Teaching to Prevent Plagiarism

With the answers to all of our questions available at our very fingertips, at every moment, our reliance on the internet for information increases daily. While we can certainly argue how convenient and useful this is, where does it cross a line? Students at all levels use the internet for a number of reasons, including help with their homework. As wonderful as this is as a learning aid, it becomes a problem when the line is crossed and students are letting these internet sources do their thinking for them.

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Mississauga S.S. Policies on Plagiarism

Our school has a strict policy on plagiarism and academic honesty. The English department uses turnitin.com as a means of "screening" assignments for plagiarism from both the internet and peers. See link for site: Turnitin

We also have the policy outlined in the student agenda and the same appears on all course outlines. See page 22 of the PDF link to the 2009/2010 M.S.S. Student Agenda:

A thought...

This course has really got me thinking again on how different it really is teaching in a classroom than it was online. I started teaching online straight out of teacher's college, so had very little experience actually teaching in a classroom setting. Last year, when I found out that I had to move into a classroom, I had mixed feelings. On one hand, it would be nice to get out from behind a desk all day and be able to interact face to face with students. On the other hand, I was faced with new challenges- behaviour issues, lesson planning, pretty much all of the things that come along with being in front of a class and actually having to teach a live "audience".

Near the end of my online "career" I started to feel very stifled. The courses that I was teaching were all ministry created, and left little room for creativity. On top of that, I rarely met my students, and communicated primarily through email. There was never any real connection with anyone, except for the two other teachers that I worked with. As much as I really liked the idea of online learning, we were working with students who were using the online programming as a last resort. Some were ill and couldn't attend school, others chose not to attend school, but because they were not of age, legally had to be enrolled somewhere. I found that often the progress was slow, and our success rates were low. I think that the program definitely had its merits, and the students who were successful I was always particularly happy for, because without the online courses, they may not have finished high school.

So, to sum up that ramble, I am much happier now teaching in a classroom, but there are a lot of really great things that I feel I took from that experience. In those two short years, I learned how helpful that online learning was for students who were already motivated. Online learning took a lot of self-exploration as well as self-discipline. I was also exposed to so many different online tools that I probably wouldn't have known about otherwise. I feel much more comfortable using technology with my classes now.

Anyways, again, it was just a (long) thought.

This blogging thing is neat-o!

The course is now going, and I am feeling pretty good about it so far... it's nice to have colleagues around also taking the course, so that we can have informal chats (and so I have someone to remind me about the deadlines!) I do fear that I am falling behind in my marking though.

Just trying to figure it all out!

Course has officially begun and I have set up my blog (obviously).