Plagiarism and the Internet

Given the topic of community (which I missed, thanks to what was supposed to be a work thing, and ended up being me at home sick with the flu...), I feel compelled to write about the topic of plagiarism and the internet. I deal with it. Almost daily. 

 I believe the internet is very "two-faced" with this topic. On the one hand, you have the paper mill sites--where you can buy research papers. Example: Term Paper DOM.com. I am appalled that sites like these exist. It was bad enough to think students would buy papers off of each other (or bully others into writing papers for them). And now, it is a freaking business. I have even found "jobs" on things like Craigslist which are nothing more than a front for such a business.

At first, I felt like the internet was the bane of the educator's existence--that it was contributing to the problem. But then, we have things like Turn It In, a site that allows instructors to check their students' papers; it compares a paper to the major Mills, and other students' essays. And there are also things like plagiarism.org and grammarly.com that allow teachers to check for plagiarism, if their institution can't afford a program like Turn It In--or for students, who want to actually be responsible.

And, it seems like as new generations come up (about 2 e-generations behind me), more students are trying to do the right thing as teachers also become more savvy about online plagiarism. This Article seems to support that notion.

The issue seems to be balancing itself out--the more students try to cheat via the internet, the more the internet seems to post materials that counteract this (case in point: This Link from Plagiarism Today).

I am still a cynic, who tends to see the "bad" effects and potentialities surrounding the internet--but that is just my natural disposition. But, there are two sides to every proverbial coin. Sometimes we have to force ourselves to look.