Student essays, at least the few I've read, are not often what I'd call "intellectual", but under the law they very well might be considered "intellectual property". So I like the fact that some students in Virginia are suing an anti-plagiarism company, Turnitin, for adding their essays to Turnitin's database.
Teachers or schools subscribe to Turnitin's service. They submit student papers to the company, which compares the papers to those in its database (or, I'm sure, to those found with search engines) to spot plagiarized passages.
The students claim not to support plagiarism, but don't want their personal work added to the database. At this point in time, absent other information, I'm inclined to support them.
Thanks to Joanne (see blogroll at left) for the story.
13 comments:
I side with the school and teachers, but I'm willing to offer the kids a compromise solution.
http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/197756.php
Turnitin will not be required of any student. They may turn in a hard-copy to the teacher with no grade penalty.
However, those students choosing to use this method will be forbidden to use internet resources or word processor programs. All papers will be typed on a typewriter (electric typewriters will be permitted -- I'm not a sadist), following all formatting requirements required of other students, including footnotes if applicable. All sources used by the students must be available from a publicly accessible library collection within 25 miles of the school, and the bibliography must include the name of the library and the call number of the items used.
This way, no student will be forced to submit a paper to turnitin against his or her will -- but the little Luddites will be unable to benefit from the sorts of technology they wish to deny their teachers.
I don't think we need to go that far. I say let their "papers" be submitted to Turnitin for analysis--only Turnitin can't keep the papers in its database. They scan, report, then delete.
I'm not sure that such an option exists with turnitin -- and wonder if permitting the copies to reside on turnitin's server is really the equivalent of "publishing" those papers.
I'd argue it is more like my old custom -- keeping a copy of all student research papers (and other "major grade" papers) in my file cabinet for reference purposes.
What a timely situation. The instructor of the college class I am currently taking on Tuesday nights told us on the first night that he would be running our papers through Turnitin.
When I taught high school for a year, I ran my seniors' student projects through Google when I came across an uncited passage that screamed out to me, "There is no way in hell that this student wrote that!" Sure enough, some paper from a website like Schoolsucks.com would come up with the offending passage.
I always tell my students that if they can find it on the Internet, chances are, so can I; and I have!
When you keep a copy, you're not making money off of it. Turnitin is. Therein lies a difference.
Why shouldn't they make money? They're providing a badly needed service.
The copyright argument is specious. University faculty have no copyright over anything they produce; the university owns the copyright. Students have no copyright over what they produce for classes, period.
Either it goes to turnitin, or he gets an F for the paper. Very simple.
I have no objection to their making money. I just wouldn't want them to make money using *my* work unless I was getting a cut of it--or at least had given them permission to use my work.
But that's the copyright issue. It's not technically "their" work, because it was submitted for a class. It belongs to the university, just as everything I do on any university machine or in my scope as a university employee belongs to the university, and not me.
I disagree. The original work of high school and college students *is* their work. It does not belong go the school.
If *your* work belongs to the school, it's because the school paid you for it as an employee. You signed a contract agreeing to it. These high school students signed no such contract.
"I have written several research papers on research that I have done on my own and find it sickening that others have access to my research work without my express consent."
If you did indeed write those papers and not plagiarize them, then you should be grateful that turnitin.com is protecting your intellectual property by catching any student who tries to turn your work in as his own.
And no, there is nothing in any contract anyone signed that says the university owns intellectual property. It was yet one more policy the university came up with.
No intellectually honest student would object to turnitin, but would rather object to his work being plagiarized.
I don't support plagiarism, but I'd object to this company's keeping my work, making money off of it, and not paying me.
Tom, I'm quite aware of how Turnitin works. The fact that they keep the students' papers in their database, and use those papers to make money (by selling the service that they do, which includes using the student work that's in their database,)strikes me as theft.
If they didn't keep the student work to use later, or didn't keep it without permission, I'd be entirely ok with it.
Your comment that "the only people who have anything to fear from this service are plagiarists" strikes me as the same argument that people use to restrict civil liberties--and I don't buy it.
Please don't assume that because I disagree with you, I don't understand what's going on.
I just came across an absolutely eye-opening anti-Turnitin article with tons of proof to support many claims. I had no idea how much Turnitin violates students' rights.
The Well-Known Secret about Turnitin.com
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