Cheating is the pedagogy of the internet
I ran across this fun and informative lecture by Jon Ippolito discussing various tensions between cultural production (in general) and the current culture of intellectual property law – where he introduces his idea that “cheating is the pedagogy of the internet.” It’s the written version of a lecture he gave at Columbia University a few years, when I was lucky enough to hear him. His ideas and criticisms about pedagogy and the internet led to his project called The Pool.
Watch and be introduced to other goodies such as:
I’ve been trying to take some of the ideas he touches on here and push them forward a bit. The law stuff is great, but perhaps it’s not the most accessible inroad to thinking about academic honesty. In lieu of that, I’m interested in what kind of conceptualization of education we would need to make room for new technologies that accelerate cheating. (Maybe it would turn out to be an approach to education we’ve always needed?)
this lecture is really great, and seems to tie into a lot of thoughts you’ve had more recently about the importance of a generalist perspective. i wonder how you see questions of “academic honesty” fitting into generalism. it seems that a more open, “cheat to your heart’s desire” academic climate has the potential to create more generalists…thoughts?
Jay, thanks for reading and taking the time to comment! Maybe you already saw my post on scholarly attribution as well… To clarify, I don’t think that cheating per se is the answer. I do however think that students should be encouraged to spend less time worrying about attribution, though perhaps there could be more attribution than ever via new writing tools, etc. And to follow up on your thought: yes! I think more free-form writing and writing-driven inquiry would lead to better educational experience generally, and hence, more well-rounded thinkers.
I am also just generally opposed to fanciful views of originality, which might make me overly critical of academic honesty policies… but I suspect educational institutions could do much better.