Wow and Wonder #6

For this Wow and Wonder post, I will be responding to Jim Luke’s blog, “That’s No Plagiarism Checker,” regarding the use of a social media tool that surveils us for profit.

Wow

I was shocked to read how TurnItIn (TII), a tool who’s purpose is to detect plagiarism, is able to steal students’ intellectual property. As a student and a private person, this was upsetting to read as I feel as though it is an invasion of my privacy. I would not feel comfortable with the fact that TII could easily collect my data right out from under me while under false pretences. There should be precautions in place to protect the students who do not wish to share their data.

Wonder

Luke mentions how the pedagogy of mistrusting all students is awful and that it is unethical to steal their copyrights from them. While I agree with him, I found myself wondering about the best possible way to monitor/evaluate students’ work without having to compromise their privacy. In a perfect world, students would never cheat/plagiarize and teachers would never have to check students’ work for cheating/plagiarism. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world. If given the opportunity, there will be students who cheat/plagiarize (after being a student for 18 years, I can attest to this). I wonder how can we protect students’ intellectual property while simultaneously checking the academic integrity of the work that they put forth.

Resource

https://econproph.com/2019/03/12/thats-no-plagiarism-checker/