Should more be done to prevent plagiarism in schools?

[AB Asks]

More than half of teachers think that internet plagiarism is a real problem among 6th form students, according to new research. Copying and pasting from internet pages in essays has increasingly become a problem in recent years. Should more be done to prevent it, indeed is there anything that can be done?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7194772.s tm

[jno]

I like the idea of all essays having to be handwritten. Old-fashioned (of course it was the way you did it all the time in my day) but it would stop actual cutting and pasting even if it didn't deter copying.

[4GS]

When I was at Uni, all our essays were checked for plagiarism, there is a website that the University's can use to scan them and see if the students have been cheating. Perhaps schools could use this software also?
That said, it is ridiculously easy to buy an essay only for only a few �'s

[Lil O'lady]

Plagiarism has always happened - a teacher who has a good relationship with students will know whether a piece of work is theirs stylistically as they will know what their charges' work is like. This becomes harder with big impersonal units - large 6th form colleges or universities. So maybe the answer lies in enabling tutors / teachers in the larger institutions to work differently with their classes so that they can actually get to know them?

[Thunderchild]

well some uni teachers that I dare say are very well paid do cr@p little and only have 15 students, that said my veiw is at the end of the day its the students life he/she may have top marks but without the brawn in the head it won't do much good in the real world (I hope), it is of course unfair to other students.

[Gef]

Simple. Get rid of internal assessment and base everything on final (external) exams.

[Teddio]

Abolish all coursework which is assessed internally. Have all assessment done via externally marked and standardised exams.

[EngTeach]

Students and parents are always amazed when a teacher accuses them of not writing in their own words. Even if we don't have access to fancy software, I know how my students (all 179 of them) write, I certainly know the difference between a high school student's work and something that was cut and paste. I have had parents report me to the superintendent's office for failing to accept a copied paper. I always give them the chance to redo the work, but it easier to aggravate me and call me to a disciplinary hearing than to make your child actually work for the grade!