I just finished reading an excellent piece on washingtonpost.com that discusses the death of the research paper. The article brings up a valid point: the Internet has made plagiarism so easy that research papers and term papers are virtually useless as learning tools, unless you count finding stuff to plagiarize as "learning." In my humble opinion, this is only the tip of the iceberg, an iceberg that is being made visible by the Internet, not caused by it.
To me, education (going to school, doing homework, getting a diploma, or a degree) is preparation for the real world--it is a way of developing tools which you can use later on in life. In other words, elementary, middle, and high school are stepping stones to higher education (trade schools, colleges, universities, internships, and journeyman programs, to name a few.) But it doesn't end there. Higher education then becomes a stepping stone for a career, a vocation, a lifestyle. Think "journey," not "destination."
It seems that the vast majority of people do not share this viewpoint. Instead, they are "destination-oriented" and, so, are not adverse to using short-cuts, and workarounds. To many, the path is meaningless--only the goal is meaningful.
In this light, plagiarism, and cheating in general, can be viewed as a symptom--if a good grade is all that counts, then how you get that good grade is irrelevant. If keeping college students in class is the goal, and not their learning the subject, then giving them good grades, irregardless of actual performance, is perfectly acceptable.
So, you see, rampant plagiarism is a symptom of a problem, a really big problem. The Internet is not a cause. It is, at best, a torch which shows us the true extent of the damage.
To quote Pogo: "We have met the enemy, and they are us."
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