Use web search engine to locate unique phrases that may be out of character • Use a plagiarism detector • What to do • Assess cause • Ignorance? • Deliberate?

20. Incorrect information about a quotation • How to identify • Most difficult task • There is student attempt to attribute • Plagiarism detector • What to do? • Assess cause • Ignorance? • Deliberate?

21. Tracking • How to identify • Plagiarism detector • What to do • Identify cause • Ignorance? • Deliberate? • Caution • Detector error

22. Avoiding tracking Anything taken directly (or only loosely paraphrased) from literature or a website must be within quotation marks. Changing a word or two does not remove the requirement to put information in quotation marks. For example: "Product XYZ demonstrate(s) the ... concept of [advanced] nuclear physics."

23. A source makes up the majority of the assignment • Copyright issues • Is the use within the fair use guidelines/fair use four factor test? • Pedagogical issues • What was the purpose of the assignment? Should there be some original analysis or synthesis?

24. Addressing Plagiarism • Students • “plagiarism-proof” assignments • Demand documentation • Verify documentation (via Turnitin.com or DocCop.com <short sections only>) • Check at multiple stages in the process • Faculty • Model documentation • Acknowledge sources (on web pages, handouts, etc.)

25. Original Joe Blow was a happy man, who often walked down the road whistling and singing. Sentences in the book Joe Blow: His Life and Times by Jay Scrivener Student work “Joe Blow was a happy man, who often walked down the road whistling and singing.” (Scrivener, 2006) Good documentation or not?

26. GOOD! Full quote is in quotation marks, followed by citation to Joe Blow: His Life and Times.

27. Good documentation or not? Good documentation or not? Original Joe Blow was a happy man, who often walked down the road whistling and singing. Student work According to Scrivener, Blow “often walked down the road whistling and singing.”99

28. GOOD! Partial quote is inside quotation marks, followed by citation. Partial quote is not misleading.

29. Student work Joe Blow was a happy man, who often walked down the road whistling and singing. Original Joe Blow was a happy man, who often walked down the road whistling and singing. Good Documentation or Not?

30. NOT It is plagiarism to quote an author’s exact words or to paraphrase them closely without both quotation marks and proper citation.

31. Student work Joe Blow was a happy man, who often walked down the road whistling and singing.99 Original Joe Blow was a happy man, who often walked down the road whistling and singing. Good Documentation or Not?

32. NOT These are Scrivener’s exact words. It is plagiarism to use them without indicating explicitly that it is a quote (by using quotation marks or block quotation for longer passages) EVEN if you give credit to the author.

33. Student work Joe Blow seemed like “a happy man,” the kind who enjoyed “whistling and singing.”99 Original Joe Blow was a happy man, who often walked down the road whistling and singing. Good Documentation or Not?

34. GOOD! Two partial quotes are each inside quotation marks; nonquoted material is outside quotation marks. Citation follows the sentence.

35. Student work Joe Blow was a happy man and often walked down the road singing and whistling. Original Joe Blow was a happy man, who often walked down the road whistling and singing. Good Documentation or Not?

36. NOT Although the words are not exactly the author’s, they are very similar. (The words “singing” and “whistling” are simply reversed.) Either use exact quote or paraphrase in ways that are clearly different from the author’s wording.

37. Student work Joe appeared happy and enjoyed whistling and singing to himself.99 Original Joe Blow was a happy man, who often walked down the road whistling and singing. Good Documentation or Not?

38. GOOD! This paraphrase is fine. It’s not too close to Scrivener’s original wording. The citation acknowledges the source.

39. Student work Joe Blow was a happy man. Original Joe Blow was a happy man, who often walked down the road whistling and singing. Good Documentation or Not?

40. NOT! Two problems here: It is an exact quote so it should be quoted and cited. Even if the quote were modified slightly, Scrivener should still be cited because it is his personal judgment (and not a simple fact) that Joe Blow is happy.

41. How did you do? Examples quoted from: Charles Lipson, Doing honest work in college, Univ. of Chicago Press, 2004.

42. Copyright • Students have wide latitude (more than teachers) • May overlap plagiarism • Each situation is highly fact-specific, so use caution.

43. Addressing copyright issues • Students • CAN make a copy of an article, chapter, etc. for personal use • CAN use material under multimedia guidelines in PowerPoint, etc. • * see documents on www.carolsimpson.com • Faculty • Can make single copy for use in teaching • Acknowledge source

44. Cheating – who does it? • 74% of students cheat • Students in private religious schools are • more likely to cheat (78%), • more likely to lie to teachers (86% v. 81%) • Students in athletics more likely to cheat (78% v 73%) • Gender, student leadership, and personal religious convictions made no difference • BUT 93% disagreed with the statement, “My parents would rather I cheat than get bad grades.” Josephson Institute of Ethics - 2002

45. How they cheat and how to defeat them • Electronic devices – know how they work • Web sites – know which ones • Computer network – make students take tests in computer lab • Documentation – do research online • Software solutions

46. Addressing cheating issues • Students • Student code of conduct • “Vicarious” penalties • Control cheating technologies • Faculty • Investigate the amount of pressure on students • Emphasize process over product • What models are there? • Don’t “go along with the joke” re: cheating businessmen, politicians, etc.

47. Code of Conduct Development • Explains school culture • Gives explicit guidance for individual behavior • Clarifies roles and responsibilities of school, student, staff -- NoodleTools

48. Contents of a Code of Conduct • Philosophy or Statement of Principles • Ownership of problem • Define concepts • Identify behaviors addressed • Detail discipline response • Detail educational program -- NoodleTools

49. Integrating ethics Start with these resources: • Joyce Valenza’s ethics page at http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/infolitles.html#Ethics • Doug Johnson’s book: Learning Right From Wrong inthe Digital Age (Linworth) • David Warlick’s 2¢ Worth: http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2006/08/23/ getting-right-down-to-it/ • Lathrop & Foss: Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era (LU)

50. There are really only two important points when it comes to ethics. The first is a standard to follow. The second is the will to follow it. -- John Maxwell