" Plagiarism and the Internet in South Africa
Plagiarism is a very real problem in South African schools and universities. Dr Derek Swemmer, registrar of the University of the Witwatersrand which has about 24 000 students, says not all schools teach their pupils how to reference properly the sources they use when they compile projects and essays, and many students end up at university unaware that plagiarism is theft. ?It depends on which school the student has been at. There are some schools where good referencing is taught, and some where that ethos doesn?t exist. The upshot is that for Wits, plagiarism is the ?growth industry? of student disciplinary issues, although very few of the plagiarism cases it deals with are incidents of intentional cheating. Many students simply do not understand that the thoughts and opinions found in the public arena, and especially on the Internet, cannot be appropriated as their own?, says Swemmer. Probably at least 50% of all student disciplinary processes at Wits involve plagiarism. However, the new school curriculum is based on principles of teaching pupils to think for themselves and has created a space for research skills through its focus on what is called continuous assessment, with 25% of a pupil?s final mark comprising points for projects and essays done throughout the year. ?It happens, but we don?t tolerate it,? says Rob le Roux, headmaster of Cape Town?s Westerford High School. ?It?s one of the critical parts of outcomesbased education (OBE) ... proper referencing skills,? says Le Roux.
Prof David Benatar, head of the University of Cape Town?s philosophy department, said, ?I am never seduced by the claim ?we are engaged in OBE?. I am certainly not seeing it in the students.? This means universities are spending a lot of time teaching pupils that plagiarism is bad, and how to reference the sources they use properly. Many South African tertiary education institutions, and some schools, use antiplagiarism mechanisms such as the website Turn It In, which allows lecturers and teachers to submit essays about which they have suspicions for cross-referencing. Plagiarism is not unique to SA, and other countries that use OBE in schools have faced hard questions on whether allowing course work has opened up a Pandora?s box. Penny Vinjevold, the national education department?s deputy director-general of further education and training said that ?there is more opportunity for plagiarism, but teachers must set a task with a twist, something that requires a lot of application. Teachers must take plagiarism seriously. They must give zero if they pick it up ... but it?s nothing to panic about. We do our best to eliminate it?."

http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/media-centre/newsletters/march-2007

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My Comment

If I had just posted this text on the forum without a reference, I would definitely have been guilty of plagiarism. However I quoted the source which indicates that I did not claim it as my own original work.  On the other hand if this was submitted as an assignment on plagiarism - with just the acknowledgement - then what?

Did I ask the author's permission to re-post this extract? No.

Am I guilty of copyright infringement? No.  See - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

What is plagiarism?

Many teachers only consider the 'theft' of text as plagiarism. What many do not realise is that when, "doing a project", if a learner uses the Internet to find an image to illustrate that project and pastes it into their work without acknowledging the source of the image, it is also plagiarism.

All images must be acknowledged - even if the learner took the photograph!

Newspapers - especially the 'local' ones are very guilty of this. Many 'local' newspapers report on their local schools sports events and include photos - most of which are not attributed to the photographer - technically this is plagiarism.

However this can get 'silly'. If I use a piece of 'clip art' do I have to acknowledge it? My thinking is - if it came with a standard package - such as MS Office then No. If however it was obtained from an additional package then yes.

Images on the Internet vs. pictures scanned from a book! Copyright issues!

This is my own personal opinion - I may be wrong!

If anyone makes an image available for download on the Internet then that image may be used (with acknowledgement) freely. If one scans a picture from a book and uses it then you are infringing copyright whether or not you acknowledge the source (unless you have been given permission by the author / publisher to do so).

Plagiarism is not a simple concept. In our school there is a simple policy - if plagiarism is established then zero marks are awarded. It is possible that we could sometimes be unfair as plagiarism is generally accepted as deliberately trying to pass off another person's work as your own, which implies that you know that it is wrong to do so. We are not dealing with scholary academics here - we are dealing with children. Has the concept of what plagiarism is been explained to them? Did they understand what they were told - most could probably not even spell plagiarism.

Then of course we have the classic requirement, "in your own words". Have the learners been told about paraphrasing? To most this would involve rewriting the 'article' and just changing a few words in each sentence.

As previously mentioned, plagiarism is a complex issue. Are we ourselves guilty of encouraging it because we expect the learners to know what is permissable and what is not?

In the assessment tool for Phase 3 of the CAT PAT, the learners are TOLD to use "printouts, screen shots or saved copies of the websites" and "evidence of other sources are available e.g. ... photocopies". Of course we expect the learner to use thse appropriately. In one submission the whole of Phase 3 was simply photocopies cut and pasted (with glue) onto a piece of paper illustrated with some screen shots glued on as well. "............ but it said that we had to do that!". Was this plagiarism?

Plagiarism is often encouraged by teachers! The work is given a mark - often high marks - and the learner given a pat on the back!

I hear you all shouting  ... NEVER!  Have a look in some of the junior classrooms and look at the poster projects that are displayed on the walls. Pictures - neatly cut out of magazines - stuck to a piece of cardboard - some writing added.  Were any of the sources acknowledged? Don't think so! 

"But you can't expect 10 year olds to know about such things!"

So what you are saying is that it is OK for 10 year olds to plagiarise but not when in High School.  

It wouldn't surprise me at all if there was a manual at some teacher training college that actually has instructions - to student teachers - on how to DO poster projects which mentions cutting pictures out of magazines! 

Am I 'nit-picking' here? Probably - but the point I am trying to make is that at some point in a learner's time at school there is a change in attitude to plagiarism which can only confuse the learner.

Graeme