Assignment 1

(b) "Copying from the internet is not cheating"

As a teacher I personally would not be worried about students copying from the internet or other resources when doing homework. I state that because in my opinion, grades should have two main components: homework assignments and exams. Researching materials available on the internet in doing homework assignments is the same as going to the library, researching and using everything available. The internet just makes research and exchanging ideas easier and faster. When assigning homework, as teachers, we have to be aware that our students have available numerous printed and not printed resources, share ideas with their peers, or even have the professional "help" of a hired tutor. I believe homework is an important part of the grading scheme because it shows how much effort a student is willing to put into that course. Therefore, when I mark homework, I grade the corectness of the methods and answers and the amount of effort that the student has put into that piece of work, creativity, etc.
Even if I decided to assign different homework questions to all my students, I do not believe I can be 100% sure that they did it without anybody else's help. I think it is more important for me to know how well the student has mastered the tought concepts. Therefore I would use another big component as part of the grade: class participation and exams done without any available materials.