Two mornings running, after still other earlier instances, Metro Morning has discussed on air the so-called cheating scandal at Ryerson.
What is irritating about these discussions is how the actual essence of the whole matter has consistently been missed or ignored, leaving listeners with no increased understanding.
Indeed, your focus on computers and the Internet has only further fed the computer Luddites out there in radioland.
What we actually have in the Ryerson “scandal” is a case of incompetence or laziness posing as ethical concern.
A professor has clearly demonstrated his or her laziness or incompetence in this matter, which has nothing whatever to do with computers or the Internet.
Any teacher who gives exactly the same assignment to a group of students and tells them it will count towards their final grade is solely and entirely the source of the problem.
Fifty years ago, given the same circumstances, the same group would have been meeting in the student lounge over coffee to discuss the assignment. The computer changes nothing here.
The professor could have given each student an individualized assignment or, alternatively, handled the particular material as a quiz in class, perhaps even open-book.
But he/she chose the lazy way and then blamed the ethics of others for his /her poor performance.
Actually, with the high level this matter went to at Ryerson, it raises genuine concerns about the quality of the administration at this nouveau university.
Recall the awarding of an honorary degree to a well-known "ethicist" from McGill - an award I thought inappropriate in the first place.
After complaints, the highest level of that institution's administration embarrassed itself and the award’s recipient by having a public debate over the award's appropriateness. This was nothing but the purest incompetence, just as was the so-called cheating scandal.
