Reducing Plagiarism the New-Fashioned Way

Those sparkling words so finely crafted into an A+ term paper can't be Student Xs, can they? Student X's work up to this point has been dismal. What to do?

There are three ways to respond to suspicions of plagiarism. One is to ignore them or rationalize them away. But wait, that's not what you're paid to do. You're a professional, so act like it. Well then, let's type a sample phrase from the paper into the Google search window. Nothing. Let's try a different phrase. Still nothing. Repeat, ad infinitum. Surely there is a better way.

Turnitin.com offers that better way, according to testimonials. You first sign your class up for the service. Students turn their papers into the company's web site where they are checked against millions of papers, articles, books, and other writings in the company's data base. Suspicious passages are identified and you've found another student who purchased a paper from an Internet company providing that service.

Perhaps students will plagiarize less once they understand that technology has turned the odds in favor of the instructor. The main drawback is the cost of the service. Will the future see an "anti-plagiarism fee" buried in the dozens of fees now typically added to standard tuition costs? Instructors interested in reducing plagiarism might suggest that possibility to administrators.

Malcolm Knowles, Andragogy, and Technology, Part I

Pretty clever fellow is Malcolm Knowles. He distinguishes between adult and juvenile learners. The problem is that I don't know which category college freshmen fall into. Suppose I assume that I can apply the assumptions behind andragogy to my teaching. Let's start with the need to know. "Why do I need to know this?" "Why do I have to take this class?" "Will this be on the test?" What college professor hasn't heard those questions before?

Technology can help with the answers. The Internet provides access to a plethora of teaching materials. The problem is where to start. We'll continue this conversation by focusing on learning objects in a future post.

Clicking Away 

Just Another Click Away From Paradise

Clickers, keypads, classroom response systems, personal response systems, whatever you call them, they have caught the attention of college faculty. I was one of a wave of a half dozen lead steers to use clickers at my university, back in the spring of 2004. The outcome? Every one of us abandoned the clickers next semester. You've probably read the glowing reviews of clickers put out by textbook publishers. Why did we choose to just say no to the clickers after our initial experiences?

I can only speak for myself, but at my university classes are large. There is nothing like the sight of 300 desperate students trying to click an answer at the same time. Receiving units, which record students' answers couldn't easily deal with a flood of simultaneous clicks. Thus, it would sometimes take 5 minutes of valuable class time to get everyone's answer into the gradebook. Multiply that wasted time by six questions per class period. Then of course there were the students who never purchased a clicker, those who forgot their clickers, the clickers with dead batteries, and the clickers that broke. Then there was the extra work I had to do to reconcile the clicker gradebook with my exam gradebook. Was Robert Jones the fellow who registered his clicker as Bob Jones? Was Susie Smith, id#123 the same person as Susan Smith, id#456?

The link will take you to a PowerPoint file showing the results of a survey of student reactions to clickers. In contrast to those results, my survey results were extremely neutral.

Textbooks--Paper or Digital?

Basic belief: Technology in the classroom should be utilized to facilitate learning, not just for its own sake. Thus, I turn a skeptical eye to the "wow" elements of technology, assuming them to be useless until proven otherwise. E-books? The texts I coauthored come that way, but for now I'll assign the paper versions.

Where is the cheap, portable e-book reader? Until every student has one, I am not going to require students to sit in front of their computers to read the book. So much nicer to curl up in bed and fall asleep with a good textbook :-)

"Be Prepared," or The Boy Scout Motto Revisited

The technology-enhanced classroom is a thing of wonder. Administrators are even abandoning the term classroom in favor of the more up-to-date "learning space." Thousands of dollars worth of equipment laid out by a learning space consultant for maximum efficiency, and then something goes wrong. How to avoid the waste of a class period, you say? Expect that something will go wrong and be prepared to teach with last generation technology. Anyone care to sing the praises of the chalkboard? No batteries to replace, no bulbs to blow, and no training needed to use it.

The Terrors of Teaching with Technology

It's the first day of a new semester. I stride up to the podium brimming with self confidence and just a little pride in the course I've spent weeks designing. Three hundred faces watch my every move. " Let's see now, when I punch this button the projector will come on and the learners will be able to follow as I show them how to log on and naviagate through my WebCT course." Nothing. I punch the button again and wait hopefully. Still nothing. The first snickers of derisive laughter arise and multiply. As a trickle of sweat drips onto my hand, I make a third desperate stab at the button. A chant slowly catches hold until my ears are drowning in the noise, "Loser! Loser! Loser!"

The screech of the alarm wakens me. Another nightmare! A prophecy? I'll find out later this morning as I meet class for the first time. I'm just a typical faculty member at a large university trying to figure out how to teach with technology.