The incredible growth of the Internet over recent years has caused problems for parents and teachers. Parents worry about which sites their children spend time on, who they chat to online and the possible effects that computer games might have on them. For teachers, meanwhile, the main worry is the way the Internet makes cheating easier!

Schools and universities say there has been a huge increase in plagiarism – taking other people’s words and ideas and pretending that they are your own. In the past, anyone who wanted to copy had to go to a library, find the right books, read through them, find the sections they needed and then physically write down the words they wanted to use. Nowadays, though, students can simply copy extracts from websites- while really desperate students sometimes copy whole essays! As if this wasn’t bad enough, sites offering to actually do homework – at a price – have also started appearing.

Despite all this, we shouldn’t assume that the Internet only brings problems. Indeed, you could say that for every problem the Internet creates, it also brings a solution. Parents can now use sophisticated controls to stop kids from accessing sites that might do them harm, while new software helps teachers to detect copied work immediately. Many, of course, are already able to recognize when someone is cheating! “Some students suddenly start using words they can’t possibly understand like “dialectical antagonism,” explains one teacher, or parts of their essays feel different.”

One of the hardest things for teachers today is deciding how to mix modern technology with traditional study skills – and how best to use the Web in class. As more and more schools install computers in every classroom, the role of the teacher is changing. Making sure students don’t just copy things and do learn how to quote copied work properly is part of their job, but so is designing suitable projects to fully exploit the Web in helping students learn about subjects and develop their life and social skills.

(Adapted from Pre- Intermediate Outcomes by Hugh Dellar & Andrew Walkley)