Re: Help to translate from ADA 2 C/C++

[mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)]

In article <dewar.828992261@schonberg>, Robert Dewar <dewar@cs.nyu.edu> wrote:
>Sometimes when students post to newsgroups asking for help with their
>assignments, I wonder if they know how easy it is to track this kind
>of query. I routinely do a DejaNEWS search on what my students have
>posted at the end of the semester, sometimes it is quite enlightening :-)
>Incidentally, my viewpoint when students ask for help, especially if
>they are reasonably open about what they are doing, is to provide
>pointers to the solution, but not the solutions themselves :-)

I agree. We have to strike a balance between students' learning how to do
various kinds of projects, and the fact that they do not - should not,
cannot - live in a vaccuum. Programming assignments are no different 
from other kinds of graded work, or any kind of intellectual work for
that matter. 

Plagiarism is plagiarism. A student who went to the 'net for a solution, 
and documented it honestly, saying "this is the help I got from <name> 
via the <name> newsgroup" would not be slammed for plagiarism. A program is
little different from, say, a literature essay in this regard. The key
criterion is "are you taking credit for work done by others, or only
for the work you actually did?"

On the other hand, I try to establish sensible ground rules to encourage
the students to understand that outright copying - even if it's 
documented - is frowned upon, because they've cheated themselves out of 
the experience they are supposed to be getting in the course. They'll
end up getting caught on the exams, in any case.

Conclusion:      

1. I get paid to be a teacher, not a policeman. A really skillful
   cheater will get away with it; that's life. The dumb ones get
   nailed, just like in real life. I will prosecute those cases 
   that come to my attention and that I can win; I let students know 
   this, and I've won a few rather visible cases. They know the risk.

2. Part of my role as a teacher is to instill in my students a
   respect for a principle of intellectual honesty - take credit
   where it is appropriate; give credit where it is due.

(2) is really more important than (1). Teaching honesty is more
important than "stamping out crime."

Mike Feldman