Janet+Mendoza

Meeting Time: 10am  Meeting Place: Cite Lab    The "New" Cheating We've talked about how technology can be a real motivator for students. But, on the flip side, when students aren't motivated enough to work hard on their own--honestly--technology can provide easy alternate means to get the work done. As kids find devious ways to use technology to cheat, teachers need to not only find smart ways to identify dishonest technology-assisted academic habits, but at the same time devise ways to use technology to keep kids engaged so they won't even thing of cheating. Let's say you assigned a PowerPoint slide assignment to your 4th grade class. They each had to turn in a slide on Texas History. One student, Lucy, turned in this set of slides. Your job right now is to determine whether this child produced this work. Be sure to come back to this page once you have reviewed this assignment. Ready? Click here to look at this student's assignment. What is your assessment? Is this original work? Do you know for sure, and how do you know that? Hmmm. . . so technology has even changed cheating! While you read this very short article, think about the last time you might have "borrowed" someone else's thoughts or "helped" your cause on an exam (if you truly haven't, then the GREAT, but the statistics adre beginning to place you in th minority.) How does what is described in this article compare to your experience? Read more about how that looks for students. Computer-Assisted Cheating Did you know: •54% of students admitted to cheating from the Internet •74% of students admitted that at least once in the past year they had engaged in "serious" cheating. •47% of students believe their teachers sometimes choose to ignore students who are cheating. Wow! But, you might be thinking, "I’m planning to teach EC-6. Why does this matter to me?!" Why shouldn't we leave this to the older grades? Well, there's something about good habits (and BAD habits) starting early. So, what does cheating look like for EC-6 students? “Innocent” Plagiarizing. . .   At the elementary age, we have to assume that a good bit of of Internet plagiarizing is somewhat innocent. When they are doing research, and they find something written on the Internet, it sounds REALLY good. In their mind, they have the writing of "experts" already in digital form. It's a snap to copy and paste, meaning it's just too easy to "borrow" someone else's work. And these borrowed "pieces" can become whole borrowed papers when students save whole pages of text without reading and then use electronic communication to share with other students. Strategies for Detecting Plagiarism (“Borrowed Work”) So, you know you need to be on the lookout for technology-assisted cheating. What can you do? •Know your students' writing--make sure you take in-class writing samples so you know what each student can do unassisted. •Look for clues: ◦Are there references given? ◦Is there consistent formatting? (If text is copied and pasted, a dead give-away might be changes in font style or size.) ◦Is the topic what you assigned? (copying and pasting text might be quick, but it doesn't always address what the assignment was.) ◦Does the style of the writing sound like that particular student? •One of the easiest thing to do is to copy and paste, or type, a phrase from the assignment into a search engine. If they copied it, you'll know where they got it. Strategies for Discouraging the “New Plagiarism” Ideally, you won't have to track down cheating if you discourage it in the first place. Here are some pointers: •Distinguish between facts and others’ ideas and original ideas. Make sure students know--through discussion and modeling--that it isn't OK to take someone else's idea. •Discourage "trivial pursuits.” Rather than having students "surf" around on the Internet, start them out with a goal. Think "jumping off page. . . " How can you use your skills as an educator to set up a goal-driven use of the Internet, so they aren't tempted to just copy and paste.   •Assess student progress throughout the research process. Don't just grade the final project--check writing in steps along the way. Remember--process over product!    •Use “Smart” information storage - if you need to copy big chunks of text to kind of "save" it until you can go back to review it, format it it in "green ink," or any other color. Whenever you come back to it, you'll remember that these were not your words and still need to be paraphrased or integrated. (Based in part on: McKenzie, J. (1998). The New Plagiarism: Seven Antidotes to Prevent Highway Robbery in an Electronic Age. Retrieved November 5, 2005, from http://www.fno.org/may98/cov98may.html.)    So, design a strategy to inform your students about the proper use of the thoughts of others. Model citing your sources, whether you borrow someone's words in class or copy a sentence from a web page. The more they see good habits, the more natural it will be to them. Closure Think back to that Texas History PowerPoint. Given these pointers, how would you DETECT this plagiarism? And, how would you DISCOURAGE it? Please post your thoughts about this to your blog. Postscript. . .   Given what we've talked about today, what is your impression of this blogger's stance? What about some of the responses from readers below the message? Your Cheatin' Heart: A New Spin on an Old Tactic The "New" Cheating We've talked about how technology can be a real motivator for students. But, on the flip side, when students aren't motivated enough to work hard on their own--honestly--technology can provide easy alternate means to get the work done. As kids find devious ways to use technology to cheat, teachers need to not only find smart ways to identify dishonest technology-assisted academic habits, but at the same time devise ways to use technology to keep kids engaged so they won't even thing of cheating.

Let's say you assigned a PowerPoint slide assignment to your 4th grade class. They each had to turn in a slide on Texas History. One student, Lucy, turned in this set of slides. Your job right now is to determine whether this child produced this work. Be sure to come back to this page once you have reviewed this assignment. Ready? Click here to look at this student's assignment.

What is your assessment? Is this original work? Do you know for sure, and how do you know that?

Hmmm. . . so technology has even changed cheating! While you read this very short article, think about the last time you might have "borrowed" someone else's thoughts or "helped" your cause on an exam (if you truly haven't, then the GREAT, but the statistics adre beginning to place you in th minority.) How does what is described in this article compare to your experience? Read more about how that looks for students.

Computer-Assisted Cheating Did you know: •54% of students admitted to cheating from the Internet •74% of students admitted that at least once in the past year they had engaged in "serious" cheating. •47% of students believe their teachers sometimes choose to ignore students who are cheating. Wow! But, you might be thinking, "I’m planning to teach EC-6. Why does this matter to me?!" Why shouldn't we leave this to the older grades? Well, there's something about good habits (and BAD habits) starting early.

So, what does cheating look like for EC-6 students?

“Innocent” Plagiarizing. . . At the elementary age, we have to assume that a good bit of of Internet plagiarizing is somewhat innocent. When they are doing research, and they find something written on the Internet, it sounds REALLY good. In their mind, they have the writing of "experts" already in digital form. It's a snap to copy and paste, meaning it's just too easy to "borrow" someone else's work. And these borrowed "pieces" can become whole borrowed papers when students save whole pages of text without reading and then use electronic communication to share with other students.

Strategies for Detecting Plagiarism (“Borrowed Work”) So, you know you need to be on the lookout for technology-assisted cheating. What can you do?

•Know your students' writing--make sure you take in-class writing samples so you know what each student can do unassisted. •Look for clues: ◦Are there references given? ◦Is there consistent formatting? (If text is copied and pasted, a dead give-away might be changes in font style or size.) ◦Is the topic what you assigned? (copying and pasting text might be quick, but it doesn't always address what the assignment was.) ◦Does the style of the writing sound like that particular student? •One of the easiest thing to do is to copy and paste, or type, a phrase from the assignment into a search engine. If they copied it, you'll know where they got it.

Strategies for Discouraging the “New Plagiarism” Ideally, you won't have to track down cheating if you discourage it in the first place. Here are some pointers:

•Distinguish between facts and others’ ideas and original ideas. Make sure students know--through discussion and modeling--that it isn't OK to take someone else's idea. •Discourage "trivial pursuits.” Rather than having students "surf" around on the Internet, start them out with a goal. Think "jumping off page. . . " How can you use your skills as an educator to set up a goal-driven use of the Internet, so they aren't tempted to just copy and paste. •Assess student progress throughout the research process. Don't just grade the final project--check writing in steps along the way. Remember--process over product!  •Use “Smart” information storage - if you need to copy big chunks of text to kind of "save" it until you can go back to review it, format it it in "green ink," or any other color. Whenever you come back to it, you'll remember that these were not your words and still need to be paraphrased or integrated. (Based in part on: McKenzie, J. (1998). The New Plagiarism: Seven Antidotes to Prevent Highway Robbery in an Electronic Age. Retrieved November 5, 2005, from http://www.fno.org/may98/cov98may.html.)  So, design a strategy to inform your students about the proper use of the thoughts of others. Model citing your sources, whether you borrow someone's words in class or copy a sentence from a web page. The more they see good habits, the more natural it will be to them.

Closure Think back to that Texas History PowerPoint. Given these pointers, how would you DETECT this plagiarism? And, how would you DISCOURAGE it? Please post your thoughts about this to your blog.

Postscript. . . Given what we've talked about today, what is your impression of this blogger's stance? What about some of the responses from readers below the message? Your Cheatin' Heart: A New Spin on an Old Tactic