The program on Thursday was basically a nugget that made the public
aware of the problem. While hundreds of teachers watched (at least in
my school), many were asking, "what do we do?" or "how do we change it?"
On Friday (after the Prime Time segment), I was actually at the
Association of Independent School Librarians' meeting in Dallas where
Dr. Carol Simpson was speaking on the same issue. I believe that what
everyone saw on Thursday evening could have been much better if we had
both Dr. Simpson and Doug Johnson as interviewees for the program. Dr.
Simpson's book, "Ethics in School Librarianship" points to the issues
that we face as librarians and should be read by ALL librarians--or soon
to be librarians. In addition, Doug Johnson's book, "Learning Right
from Wrong in the Digital Age" adds some wonderful insights into looking
at ethical problems. (See his website for more links to resources:
http://www.doug-johnson.com/ethics/index.html
Finally, (to add one more book to the mix), "Student Cheating and
Plagiarism in the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call" by Ann Lathrop and
Kathleen Foss is a great "handbook" for teachers (MS / HS). If I had
enough money in my budget and could be assured that the teachers would
read it, I would purchase a copy for everyone---along with the Doug
Johnson book!
If we continue to allow ourselves to pose memorization questions rather
than higher-level thinking questions, we are setting-up our students to
find ways to cheat. When we start to ask good questions, we get answers
that are original and not duplications of others' works OR rote memory
answers. See link:
http://www.standrews.austin.tx.us/library/Questioning.htm (Thanks to
Barbara Jansen from Austin for this link!)
I think that sometimes the biggest issue is getting teachers /
administrators to move as quickly as technology has moved. We, as
librarians, are forced to keep up with it because we work with it daily.
Teachers who are involved in curriculums that haven't changed in ten or
twenty years are the ones with students who have created loop-holes in
the system. If colleges / universities are having the same problems
with students cheating as high schools are having, then what we see find
are savvy, cheating graduates that are "soon-to-be" new classroom
teachers being taught "old-fashioned" techniques in a high-tech world
(and this only applies to the educational issues---those going into
business or other areas must adapt to their own issues in creative
answers to problem solving.) If subjects not related to a college
students' major aren't important, then cheating becomes an issue. If
being the best out there is the goal, then cheating becomes an issue.
If surviving the course by using high-tech methods to answer
old-fashioned professors' questions, then cheating becomes an issue.
This is an 'all-level' issue that, I'm afraid, may soon find its way
down to the elementary level once we allow it to saturate the entire
educational fabric. We MUST re-instruct students by asking better
questions but we must first re-educate ourselves in ways to think about
solving problems while learning if our students truly understand the
issues that we want them to know in order to achieve educational success
and college degrees.
Just an opinion....
~Shonda Brisco
Trinity Valley MS / US Librarian
Fort Worth, TX
briscos@trinityvalleyschool.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Sybil Finemel [mailto:sfinemel@COMCAST.NET]=20
Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2004 11:25 PM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: GEN: Program on Plagiarism on ABC
I was disappointed with the program on Plagiarism that aired on Thursday
=3D
on
ABC Prime time. The contents skimmed the problem and no real experts =3D
were
interviewed and if they were it were merely in passing.
Any thoughts on this?
Sybil Finemel
Library Director MLIS.CIO.
Los Angeles CA
Contributor, lii.org, Librarians' Index to the Internet
=3DA0http://lii.org/
Virtual Reference Desk Volunteer
24/7 Reference Librarian.=3DA0=3D20
sfinemel@comcast.net
=3DA0
=3DA0
"Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or =3D
soothe,
corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a =3D
constant,
steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe =
=3D
in."
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
=3DA0
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