Dr. Eileen Gallagher

When I was a college student, several decades ago, students were not allowed to work together to do their homework or class work assignments. It was considered cheating to ask for help from your friend. Today’s classrooms promote collaboration among students.

In the past, it was considered cheating to use sources for ideas. Even in my graduate school classes that I teach today, I encourage students to express their own ideas and then use sources to back up their ideas. I am adamant about the need to cite the sources accurately and completely.

Considering the new wave of working together as seen on wiki sites, is intellectual property a thing of the past? Are all ideas open to be changed and revision by anyone who wishes to participate? Surely an open atmosphere of exchanging ideas and revising thoughts will stimulate more learning? For students who have shared ideas and collaborated on ideas through group projects and wikis, being forced to use APA citations for ideas they have reworded into their own ideas must be very confusing. I know it is confusing me.

I believe the changes in the way we view how students work with material from sources has become confusing for many teachers. What is cheating and what is not? How do we separate and assess the differences? How do we assess individual student’s contributions to a group project? Is it important that we assess this and attach a grade value to it?

It seems to me that we have to review what is the most important part of education? Collaborating can be a powerful force for learning. Students not only learn more of the material to be mastered but they learn how different people see things differently. They learn how to express their own opinion and support it with facts. They learn to communicate and cooperate.

The many resources available on the internet seem to promote life long learning for every age in a collaborative learning community.However I still feel it is essential that students understand the importance of giving credit for work done by others. This to me is the key to differentiation of collaboration and cheating. As long as credit is given for source material used or revised, then the work results are appropriate and learning has occurred.

But then, I am an educator trained in the old school. Am I still behind the times on this? Is intellectual property a thing of the past? What do you think?