[Air-l] is a term paper dead?

[Maciej Kos]

Hello,

I came across this article:

"Cut-and-Paste Is a Skill, Too"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032301612_pf.html
by Jason Johnson, former technology director at Washington's Lowell
School, is an information technology consultant at Ingenium Corp.

"Now I watch my former teaching colleagues grade papers not simply by
marking a dangling participle here or an incomplete thought there, but
by Googling phrases from their students' work, searching for the
suspected source of yet another cut-and-paste job. I wonder if that's
really what teachers should be doing. As kids today plagiarize more
and more from the Internet, the old-fashioned term paper -- composed
by sweating students on a typewriter as they sat elbow-deep in
reference books -- has no useful heir in the digital age. It's time
for schools and educators to recognize the truth: The term paper is
dead."

As a teacher, I have the same problem. On the other hand, the Internet
has improved the quality of my lectures - I know that my every word is
being googled by students during the class. This does not only make me
prepare better but also makes students' questions more interesting.

How do you deal with plagiarism?
Do you allow your students to be online during classes?

Any thought on how this all will change in the next 10-20 years?

Regards,
Maciej