TARGET>Hyperstudio Presentations & Plagiarism & More

[Robert Owen <rsowen@PSNW.COM>]

I apologize for the length of this, but if you can wade through it , I need
your thoughts, please.

I am still in a state of shock.

Last Wednesday I observed five Hyperstudio presentations by 5 groups of
middle school students and teachers (1 teacher for 4-6 students). These
presentations were the culmination of a 2 1/2 week Technology Summmer Camp
at one of the middle schools where I am the LMS. I was not part of the Camp.
In fact I was in the LMC after my contract ended only because of my Mission
this summer to barcode books in prep for automation. I hired a crew of kids
to help me and we were hard at work all during this "Camp." However, since I
was there, some students and teachers asked for my help in finding some
research. I was happy to help. Each group selected a topic, researched it
for info and videos and photos etc. to use with Hyperstudio. Two of the Camp
Teachers are English teachers and I assumed they, at least knew correct
documentation of research.  I was wrong.  In all five presentations, text
appearing on the screen was lifted verbatim from the source. Sometimes,
screen after screen was filled with text that either a student or the
teacher read. There was no pretense that the group wrote it.In fact, one
former English teacher stated that he had to edit out some of the paragraphs
of one article that he found on the internet because it was "too boring."
Another group admitted that all their text came straight from a CD ROM. The
teacher told me this after he asked me to preview his group's work(right
before his presentation to the rest of the Camp) and I asked him about the text.

Also, obviously biased information was given on two topics and presented as
the Truth. When asked where one particularly outrageous piece of info came
from, the teacher said that she did not know.

I had given the overall instructor for the Camp, our Technology Literacy
Mentor, a copy of Kathy Schrock's Website Evaluation Form for Middle
Schools. I know each teacher had it in his/her binder, but I never saw them
use it with the students. I had also given him other information on the
importance of evaluating information in general for bias.

The groups did have brief bibliographies for some, but not for all of the
sources used.
The Tech Literacy Mentor stated that for some of the internet info, "it was
hard to tell where it came from." But they used the info anyway. He actually
said, "I saw the print outs. I know they got the information." I could not
believe he said these things.

All of the students will be 8th graders next year. All the teachers will be
teaching at this middle school next year as they have for several years. I
know the Tech Literacy Mentor will be showing the video of these same
presentations at a staff meeting in August. I know our principal and
probably most will ooh and aah over these.  In my opinion, they missed the
whole point of presentation software. To use it, you must first create
something to present. I heard many comments like "this is better than taking
notes, "we don't have to write reports anymore", kids like to watch
television better than read". None of these statements were challenged. They
do not seem to realize that at our high school,  properly written and
documented term papers are required. They can use HS to present them and
enhance them, but the term papers (written) are turned in and graded. None
of these students wrote anything. The text was completely plagiarized. False
,or at the very least questionable,info was presented as being true. Sources
were ignored. And worse, no one seemed to care, but me.

To see these teachers not only condone, but encourage and participate in
outright plagiarism was appalling to me. They all should know better.

I do feel partially responsible. I have been meaning to do a presentaion on
Copyright, etc. for some time. The time is NOW. I, also, need to do more
in-depth teaching of all aspects of research with the Big Six when we do
science faire research with 7th graders.  I work closely with all science
teachers but have not stressed the documentation of research very much.I
would like to do an in-depth research class in connection with the Science
Faire Project, but I have not figured out the logistics. To compound
matters, I am split between two middle schools. I have read on LMNET that
some Librarians do teach a research class. I would like to know how they do
it--time wise.

I have not expressed my feelings to anyone until now. Had I known what the
Camp was all about (I had asked the Instructor many times), I would have
suggested that they take a paper that they had already written and use
Hyperstudio to present it. Then they could have found the
enhancements--photos, video clips, etc. and learned how the software worked
to put it all together in a HS Presentation. I had no idea they were going
to try to do a full-blown research paper and then try to learn
Hyperstudio,scanning, laser disks, Netscape, etc. in such a short time.

At least I learned that (these) teachers  and students do not know to
properly research. I need to concentrate my efforts more next year in this
area.

What do you think??  I would appreciate so very much your comments,
suggestions, and experiences.

TIA

Sharon Owen
LMS
Thomas Jefferson Middle School
Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School
Madera, Ca
rsowen@psnw.com