sending out an S.O.S.
6 03 2007Seems Im not alone in being alone
A hundred billion castaways
Looking for a home
- Sting
I will be sending out a legitimate S.O.S. when my wife finds out how much i spent on Police tickets this summer, but that is another story…
The following is an email i recieved today. It is from one of the best teachers i have ever worked with, they integrate technology daily and are a tech facilitator’s dream.
Seriously, I think that kids have the perception that technology changes the rules of academic honesty. For example, I think that in their mind if they copy someone’s labwork and simply change some fonts and type it in themselves that this gives them ownership of the work I have this argument with at least 3 kids on every assignment. They don’t understand that its their ideas that give them ownership not simply how nicely its layed out in a document. I think technology ethics is a huge deal, especially in a school where students’ ethical boundaries can be fuzzy when it comes to academics. I fear that the more technology I integrate into my lessons, the less some students are actually learning because they are always looking for ways to cheat the system, and most times technology makes it easier for them to get away with it. Its actually got me questioning Webassign, which I have loved the last 7 years I have used it. Its not worth the expense to the school if the kids are going to abuse it and cheat.
I know this email was written out of frustration; the teacher and i have talked at length, but i think his concerns were worth posting and would love to hear any thoughts with respect to this.
Here at CMS we are developing a Student-run Honour Council. This council will deal with issues of academic honesty as well as attendance and tardiness problems that have developed in recent years. It is our hope that giving this responsibility back to the students will improve the overall academic integrity of our institution. A small group just returned from researching this in Virginia and are working hard to put this into action (podcast - coming soon).
I am in the process of re-working an ethics rotation for my advanced technology classes and (as always) am open to thoughts and suggestions that you may have.
I think that before you can judge the students you have to look at the questions they are being asked. So often students are being asked to “go and get information” rather than synthesize and create new information. You could argue that plagiarism and the copy/paste phenomenon is a result of “poor questions” and not student laziness.
Jamie McKenzie is the champion of this cause.
check out: http://fno.org/feb07/topic.html
We apply the question press to assignment creation and it has proven to be much more effective than turnitin.com ever could be.
See here: http://fno.org/feb04/questionpress.html
When you ask students questions for which answers have not been written , involve their opinion or require them to synthesize, create and analyze information ,then it is much harder to beat the “system”.
On projects and large assignments i totally agree with you and Jamie MacKenzie Justin, the answer to this lies in the questioning. Unfortunately this was a case of students copying from each other and using the same computer to complete an open book quiz assignment (minutes after one another, each faster then the previous), accompanied with it was a student’s fradulent attempt to open a “teachers” account, with the company.
When we all ask the right questions sites such as turnitin.com become obsolete because you can’t Google original thinking. We (the tech faciitators here) are believers and continue to try and move teachers in the direction…actually i am due to give an in-service this month…and i may have just got an idea.
thanks J