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Latest News |
| 06th
July 2010 / Times of India / Delhi Edition |
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Copy and paste destroying creativity
Copy and paste. Those three words have — inarguably
— become the mantra for students who need to complete
school assignments quicker, and with a little less effort.
Originality has taken a back seat since downloading content
from the internet and reproducing it in the classroom
as one’s own is now commonplace. Students do it.
Parents find it convenient. And many times, teachers do
not get to know. As a result, students have begun to plagiarise
without really understanding that they are cheating.
‘‘Children no longer apply their minds because
they can lift material from the internet. For example,
answers to every question in an NCERT book is now available
on the net. But children use that information without
checking its authenticity and teachers do not get to know
because tracking the source of content is difficult,’’
said Suraj Prakash, principal, CRPF Public School.
Lifting content from the net might now qualify as mundane
but not many people understand that claiming it as their
own, even to a teacher, is illegal.
Supreme Court lawyer and cyber law expert Pawan Duggal
said, ‘‘The author of electronic content is
its owner. The Copyright Act allows usage of that content
for educational and research purposes but passing it off
as your own could invite trouble. The owner can sue a
person for damages of up to Rs 5 crore under the amended
IT Act, irrespective of whether that person is a child
or not.’’ He added, ‘‘It is time
cyber ethics were taught to children. Students need to
learn how to use the internet correctly at an early age
or they will plagiarise even when they go to university.’’
Schools admit that while the internet is now indispensable,
monitoring its use is difficult. But many of them are
finally acknowledging the rise of the ‘copy and
paste’ syndrome and devising ways to discourage
students from doing it. ‘‘We make students
write out their assignments so that they are forced to
think,’’ said Meeta Rai, principal, DPS Indirapuram.
At Amity International School, Saket, teachers now think
up assignments and questions to which the internet does
not have direct answers. ‘‘About three years
ago, we realised children were copying and pasting their
answers,” said principal Bharti Sharma. ‘‘So
we gave them work that they would be required to read
and understand. They are now also supposed to tell us
where they source their information from. And we conduct
workshops on cyber education.’’
CBSE included cyber ethics and laws in class X and XII
syllabi last year. Gautam Sarkar, who teaches computer
science at Modern School, Barakhamba Road, and is also
a member of the CBSE curriculum committee, said, ‘‘Students
need to be told how the technology works and the implications
of its misuse. There is now software to check whether
content has been copied from the net. We use that software
to scan entries to essay competitions.’’ Even
more importantly, Prakash added, ‘‘It’s
important to first make the teachers aware so that they
can then counsel their students.’’
neha.pushkarna@timesgroup.com
Computer Code
Claiming that content taken from the internet is your
own, even to a teacher, is illegal
If you do, you could be prosecuted under the IT Act for
up to Rs 5 crore
Schools are conducting workshops and giving children assignments
they have to read and therefore understand. |
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