One of the issues I asked teachers I interviewed for Totally Wired about was plagiarism. Plagiarism has always been a problem (and not just with teens), but the internet has made plagiarism a lot easier -- it's basically as simple as copy and paste. And with Wikipedia showing up in the top 10 search results of almost any query, teens will often "plagiarize" a source written and edited by several people. [the Wikipedia folks are working on a more controlled version of Wikipedia with the hope of making it a more credible source]. Part of the problem is that students don't understand what plagiarism actually is -- even if they have some sort of unconscious hunch that they're taking a big short cut. It's up to teachers to really explain how it works, how to paraphrase and most importantly how to cite the source, and which sources are valid.

The other day I spotted this editorial written by a teen about the use of a plagiarism spotting program called Turnitin, which is being used by lots of schools right now. A lot of teachers also just copy passages in question right into Google and find their answer to whether or not a student plagiarized, pretty quickly. The author rightly points out that Turnitin isn't full proof and makes mistakes. She writes:

Recently, I wrote a fifteen-page science term paper and submitted it to Turnitin. According to the site, my work was 32% plagiarized, which I knew was preposterous. After discounting the "plagiarized" works cited information and direct quotes, my paper was still deemed 14% plagiarized.

When I looked at the specific parts of my "plagiarized" paper, I soon realized the ridiculousness of Turnitin. Phrases like "the effects of coronary heart disease" and "dangerous to one's health" were considered plagiarized! These groups of words are fairly common, and hundreds of people would write them. It was even more frustrating when I realized that the site indicated I copied from a website that I did not even access!

Just as technology can't replace good parenting, it can't replace good teaching either. It's not just programs like Turnitin that are far from perfect solutions to real problems, filtering software used by many schools and libraries often "accidentally" blocks educational sites that teachers and students actually need to access. Take plagiarism off the table by teaching your students what it is, telling them it's completely unethical and showing them how to properly cite their sources.

P.S. Teens are also creating their own educational experiences online like this fun quiz site.