As a student, I think Academic Honesty is important and it is an essential part of a school’s policy because it shapes one’s morality and each of us represents the school’s trustworthiness and credibility.
According to Kaohsiung American School’s handbook, under the subcategory of 14.1.2 Appropriateness states:
Collaboration: Before a student collaborates with other students or works with a tutor on an assignment, the student should ask,
“Is it appropriate to work with others on this assignment?”
When we have assignments, the instructor will specify whether is individual work or group work. It is vague to draw a clear line between a person and another person’s idea. When we work and demonstrate our project as a group, it is difficult to tell how is really each individual’s performance because we have already collaborated our ideas together. It is impossible to differentiate each person’s idea and work completely. I think the rule should be clarified in a more detailed explanation on how students could avoid violating the rule.
Based on the Academic Integrity Policy of Middleton High School, it states:
“3. Uses unauthorized tools or materials in any academic work
Example: – Using an online translator for more than words or phrases”
It struck me as a bizarre rule that using an online translator is not acceptable for academic work if one does not understand something in the text. Moreover, it is a curious regulation that it is not allowed to use online translators when the students are second-language learners. If one is learning Spanish and does not understand the majority of the text, why not using an online translator to help to comprehend the content in general? If we are not allowed to use online translators, then is it appropriate to use an actual dictionary?
I think there is no difference between looking up for a word and translating a sentence. A sentence just contains more words. Therefore, they should be treated with the same standard because the purpose is for students to look for definitions and try to understand the context.
Furthermore, I suspect that whether online translators should be under the category of unauthorized tools. Not every online translator is invalid. There are also many reliable sources and official dictionaries on the internet. Personally, I think the rule could be altered for academic work that one could cite the source when applying the online translator.
In my opinion, I think academic honesty is culturally dependent because different countries have diversities of cultures. The culture has already set a root for people’s perspective and the sense of their judgment. Nevertheless, the cultural background will affect the way of thinking about academic honesty. From my personal perspective, people in Taiwan do not value academic honesty as much as people in Western countries do whether in schools or workplaces. For instance, most schools in Taiwan do not give out handbooks. When they do, the handbooks do not state the guidelines and policies for academic honesty. On the contrary, most Western schools have their own student handbook and they certainly inform student the rules for academic honesty at the beginning of the semester to emphasize the importance of academic honesty.