cheating in the 21st century

Of the three readings this week, the one that really made me think about my future career as a teacher was the e-cheating article. I have spent several years dealing with technologically enhanced cheating from a student perspective, but the issue seems even more critically when looked at from a teacher's standpoint. This article pointed out that while plagiarism, such as copying an essay from a magazine or book, has always been a problem in institutions of higher education, the commonality of the internet and the huge amount of writing it makes available has made the issue even more prevalent. In addition to legitimate sources of information like journals and news articles, there are also sites solely devoted to the morally questionable business of selling academic papers. While some of these sites post disclaimers that their content should be used for inspiration only, it is pretty clear that their actual purpose is to give or sell students pieces of writing that they can turn in as their own work. With so many opportunities to digitally cheat, teachers and professors must make a concentrated effort to deter their students from turning in fraudulent work. This can be done by creating assignments that make cheating more difficult (such as assigning papers on very specific topics) as well as informing students about what exactly constitutes as cheating and its moral and legal implications.
As a high school or middle school teacher, I'm sure I will have to deal with students who cheat using the internet. I also acknowledge the fact that, no matter how hard I try to make it to cheat, there will always be students who figure out how to get out of doing their work. Because of that, I will also have to take some time to assess whether the work my students turn in has been plagiarized. If my school can afford it I definitely want to have my students submit their papers to an online plagiarism check site, such as turnitin.com, and I will also be on the lookout for papers that seem far above the level of the student who turned it in. Overall, even though cheating is a big problem I am not going to let it stop me being a good educator.