How has the ‘Don’t copy and paste!’ project challenged you so far?
Well, getting it off the ground was certainly a challenge! Students don't really acknowledge that copying and pasting tends to be standard practice among their generation and they have little sense of what copyright is. It became clear that confronting them head-on with the issue was not the best approach. At the same time, some students shared with me that they wanted to become journalists after they graduate from high school. I offered them the chance to volunteer on this ‘Don’t copy and paste!’ campaign as training for their future career and they embraced the idea!
Why did you decide to kick-off the campaign with a survey of students’ practices?
For me, doing a survey on plagiarism among students at school was a good way of raising awareness. I thought that without incriminating anyone in particular, it would put the evidence under their nose and provide the sound base needed to start an open and frank debate about why copying and pasting can be ill-advised.
You mentioned in your project description that the initiative would involve 2 teams of 5 volunteers. Don’t you think that this relatively small number of participants might limit the impact of what you are trying to achieve?
I chose to start with small steps and to see how the initiative unfolds - and then adapt the scale accordingly. So far, I’ve put together a team of 10 volunteers and set the timeline of the project. We are now starting to meet on a weekly basis to decide on the questions of our online survey. These 10 volunteers are meant to be the leaders of the project, not the sole target audience. I’ve asked each of them to bring another volunteer on board, which means that we will soon have a team of 20 students to work on the implementation and the dissemination of the results to their fellow students.
What drove you to develop an initiative such as your ‘Don’t copy and paste!’ campaign?
Based on my own experience and what I hear from my colleagues, students don’t really understand the concept of copyright and what it’s for. Part of my role as an IT teacher is to raise their awareness of the importance of creativity and of the originality of their work. Besides, I feel responsible for the online behaviour of my students. They all spend quite a bit of time on the internet and not all of them are aware of the implications of what they do there. That’s where I come in.
How does it feel to be Teachtoday’s ‘Teacher of the Month’?
It’s definitely an encouragement for me and my students to develop new skills! In Romania, raising awareness of online safety issues is only in its infancy and teaching in this country tends to be quite focused on theoretical knowledge. True to their age, however, students are always more eager to explore the practical side of things. Guiding them on that path and helping them differentiate between do’s and don’ts is the most exciting part of my role as a teacher.