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Barbara,
You are correct in what you say about assessments.  I would like to add
that there needs to be awareness that many students are deficient in
character, honesty and a genuine respect for the rights and property of
others, as long as they do not get caught.  Once confronted with the
copying, cheating, manipulation of information, there is a tendency for
contriteness, however superficial it may be.  We as a society have
embraced situational ethics with such fervor that doing what is right is
just about as arcane as telephone party lines or gas lights for home
illumination.  Don't even think about making students accountable for
their actions, We'll start seeing that when button hooks are needed
again to fasten shoes.
Climbing down from the soap box,
Clete

Clete Schirra
South Park High School Media Center
2178 Ridge Rd.
South Park, PA 15129

schirra@sparksd.org
412-655-0613 voice
412-655-1463 fax

Media Specialist/ Network Admin.

"If you can read this thank a teacher." If it is in English, thank a
Vet". Unknown
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin-1759
Historical Review Of Pennsylvania
>>> Barbara COMBES <b.combes@ECU.EDU.AU> 05/05/04 12:24 AM >>>
Hi All,
Not only should we be setting authentic assessment pieces that require
students to apply theory to practical situations, but we should also be
working towards a recognition that how students use information,
especially electronic information (Internet/Web), and how this has
changed. We now have a body of students who have never known anything
else but instantaneous access to information that is dispersed rapidly
and in different forms across a global network. Original copyright and
IP are often blurred or lost. We encourage them to use the technology to
manipulate information on a daily basis (we do it ourselves). They are
now being called the 'copy culture'. We talk about public domain and
open source as if these terms equate with free/public ownership. No
wonder students are confused!

We need to build assessments that are not regurgitations of factual
information. We also need to stress to students that the citation
process adds value to their work. It demonstrates the depth and breadth
of their research. Using your own words demonstrates your
understandings. Without both of these attributes, your assessment piece
does not have value as a research piece ie. it will not score a high
mark. We also need to work with students on how to use the Internet as a
valid research tool - what about the invisible/deep web? Where is the
authority of the information you have taken from the Net? Have you
evaluated your information? Put both these strategies into place and
help students to use the Internet as a manageable research tool and
plagiarism in the electronic sphere will be lessened if not contained.
We'll never eliminate it completely, but as teachers this is all about
educating students, just as we teach them to use the technology
appropriately (Acceptable Use Policies and contracts).

:)
BC


@ Your Library
ECU - a participant in the 2004 WA Statewide Library Marketing Campaign.

Barbara Combes, Lecturer
School of Computer and Information Science
Edith Cowan University, Perth Western Australia
Ph: (08) 9370 6072
Email: b.combes@ecu.edu.au

"Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that
of an ignorant nation."

This email is confidential and intended only for the use of the
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you are notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this
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please notify me immediately by return email or telephone and destroy
the original message.
=20
-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications
[mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Brisco, Shonda
Sent: Monday, 3 May 2004 10:28 PM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Program on Plagiarism on ABC

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]=3D20
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
=3D3D on ABC Prime time. The contents skimmed the problem and no real
experts =3D3D 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
=3D3DA0http://lii.org/ Virtual Reference Desk Volunteer
24/7 Reference Librarian.=3D3DA0=3D3D20
sfinemel@comcast.net
=3D3DA0
=3D3DA0
"Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or =3D3D
soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a
=3D3D constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the
air we breathe =3D =3D3D in."
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
=3D3DA0

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