The Internet has made the exchange of information easier and more efficient. When encountering a cultural or historical question that I cannot answer, I have frequently asked my students to look it up on their phones. For the most part, there is no longer a need to go to the library to find information in a reference book. The most up-to-date information is available online.
The ease with which students can find information online and the facility with which they can copy and paste that information into research papers and presentations has reinforced the importance of teaching them about proper use and documentation of what they find online. Each time I assign a research project of any sort, there will inevitably be several students who copy and paste information or images from the internet, either from lack of knowledge or laziness. Do they not realize that it is just as easy for me to copy and paste their text into a Google search as it is for them to copy and paste it from an internet site?
The reality is that today’s high school students have grown up with an exchange of information that was unknown to previous generations of students. When you have to open a book and take notes from it, most students recognize that they need to attribute that information to the author. However, many of my students seem to believe that information found on the internet is either common knowledge or free to use and present as one’s own.
As educators, it is our duty to help our students learn the skills that they need to avoid the legal and ethical pitfalls of failing to use and cite their sources appropriately. We need to introduce them to Creative Commons sites like pixabay.com, where they can use images without concern for licensing. We should provide examples of paraphrasing and opportunities to practice this skill. I have encountered many students who believe that merely changing a few words is adequate to make the language their own. They do not realize that they are still culpable of plagiarizing, even if they cite the source appropriately. We should be offering ongoing chances to put paraphrasing to work across content areas.
Citing sources must also be an important part of all curricular areas. Students today have the benefit of online applications such as EasyBib and Noodle Tools that will create the citations for them if they enter the information correctly. Students need to be reminded to keep an ongoing list of the resources that they are using as they do their research. I have encountered many students who try to create their “Works Cited” after they have completed their project. They have no idea which sites they have used, and their list of sources is essentially fiction.
Finally, students need to be able to evaluate the quality of the sources that they are using. It is tempting to choose the first websites that result from a Google search, but often they are not the best that students could choose. They may have erroneous information or express opinions instead of facts. Students should be taught how to determine the value of a site for themselves.
If students do not cite their sources or use their research with proper attribution, there could be very real consequences for them as they continue through their education and professional lives. Schools need to ensure that students have the information that they need and the skill set necessary to navigate the legal and ethical issues related to copyright infringement and plagiarism.
Growing my Classroom 