Today, Friday June 5th at 1PM EST:
The Friday Chat will be on the topic of Digital Plagiarism
A topic dear to the heart of any classroom teacher: plagiarism -- and methods of both discovery and prevention -- has become a fresh challenge in the Digital Age. Join us for informal discussion on June 5th.
June 5th at 1PM EST
http://todaysmeet.com/TeachPaperless
Showing posts with label plagiarism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plagiarism. Show all posts
Friday, June 5, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
The Next Friday Chat on June 5th: Digital Plagiarism
June 5th at 1PM EST: The Friday Chat will be on the topic of Digital Plagiarism
A topic dear to the heart of any classroom teacher: plagiarism -- and methods of both discovery and prevention -- has become a fresh challenge in the Digital Age. Join us for informal discussion on June 5th.
June 5th at 1PM EST
http://todaysmeet.com/TeachPaperless
A topic dear to the heart of any classroom teacher: plagiarism -- and methods of both discovery and prevention -- has become a fresh challenge in the Digital Age. Join us for informal discussion on June 5th.
June 5th at 1PM EST
http://todaysmeet.com/TeachPaperless
Thursday, February 19, 2009
How Do You Check For Plagiarism Online?
A reader asks:
Please cut-and-paste and then Google the first line and the last line of the first paragraph of the following essay. It's from an piece on The Great Gatsby that I received a few years back from a student with little understanding of how Boolean searches work.
You can go on... but why bother? This is a classic case of Internet plagiarism. Cut-and-Paste from an essay service.
In my classes, I often begin introducing an essay topic on a given book by pulling up a few essay services and looking at what they have to offer. In general, the essays at 123HelpMe, eCheat, BookRags, and GradeSaver are just awful. The kids actually get a laugh out of looking at all the ways people cheat on essays, but they also realize just how easy it is to get caught and just how stupid it is to take that chance.
One thing I would not do is just go and nail a kid for plagiarism without going over it in class first. So make a lesson out of it; I find it actually makes for a great class period and you get to share quite a few laughs with the kids.
How do you check for plagiarism with Google?
Please cut-and-paste and then Google the first line and the last line of the first paragraph of the following essay. It's from an piece on The Great Gatsby that I received a few years back from a student with little understanding of how Boolean searches work.
Is his novel the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald creates Gatsby -- a character who becomes great. He begins life as a regular, lower-class, person. But Gatsby has a dream of becoming rich. He has a reason to strive to become prominent after meeting Daisy. Throughout his life, Gatsby gains the title of truly being great.
Even before Gatsby is introduced, he is hinted at being different. The evidence of this is when Nick says, "Gatsby turned out all right at the end." (2) Nothing was known about Gatsby at the time and Nick is already saying Gatsby was all right. Gatsby is mysterious. Everyone knows of him, but no one knows who he really is or where he comes from. Even at our first glance of Gatsby, no one knows Gatsby.
You can go on... but why bother? This is a classic case of Internet plagiarism. Cut-and-Paste from an essay service.
In my classes, I often begin introducing an essay topic on a given book by pulling up a few essay services and looking at what they have to offer. In general, the essays at 123HelpMe, eCheat, BookRags, and GradeSaver are just awful. The kids actually get a laugh out of looking at all the ways people cheat on essays, but they also realize just how easy it is to get caught and just how stupid it is to take that chance.
One thing I would not do is just go and nail a kid for plagiarism without going over it in class first. So make a lesson out of it; I find it actually makes for a great class period and you get to share quite a few laughs with the kids.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
What About Digital Plagiarism?
A reader writes:
I've actually caught more cases of plagiarism since going paperless. Every now and then, I take classtime with my students to run Google checks on anonymous blogged essays their peers have turned in. Inevitably, we find copied work. Rather than bust students and deal with it in the standard disciplinary way in the event we do discover fault, I use it as a means to show them how easy it is to discover plagiarism in the digital world. The kids learn quick and I've never had to do this more than once with any class to completely discourage digital copying. It's actually quite a bit more difficult to do that with just paper.
And as for the concern over "delete entry"... let's just say that few things you ever write online actually disappear. And if it's a blog, and you've subscribed to it, you actually get sent a copy directly to your inbox or newsreader. The writer can't take it away from you.
Most blogging apps leave a time-stamp and author signature on the post. Consider that one safe-guard to any accusations. It's got the student's name on it and it's got the exact time and date that they posted it. Just refuse to accept any work that's not posted with a time-stamp.
Easy.
I am very wary of turning in essays on a blog, simply because there is so much plagiarism going around. It would both put hundreds of essays out there, for students to copy, and for students to submit via copy/paste. Granted, it's not difficult to plagiarize on paper, but with paper, there is no option to "delete entry." The evidence is there, turned in by the hands of the students.
I've actually caught more cases of plagiarism since going paperless. Every now and then, I take classtime with my students to run Google checks on anonymous blogged essays their peers have turned in. Inevitably, we find copied work. Rather than bust students and deal with it in the standard disciplinary way in the event we do discover fault, I use it as a means to show them how easy it is to discover plagiarism in the digital world. The kids learn quick and I've never had to do this more than once with any class to completely discourage digital copying. It's actually quite a bit more difficult to do that with just paper.
And as for the concern over "delete entry"... let's just say that few things you ever write online actually disappear. And if it's a blog, and you've subscribed to it, you actually get sent a copy directly to your inbox or newsreader. The writer can't take it away from you.
With paper, there are no accusations that the teacher may have manipulated the essay, through a word processing program.
Most blogging apps leave a time-stamp and author signature on the post. Consider that one safe-guard to any accusations. It's got the student's name on it and it's got the exact time and date that they posted it. Just refuse to accept any work that's not posted with a time-stamp.
Easy.
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