Academic Dishonesty and the Internet in Higher Education
Academic Dishonesty and the Internet in Higher Education
Just as the industrial revolution brought drastic changes to how people lived in the 18th and 19th centuries, the digital age is a new era in which we are living that both recently has brought and is currently bringing about many changes in the way we live. This new so called digital age has manipulated the way we live. It has changed the way we interact and socialize, the way we process and get information, and even the way we learn in education. Educationally speaking, the digital age has brought about a great deal of positive changes in education but also some negative ones. The Internet makes peer-reviewed research studies and library collections easily accessible to students. The internet also allows collaboration among individuals and groups without geographical limitations possible. An unfortunate result of the digital age, however, is that students are becoming less likely to maintain their academic integrity, and this increase in academic dishonesty occurs in both traditional and web-based courses. Academic dishonesty is not a new phenomenon amongst students, but the ways that students are doing it and their attitudes toward it are changing. The digital age has brought a tremendous amount of opportunities for students and teachers in the educational society today. Technology is changing the ways educators teach by providing new perspectives to things with new exciting resources that students and teachers can both use. At the same time, though, it is challenging students’ academic integrity. A 2002 survey done by the Josephson Institute of Ethics reported that students are starting to develop a more laid back attitude towards cheating (Jarc). According to Ma, Wan, and Lu, this decline of academic integrity seems to be closely related to the Internet and other newly advanced technologies (198). Since more students at the college level are now using the Internet as a resource to find information,
Just as the industrial revolution brought drastic changes to how people lived in the 18th and 19th centuries, the digital age is a new era in which we are living that both recently has brought and is currently bringing about many changes in the way we live. This new so called digital age has manipulated the way we live. It has changed the way we interact and socialize, the way we process and get information, and even the way we learn in education. Educationally speaking, the digital age has brought about a great deal of positive changes in education but also some negative ones. The Internet makes peer-reviewed research studies and library collections easily accessible to students. The internet also allows collaboration among individuals and groups without geographical limitations possible. An unfortunate result of the digital age, however, is that students are becoming less likely to maintain their academic integrity, and this increase in academic dishonesty occurs in both traditional and web-based courses. Academic dishonesty is not a new phenomenon amongst students, but the ways that students are doing it and their attitudes toward it are changing. The digital age has brought a tremendous amount of opportunities for students and teachers in the educational society today. Technology is changing the ways educators teach by providing new perspectives to things with new exciting resources that students and teachers can both use. At the same time, though, it is challenging students’ academic integrity. A 2002 survey done by the Josephson Institute of Ethics reported that students are starting to develop a more laid back attitude towards cheating (Jarc). According to Ma, Wan, and Lu, this decline of academic integrity seems to be closely related to the Internet and other newly advanced technologies (198). Since more students at the college level are now using the Internet as a resource to find information,
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