Video game with biofeedback teaches children to curb their anger
Wonder if adults would benefit from this as well??!
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Informative article on strategies for dealing with plagiarism
I thought this was an excellent article with a strategy on handling it in a classroom. Anyone have any feedback, comments, or thoughts about this?
A
Positive Solution for Plagiarism
September
18, 2012
William
Brown for The Chronicle
We
know that students plagiarize. We suppose that plagiarism, as well as academic
dishonesty in general, has increased over the past few years, decades, or
century—depending on which academic ax we choose to grind. The
caveats are familiar: Perhaps cheating just is easier than it used to be (most
honors students who are caught plagiarizing say they did so because it was
"easy"). Perhaps we are better at detecting plagiarism because of
software such as Google and Turnitin. Or perhaps we forget that every
generation, at least since the ancient Romans and Greeks, complains that the
next one is composed of lazy, possibly illiterate, youngsters willing to cut
ethical corners.
But
a good dose of skepticism toward the doomsayers doesn't make the worry go away.
For example, a July 21 article in The Chronicle on a New York
University professor who vowed to stop pursuing plagiarists has drawn 249
comments, several of which were impassioned denunciations of institutional
responses to the problem. Dealing with student plagiarism is a nagging,
seemingly endless problem for academics, judging from the number of articles,
blog posts, and forum discussions on the topic. Indeed, I've contributed to
some of those discussions but have yet to find any consensus emerge. I've
organized and participated in conference panels on plagiarism, held workshops
for college instructors and schoolteachers on the subject, and for several
years have used the methods I'm about to describe. I also began my teaching
career with a zero-tolerance policy, which meant that I have been involved in
campus judicial proceedings, a step that drains just about everyone touched by
the accusation.
But
as the Internet has matured, I decided that I did not want to spend time as a
cyber-cop. More important, my goal should be to help inculcate honor and
integrity rather than build a culture of fear and accusation.
It's
easy to find excellent articles and Web sites on dealing with plagiarism. From
those sources, we can develop four general guidelines for an effective
response:
1.
The
solution should be positive; that is, show students how to act as responsible
scholars and writers. The same tone should be reflected in the syllabus. I have
seen many syllabi in which the penalties for plagiarism are laid out in
excruciating detail, with no positive models or behavior mentioned. Surely by
now we know that positive motivation trumps the negative variety.
2.
It
should help students avoid plagiarism rather than focus on our catching it.
3.
The
solution should objectively strengthen both students and teachers.
4.
It
should also make students and teachers feel as though they are stronger.
Those
seem to me to be minimal requirements, yet they often are not met in practice.
Before laying out a workable solution, let's review some approaches whose
weaknesses contribute to the seemingly endless discussions of plagiarism.
Draconian
consequences.
The instructor who threatens maximum damage if plagiarism is detected usually
stakes out the moral high ground. Syllabi and accompanying class discussions
list everything that will befall the student, including possible expulsion.
Strength: If applied
consistently, without regard for extenuating circumstances, this approach seems
to work particularly well for teachers who are both imperious and admired by
their students. I knew one colleague, a tenured professor of literature and
writing, who threatened to ruin, as nearly as possible, the reputations of
offending students. Somehow he still inspired them.
Weakness: Instructors
who use this tactic set an adversarial tone at the beginning of a course.
Although some can inhabit the Professor Kingsfield character from The Paper
Chase, many simply come off as nasty or suspicious. And approaching
plagiarism this way is dispiriting—it never energizes students or teachers. In
the end, it often doesn't prevent enough plagiarism to counter its weaknesses.
Preventive
construction.
A teacher who is concerned about plagiarism and has read about strategies may
attempt to construct every assignment in a way that precludes plagiarism.
Strength: Rethinking
assignments—freshening them up—often produces new energy in a course. Those who
reflect often on pedagogy will be attracted to this approach.
Weakness: The approach
often means devising assignments with a narrow scope. But it's important to
train students to explore widely. They need to be able to sift through all
sorts of sources, and closely tailored assignments may be too restrictive. Such
assignments certainly don't simulate the strengths needed in graduate or
professional school. And sooner or later, we either will run out of ideas for
assignments or will be lulled into a false sense of security.
Dedicated
discussion.
Some teachers discuss extensively in class the nature and consequences of
plagiarism, believing that such time is well spent.
Strength: Some students
may not understand what constitutes plagiarism or its consequences. By
discussing it carefully in class, instructors demonstrate an awareness of that
problem.
Weakness: Merely
talking with students, especially about a critical topic, is a poor way to
ensure that they will act correctly. Giving quizzes on the topic is a move in
the right direction. But a quiz still encourages passivity. Plagiarism and
academic dishonesty are actions taken by people; powerful lessons about it
require actions as well.
A workable
solution.
The first writing assignment I give students in my writing courses involves
plagiarism as a topic. I ask them to investigate and read resources on the Web
assembled by experts on the subject such as Nick Carbone, a new-media consultant for
Bedford/St. Martin's, and Bruce Leland, a professor emeritus at Western
Illinois University. I ask students to take notes on the readings, especially
on how both authors are unhappy with standard approaches to preventing
plagiarism and academic dishonesty. I tell them to pay special attention to
Carbone's discussion of Dos and don'ts, a list he developed after deciding that
his previous approaches to fighting plagiarism adopted an inappropriate tone,
and to Leland's extensive list of resources that instructors can use to deal
with plagiarism.
Then I ask students to find a Web site
that offers free essays for download. I provide a central source, such as
"Cheating 101: Internet Paper Mills," available at www.coastal.edu/library/presentations/mills2.html,
though there are many others. Each student has to download one paper (or as
much of one as is permitted by the site) and analyze its strengths and
weaknesses. They must bring to class a copy of the paper as well as their notes
on their reading, and deliver oral reports.
The idea is for students to read materials written by teachers for
teachers, rather than something written just for students. The explicit lesson
is for them to learn about plagiarism and academic dishonesty. An implicit
lesson is that instructors already are aware of free papers and other Internet
dodges. Even if you, as a faculty member, are not particularly computer-savvy,
students will assume from this assignment that you understand how to track down
plagiarism.
By
analyzing these "free essays" before the class, students learn
firsthand that the papers available over the Internet often are far inferior to
what they could produce on their own. When they occasionally happen on a strong
paper, they will remark that it is too good: No professor would believe that
such a professionally written piece had come from a student for a course
assignment.
You need not guide the students'
choices of papers: Their own interests and majors will do that. Through this
assignment, they are engaging in research from the first day of the course, and
are practicing critical reading. They understand that you will treat them like
adults, since you have assigned them to read authoritative, friendly articles
from Web sites that speak to adult professionals. And other than require that
they concentrate on a paper's strengths and weaknesses, you need not guide the
analyses: Students of all writing levels will demonstrate that they can pick
apart someone else's work.
You can substitute other Web sites or
articles, of course. But you should give students separate credit for their
Web-site notes and for their critique of the downloaded paper—both of which
should be physical copies. Students who took notes can be distinguished easily
from those who did not, which allows you to teach the lesson that strong scholars
or professionals take notes. The physical copies also allow you to collect the
assignments if you run short on time for the oral reports, though I encourage
you to allow everyone to present.
This assignment builds: (1) a direct
awareness of plagiarism and its responses; (2) research skills, since students
immediately follow and analyze reliable Web sources; and (3) presentation
skills, all without creating a hostile or adversarial atmosphere. The
assignment can be adapted for large (or online) courses by creating a blog or
online discussion area, although nothing beats the in-person connection. (I
also ask students to introduce themselves by name every time they present. My
philosophy is to maximize what any assignment can achieve.)
I have employed this approach with
undergraduate and graduate, traditional and nontraditional students. During the
past two semesters, I used it in online classes to great effect. Any method
that makes both students and professors feel strong is worth trying.
-- Jeff
Karon is a visiting instructor in the English department at the University of
South Florida. Retrieved
October 6, 2012, from http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/134498/?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRokvaXJZKXonjHpfsX57%2BovUaa3hYkz2EFye%2BLIHETpodcMT8dqM6%2BNFAAgAZVnyRQFE%2FCUboFE8%2FJQGA%3D%3D
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