The Internet is one of the best tools to come along for educators since the bookstore. And like the bookstore, it has sections kids shouldn't visit. Yet it's only natural that kids will at least try to sneak into the backroom.

In order for teachers to get the best educational value out of the Web, they have to put in the necessary technological stops. They must be aware of what's available to help keep Internet use safe and clean.

Donald L. McCabe of Rutgers University recently completed a research project that focused on cheating in 26 randomly selected high schools throughout the U.S. McCabe is also the founder of the Center for Academic Integrity.

From pulling small sections of text off the Net and passing it off as their own to copying huge sections of text or entire papers, his study shows that a large number of students admit to plagiarizing work on the Internet.

"I'd say approximately one in five are engaged in the more serious behavioral and about half in the less serious behavioral," he says.

Technology-related cheating includes using translation sites for foreign language studies, using homework help sites and sharing work illegitimately. In one case, McCabe says, he was told that students had gotten the teacher's manuals to every course in the school and posted homework solutions online.

Schoolsucks.com is a Web-based "paper mill" where students can buy complete papers. Its collection of papers might rival the libraries of some small schools. Students can purchase papers on subjects ranging from the connection between mental illness and the poetry of Sylvia Plath to complete psychological experiments.

But all is not lost. Teachers are well aware of some of the drawbacks of Internet technology. They're working hard to keep the educational value up and the smut value low.

"We should drive to get schools wired," McCabe says. "It's a tremendous tool. We just need to learn how to get students to use it effectively and appropriately."

For the younger grades, it's usually enough to have a teacher monitoring the computer lab. Teachers can then keep students away from objectionable content by demanding they hit specific targets that the teacher has already checked out.

"The onus is on the teacher to be there," says Linda Dyck. She is the past president of Computer-Using Educators of British Columbia.

"If they're busy with something constructive to do and they know what they're doing, then they don't have time to be just lolling around. I don't give them time and I don't allow them to use chat rooms. And they're not allowed to use e-mail at school."

Her school district uses I-gear, a district-wide program that filters out pornography and different sites. Sometimes filtering technology can get a little carried away, though. It can eliminate helpful sections of the Internet simply because of the presence of a typically troublesome word.

"If we find a site we want to go to that we can't get to that is legitimate, for whatever reason, then we just phone [the school district] and they'll release the site."

In another school district, technology coordinator Richard Pratt uses what's called a sonic wall. This system monitors but does not filter out objectionable content.

"What happens is, if there is an attempt to go to a site which is outside of the sonic wall approved list, I get an e-mail and two other people get e-mails and we look into it."

He says that most of the students using the Internet for other-than-prescribed purposes are aware that the monitoring is going on. He also says there isn't a big issue of students looking at objectionable material on the Web at the school.

"Frankly, 99 per cent of the notices we get are for things that are just fine. If it is an objectionable site, then we can document it through system information, find out who's at the seat and then some sort of disciplinary action will be taken."

Even still, a "particularly foul or obviously intentional" transgression can get students a suspension lasting three to 10 days. Pratt says the need for such punishment is rare, however.

In fact, most cheating, like most visits to porn sites, is inadvertent. Dyck relates this anecdote:

"I had one child once who turned something in to me that was completely plagiarized -- it came from a website. And so I took him aside and said this is an 'F'. We looked at it and he was very upset and he said, 'But it took my mom until 2 in the morning to change that all around for me!'"

Clearly, some students (and parents) are not aware of the seriousness or even the existence of the issue of plagiarism.

McCabe adds that as students continue to grow up with Internet technology, the issue becomes one of knowing where the line is. Students might truly not understand what's appropriate and what's not.

"Teachers need to begin to address this with students," McCabe says, "to at least tell them what we think is appropriate. That's no guarantee they'll do it, but it's certainly better than not telling them."

The problems with cheating get bigger as students reach the higher grades. But from a policing point of view, the pursuit then becomes more interesting. You can get a sense of the problem by looking at some of the technology designed to fight it.

One of the most sophisticated advancements is probably the website Turnitin.org. This site can be subscribed to on a district-wide basis, or teachers can pay by the paper. What happens is simple.

A teacher receives a paper that is unusually good or inconsistently good or for whatever reason seems suspicious. The teacher can send a copy to Turnitin.org and they will run it through a test that compares the sample with the 40 gazillion pages of content on the Web. Sentences. Paragraphs. Structure. The whole thing. A report is then returned to the teacher with a probability reading. Plagiarized or not?

Such extreme attempts at preserving academic integrity may or may not be warranted. But reports from major newspapers, such as USA Today (which ran the headline, Net Makes Cheating as Easy as ABC) seem to suggest they are.

McCabe says he is not as alarmist as others in the area. His view is mainly one of encouraging awareness and getting hold of the issue before students gain the upper hand and wield their superior knowledge of technology over their teachers.

"You have some teachers who are already up front, who are further encouraged by what you have to say. You have some teachers who are very cynical about it, who ignore what you have to say. And you have a large group in the middle that listen very carefully [to] what you have to say," McCabe says.

"I think we still have some time to deal with the issue."

Net Sites

Cheating in Our Schools

A survey about student cheating in the classroom and online

http://www.teachnet.com/speakout/survey/cheating.html

Turnitin.org

A resource for teachers concerned about plagiarism

http://www.turnitin.org

Cyber Safety for Kids

A resource site that promotes internet safety for kids

http://www.mcgruffspo.com/cybersafetysat.html

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