Teaching Ideas
Copyright Violation on the Web
Key Ideas
Publishing something on the internet does not make it available
for anyone to claim as his/her own work. Copying something
that someone else produced and passing it off as your own
is unethical, illegal, and just plain wrong.
Materials
- Computer with internet access
- Paper for taking notes
Background
This activity is designed to look at the common practice
of "borrowing" (i.e., "stealing") material
from the internet and presenting it as original material.
This borrowing of text and images from someone else constitutes
copyright violation and plagiarism and is a serious academic
transgression. This activity should include lessons on the
proper use and documentation of sources, as well as what is
usable under copyright law.
Procedure
- While you are studying a larger content unit (e.g., world
religion, mythology, The Civil War, etc.), divide the class
into groups and have each group conduct research on a particular
subtopic of that content.
- The research assignment should have students find as many
sites on their subtopic as possible and then compare the
sites to see how often the same material occurs (i.e., the
exact same language or the same image). The instructor will
need to do some preliminary research to make sure that there
is enough repeated material for each subtopic.
- Students should examine the sites to see if they attribute
their information and verbiage to another site. They should
also try to find the originating source of the material
(i.e., which web site is the original source). It would
also be interesting if they tracked and compared the citation
paths.
- Have students present their findings.
Class Discussion Topics
- Is there anything wrong with using someone else's material
as your own?
- What are the potential dangers of passing off information
from the internet as your own?
- How can you be sure that the information being "borrowed"
is credible (i.e., worth borrowing)?
- How can you use someone else's material in a way that
is proper and ethical?
Assessment
The project itself should be the assessment instrument, both
in terms of product and process. Be sure to include an assessment
rubric in the presentation of the assignment that spells out
what you are looking for and how you will evaluate them.
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