Why is plagiarism such a big deal in our universities?

I admit, I’ve been guilty of this too – reinforce the consequences of copying and plagiarism without fully explaining about information literacy and how to correctly reference and cite work. Which is why this video from Tara Brabazonis a timely reminder about what the student thinks.Tara asks her students how they feel about plagiarism and why it has become such an issue in the contemporary university.

YouTube: Why is plagiarism such a big deal in our universities?

Here are two interesting quotes from a student in the video:

“I think plagiarism is such a big deal because none of us actually have original ideas, we’ve become too lazy to think of anything ourselves: we rely on other people to think of something for us.”

I hope not – I hope that these students (16 year olds?) have not had imagination and creativity beaten out of them, they are the future and should still be thinking, planning, scheming, and dreaming. Do students really think they can’t try and be original, where would we be without original thoughts?

Another student:

“I think, today, the definition of many fundamental words are questionable, such as ‘imagination’ and ‘originality’, and I think it’s time we have to explore the true meaning of these words and try to figure out what the hell is going on. So it’s time to think of fresh ideas and plagiarism, you know copying other peoples ideas, is probably the reason for this big mess.”

Plagiarism or copying could, for some, be the easy way out of a difficult situation, but hard work or creativity can produce wonders – just look at the impact the first Apple iPod or iPhone had on their respective markets.

How do you introduce digital and information literacy to students? What steps do you go through, and ask your students to go through, to work with referencing and citation to prevent academic infringements? Care to share any resources with us?