Hi there… When I was at university in 1994, All my research had to be done from actual books, and only the books I actually owned, and boy, were they expensive! Today… Even my phone can find anything on the internet. My computer can print, anything on the internet. But I still word my own work, but it all comes off the internet. That isn’t cheating. Plagiarism is when we copy word for word. But we don’t really… In life, we learn other peoples jokes… But we are not making money out of it. Sure, if you were writing assignments for others and selling them, that’s copyright. But when we sing along to a favourite song is that wrong? If no one immitated anyone else, then we’d be a pretty boring species, right? You aren’t a cheat… You are simply making use of the facilities available to you as a student. The internet is there for all of us to use. In the pandemic, it is the only tool we have as regards education for young people. On open university we have a lot of facilities that were totally unimaginable in the 1990’s . It’s not cheating. In the world of music, I play a wonderful electronic organ. If I learn something, and put it on youtube, it is imitation, which is the finest form of flattery. In an octave, there are thirteen notes. Every tune in history, is made from a mixture of ,at most, 13 notes… And yet people still try to sue for copyright… And some of them are already multi millionaires!!!! Haven’t they got enough? If no one sings their songs, they’d pretty soon be forgotten… Don’t they want fans? So… We are not cheating… We are simply using the information we have to hand. Sure, in an exam room we have to rely on memory, but in ordinary life, when we use computers? Are we cheating on here when we share thoughts with each other? There will never be enough CBT therapists in the world, but we can use books… We learn as we go along… So… Maybe, just maybe, our studies are okay….? just a thought…
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