Outsourcing homework might just be good for students
Today’s WSJ ran a story, “Some Students Use Net to Hire Experts to Do Their School Work.” The article covers how some party-happy computer science students are using sites like Rent A Coder to get their homework assignments done. It seems obvious to the author, Lee Gomes, and others that this is an educational tragedy unfolding. He quotes Rent A Coder’s Ian Ippolito as saying “they are only hurting themselves,” about the “cheaters”.
He explains: “cheaters often don’t even bother to invent an excuse”, then quotes an offending student, whose unapologetically pragmatic stance seems to offend him. “It is my homework, but since I am busy, I want someone to do this for me.” Gomes smugly replies, “With an attitude like that…you’ll never be busy again.”
Wake up, Gomes! These “cheaters” actually get what’s happening around them in the networked, globalized economy. Managing talent–particularly across national and cultural borders– is exactly the skill that will give these students competitive advantage. Schools and establishment voices like the WSJ continue to miss the point. The “cheaters” who are willing to share and use each others work, leverage skills wherever and whenever they gain advantage, and manage such collaboration to produce quality product are precisely the people who will be running the world. It is this ability to tap the power of the network that may be the most important skill in entering the workforce.
Simply put, conventional wisdom may be education’s worst enemy, for the times they are a changin’.
(It’s worth noting that simply outsourcing the work doesn’t mean it’ll garner a decent grade. Anyone who’s outsourced coding knows that the quality of the work product is a direct function of how the task/project is managed. Consequently, if the assignment is at all well conceived, the grade of the outsourced product is absolutely deserved by the student.)