Computer Science Canada

Compsci.ca Blocked!

Author:  md [ Fri Dec 15, 2006 2:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Compsci.ca Blocked!

It seems that at least oen school/school board has blocked compsci.ca, ostensibly because students are copying code and submitting it as their own.

So, questions are two fold: 1) is compsci.ca blocked at your school? and 2) have you ever copied/seen someone copy code from compsci.ca and did they get away with it?

Author:  ZeroPaladn [ Fri Dec 15, 2006 2:39 pm ]
Post subject: 

(1) It was actually me and a few of my friends who uggested that the site not be blocked at out school.
(2) Once, but he got caught. Never came to class again Laughing

Yeah, I read Tony's blog. It's sad really, how low some students go to just to get a high mark to get higher marks for either surviving/enriching their programming class mark.

Author:  rdrake [ Fri Dec 15, 2006 2:49 pm ]
Post subject: 

ZeroPaladn wrote:
Yeah, I read Tony's blog. It's sad really, how low some students go to just to get a high mark to get higher marks for either surviving/enriching their programming class mark.
Search for the "Hall of Shame" thread on compsci.ca. It may be old, but it's quite funny.

Author:  ericfourfour [ Fri Dec 15, 2006 4:34 pm ]
Post subject: 

It is probably my school board considering they block a new site everyday. Next thing you know Wikipedia will be on the list.

As for the questions:

1) Possibly.
2) yes and no

Author:  CodeMonkey2000 [ Fri Dec 15, 2006 5:02 pm ]
Post subject: 

i dont think they should block it, b/c even if they do block it, the cheaters will go home and copy it anyway. for the questions its not blocked at my school, and i dont copy, and i havent seen any1 else copy posts here.

Author:  neufelni [ Fri Dec 15, 2006 10:25 pm ]
Post subject: 

We are not allowed to go on compsci at our school but I'm pretty sure that the only reason is that it is a forum. We can't go on forums/chat rooms/email.

I haven't heard of anyone at our school copying code from compsci.

Author:  Tony [ Sat Dec 16, 2006 2:26 am ]
Post subject: 

Nick wrote:
We are not allowed to go on compsci at our school but I'm pretty sure that the only reason is that it is a forum.

Is it just the forum part of the website that you can't access, or all of the domain? For example http://compsci.ca/blog ?

One of the big concerns right now is inability to run the DWITE content from the compsci.ca domain, if some school boards wildly block sites like this.

Nick - you might have put me in touch with those responsible for the site's block (ether on school level, or school board). I can respect school's wishes to block "forums / chat", but I would prefer to work something out to still have other parts (blogs, tutorials, contest) accessable.

Author:  uberwalla [ Sat Dec 16, 2006 2:42 am ]
Post subject: 

at my school they do not really ban forums. you just get in trouble for using them lol. my school board bans like games, videos, porn Sad lol, and a bunch of other stuff. i dont even know if my teacher knows about compsci Razz

Author:  Silent Avenger [ Sat Dec 16, 2006 7:47 pm ]
Post subject: 

Compsci isn't blocked at our school yet but I'm sure someday it will be because of some kid taking advantage of it.

Author:  ZeroPaladn [ Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:06 am ]
Post subject: 

i can access everything except for the .irc channel (duh). My compsci teacher (the one that doesn't know VB) even told the class that this is a good site for help, tips, and tutorials. On the other hand, I have been approached several times by the school computer administrator warning me not to go on forum sites, and I told her about this one. Haven't been in s*** since Laughing .

@rdrake - Hahaha! Hall of Shame. I'll check it out.

Author:  Tony [ Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:19 am ]
Post subject: 

see, that's what I'm confused about - really mixed reactions from schools. In some, such as ZeroPaladn's and Massey compsci.ca is teacher endourced. Others block it out. I suppose it should be up to the teacher to recommend one way or another, but having the entire school board blocked due to a single complaint is redicilous.

Author:  ericfourfour [ Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:16 pm ]
Post subject: 

I'm sure it took a lot more than a simple complaint to get this site blocked in an entire school board. I mean, they wouldn't block an entire school board from an academic website with a single letter saying that a single student plagiarized from the website, right? Wink

Author:  Tony [ Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:38 pm ]
Post subject: 

well I'm being told otherwise, but I'm making attempts at looking into this issue

Author:  Voltage128 [ Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:31 pm ]
Post subject: 

well, i know for a fact that kawartha district school board doesnt have it locked out yet. In my comp engineering course a whole bunch of stoners took the class and all they do is steal code. Only about 4 kids who pay attention and do work. So i would not be surprised if it gets locked out. Its not that they are trying to block your website though, its just so many kids are stealing code off here its rediculas. Maybe people shouldnt post their final projects from school on here anymore.

Also even when they block the site, kids are always gunna steal off here. They are either going to come home and take it and plagerize that way. Or they use a proxy and go around the school security. Either way code is getting stolen. They do block sites for single complaints. Plagerism is a HUGE deal in schools

Author:  Tony [ Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:06 pm ]
Post subject: 

students would copy code at home anyways, not at school where it could be seen what they are doing.

If the issue of plagiarism comes to a point of trying to do something, I would much rather get an email / PM / IM from a teacher, and help them to actually deal with the problem, instead of having them attempt to restrict the information access during school hours.

Author:  octopi [ Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:46 pm ]
Post subject: 

Tony, I'd be willing to proxy-mirror the nessecary stuff for DWITE.

Basically how it works is any request is sent to the mirror server, then directed to yours.

So anyone having trouble accessing the main site, would be able to access it through the mirror.
I could set it up on wryer.com

Let me know if your interested.

Author:  Voltage128 [ Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:14 pm ]
Post subject: 

yea, I understand where you are coming from with not wanting the whole site blocked. But it is easier for them to just say "you cant use this site anymore" then it would be for them to have to contact you, and explain the problem and how it can be fixed. Even if the site gets blocked on the computers, they use proxys to get around.

My teacher does a pretty good job of making the projects as specific as possible so that if you are plagerizing compsci code he can tell in about 10 seconds. He also knows which students dont pay attention and he asks them to explain their program and how they wrote it. When they cannot, they get 0.

Author:  Dan [ Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:35 pm ]
Post subject: 

octopi wrote:
Tony, I'd be willing to proxy-mirror the nessecary stuff for DWITE.


DWITE will have it's domain so it is not a big issue, also we have other domains with mirroring capablitys that we do not use.

Thanks for offering tho.

Author:  Tony [ Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:09 pm ]
Post subject: 

@octopi - Dan has got us covered, thx for the offer Smile

Voltage128 wrote:
He also knows which students dont pay attention and he asks them to explain their program and how they wrote it.

I like it when teachers pay attention like that

Author:  woolyrivit [ Fri Dec 22, 2006 10:09 am ]
Post subject: 

My computer science class is the same way. But at the moment my teacher supports compsci. But some of the losers that steal code are gonna get caught and ruin it for evereone, and people steal code at
school all the time (you would be suprised how stupid some people are).

Author:  Craige [ Sat Dec 23, 2006 6:52 pm ]
Post subject: 

Well, I haven't been in a computer science class at my school yet, but I know compsci isn't blocked on the school computers. I'm not sure if they have blocked a single site on the network though.

I don't think they would block the site though. The computer science classes at our school are pretty bad. There is too low of an interest. They have had to combine the grade 11 VB and the grade 12 Java classes into one period just to justify having the classes. They still teach the VB to grade 11's, and Java to grade 12's, but it's all under one class now. I think it's kind of stupid. I would think that would impair ones ability to teach, as well as a students ability to learn.


: