Against Cop Shit

Plagiarism detection tech seems like a solving-the-wrong-problem attempt to address a symptom of how we're trying to mass-produce education to save money.

If we actually want people to learn, plagiarism detection isn't the problem, it's the industrial factory approach in the first place. Get rid of that, and instructors can know and talk with their students well enough to tell what they actually know and understand instead of having to rely on artifacts that can be faked.

But we'd have to be spending more money in the first place, vs spending money on other things (like cops?!).

Re: Against Cop Shit

#5

Post by ilikehurdles » Tue, Jun 16, 2020, 6:06 PM UTC

ses1984 wrote: post #2

I'm not sure I'm against plagiarism detection tech.

Requiring a plagiarism detection feature is a symptom of a shitty instructor, syllabus, and/or academic institution.

Re: Against Cop Shit

#6

Post by lasdfas » Tue, Jun 16, 2020, 6:06 PM UTC

ses1984 wrote: post #2

I'm not sure I'm against plagiarism detection tech.

I saw multiple instances of my classmates plagiarizing. It's very rampant in colleges. Removing that tech would be a mistake in my opinion.

Re: Against Cop Shit

#7

Post by rootusrootus » Tue, Jun 16, 2020, 6:08 PM UTC

I think it's important to draw some distinction between primary, secondary, and post-secondary education.

In primary school I am 100% for focusing on learning, and limiting the bureaucracy around it to only that which furthers the goal of learning. Punishing tardiness or unexplained absences doesn't make much sense, but noticing it does, because improving attendance is a worthy goal in pursuit of learning.

When you get to secondary school it makes some sense to put a bit more emphasis on responsibility.

And in post-secondary school, you're a customer now, so I think the teacher should only really care about what you do insofar as it might impact the service being sold to other paying customers.

Re: Against Cop Shit

#8

Post by pkage » Tue, Jun 16, 2020, 6:09 PM UTC

bJGVygG7MQVF8c wrote: post #3

"cop shit" what, like cancel culture? sure, let's do it.

This doesn't seem relevant to the topic at hand.

Re: Against Cop Shit

#9

Post by lasdfas » Tue, Jun 16, 2020, 6:10 PM UTC

ilikehurdles wrote: post #5

ses1984 wrote: post #2

I'm not sure I'm against plagiarism detection tech.

Requiring a plagiarism detection feature is a symptom of a shitty instructor, syllabus, and/or academic institution.

How does a good instructor, syllabus, and/or academic institution not need this? I went to an Ivy League school with hopefully above average teachers and saw a lot of plagiarism.

Re: Against Cop Shit

#10

Post by 542458 » Tue, Jun 16, 2020, 6:11 PM UTC

ses1984 wrote: post #2

I'm not sure I'm against plagiarism detection tech.

I was gonna say. The author never elaborates on it, but this is a profoundly silly take. Plagiarism is not just unethical, it also is (in my experience) a pretty good indicator the student didn't learn the subject matter. If you know what you're talking about, it's relatively easy to put it into your own words. Students that I've caught plagiarizing either:

a) Can't actually explain what they were writing about

b) Didn't learn how to correctly cite things, and/or don't understand what plagiarism is

Are plagarism detection tools perfect? Heck no. Lots of false positives, and of course they don't do anything for essay writing services (unless, of course, the service plagiarizes - which happens!).