<p>I agree that this is a very interesting discussion. </p>
<p>And I agree with Marite that things are in transition right now, as instructors are increasingly realizing the value of informal peer collaboration in learning.</p>
<p>The whole issue of citation/acknowledgement/collaboration/authenticity is also coming to the forefront of the public mind. There have been big cases involving lapses from best-selling authors, professors at places lke Harvard Law School, and reporters for publications as distinguished as the New York Times.</p>
<p>Some of the most recent problems at Harvard Law School involved professors who were relying on editorial assistance from teams of student researchers. It is clear, in retrospect, that sometimes the professors were too busy or preoccupied to exercise proper oversight over their own teams. In one case, a professor signed off on a final manuscript book draft as his own, without realizing that some of the words purported to be his own had been cut-and-pasted in from another published source by a research assistant. (Apparently one research asst had inserted it into the draft with the intention that another research asst. would eventually paraprhrase it and cite the idea to the original source. The electronic post-it note reminder to do the paraphrase and citation accidentally disappeared, so the verbatim text without citation stayed in. Ultimately the professor reading over the final manuscript did not realize that those uncited words were not his own, and so they went into the book published under his own name.)</p>
<p>So it's clear that professors aren't always setting a perfect example for students to emulate.</p>
<p>And standards do differ from context to context. A business memo does not require the same standards of scholarly citation as a term paper or journal article. I also understand that it is standard practice for law clerks to draft the text of judicial opiniions, for junior lawyers to draft briefs which will ultimately go out under the signature of a partner, for speechwriters to draft speeches for politicians.</p>
<p>And technology has also changed so much. Fax machines, email, IM, cell phones, and much cheaper long distance toll rates make possible easy collaborations across far greater distances than ever before. </p>
<p>When I was in college, nobody in my dorm had any kind of phone in their room, let alone a fax machine, cellphone, or computer! The dorm simply wasn't wired for telephone service. There was a front-desk phone where parents could call and leave messages. There was a payphone in each hallway, which offered no privacy. Talking on that phone meant the whole hall could hear. And it was expensive to call home. I remember one phone call from my parents the entire time I was in college--and that was when my dad had gone into the hospital and they wanted me to come home quickly for a visit.) Aside from that, my parents and I communicated by letters.</p>
<p>Under such circumstances, I'm sure it never occurred to my professors that students might consult their parents--or anyone outside the college community--on their work.</p>
<p>I bring a number of perspectives to this discussion--as a parent, as a homeschooler, and as someone who has taught "other people's children" (OPC) of all ages from K through grad school in a mix of conventional and unconventional classrooms. </p>
<p>Back when I taught OPC in a university, it never in a million years occurred to me that one of my students would ask a parent for help. Actually, many of my grad students were older than I was at the time I started teaching them, and their parents typically had less education than they did. But even with my young undergrad students, it never occurred to me that they might ask their parents for help. </p>
<p>I have to say that I had never thought about the possibility that students living away from home would consult their parents on college assignments until this thread came along.</p>
<p>I was not an English professor, though I certainly assigned papers, as well as problem sets, and take-home exams.</p>
<p>I have to say that back in those days, non-English professors were typically not very explicit in talking about issues of citation and plagiarism. We vaguely assumed that our students had learned the appropriate standards from their freshman English courses (or from the writing refresher courses we required our grad students to take.)</p>
<p>The only point on which I remember being very clear was that my take-home exams did not allow collaboration. </p>
<p>I encouraged students to collaborate on problem sets, though I did say students should write up their work independently (i.e., turning in a photocopy or electronic cut-and-paste of joint work was not allowed.) I did not ask students to acknowledge explicitly a list of students with whom they had worked. In looking at course websites these days, I note that an increasing number of professors strongly encourage joint work, but do add the stiuplation that students should acknowledge their collaborators. </p>
<p>This seems like a very good idea to me. For one thing, if I or my teaching assistants encounter a particular misconception cropping up over and over again in correcting a problem set, it's helpful to know whether it's due to widespread independent confusion or whether a single study group got confused on a particular point. For another thing, it's helpful for me to know who is NOT collaborating, because then I can specifically seek them out and encourage them to do so. For another thing, it's helpful for me to understand the sociology of the study groups that students self-select and form. If I find that they are pretty heterogeneous on various dimensions (age, gender, race, nationality, etc.), that's great. If there is some degree of self-segregation going on, that's helpful to know too--perhaps the professor can think of ways to encourage the study groups to mix up a bit more, or to find ways to encourage collaborative learning by occasionally breaking the class up into small diverse discussion groups within the classroom, etc. And professors may also be able to see patterns--e.g., do heterogeneous or homegeneous ability study groups work better?</p>
<p>But the other reason for requiring students to list their collaborators on assignments is that it makes it easier to check whether students are abiding by the requirement to write their work up independently. This probably serves as a deterrent to students who might otherwise be tempted to collaborate in writeups.</p>
<p>But more generally, I think the academic world is evolving in the direction of "If in doubt, cite or acknowledge your sources." You can never get in academic honesty trouble for citing or acknowledging too much. </p>
<p>Technology has changed so much of what is possible and professors' guidelines haven't always kept ahead of the technology. Professors have often given problem sets as "open everything," meaning that students were free to consult books, classmates, notes, etc. </p>
<p>I recently heard about a case involving a student working on a difficult problem who googled on an unfamiliar technical term in the problem in order to understand what it meant. That sort of search would certainly seem to be in line with the spirit of an "open everything" assignment. But what turned up in the search was a complete explanation of how to do that particular problem! The student was uncomfortable and not sure how to complete the assignment after reading the solution, and approached a teaching assistant, who promised the student anonymity and inquired of the professor for a specific guideline. The professor's response was--that's fine as long as the student cites the source and writes it up in his/her own way.</p>
<p>Technology and the increased emphasis on encouraging collaboration has vastly changed the resources available to students for learning these days. It seems to me that professors need to take this into account and come up with clear and explicit guidelines for what is and what is not allowed in light of technological changes. </p>
<p>There are so many gray areas that professors never had to think about before.</p>
<p>The guideline which I am happiest to see professors giving my children is: "If in doubt, err in the direction of citing and acknowledging soruces, or come and see me if you are unsure."</p>