Betty’s Bytes

I just read on Will Richardson’s blog that 90% of South Koreans are online, connected to the Internet.  They are wired inexpensively, but perhaps at an expense; they are big gamers and are perhaps spending too much time online and not enough time in face-to-face encounters.  Many of our alternative students do not have access to the Internet from their homes, but we must be mindful of responsible use of the Internet and a balance as we teach them the technology skills that they need for success — a balance of time one-on-one on the computer and real time encounters with our friends and families.

Many students today view their educational experiences as us vs. them (students vs. the teachers), as how to complete an assignment with as little effort as possible, as any material is open game. There is a pervasive problem with plagiarism, and many educators struggle with what to do about plagiarism in terms of how to catch “them” and how to punish “them.” Recently I researched and found several free sites on the Internet for an English teacher to use to “catch” the students suspected of plagiarizing an assignment.

In light of several recent articles and postings, I challenge all teachers to reflect on this approach – assign research projects that are not topic-oriented, research projects where students must “analyze, compare, invent and propose original solutions” as discussed in the Connected Newsletter’s article “Anti-Plagiarism Campaign The Struggle for Academic Integrity” by Joyce Kasman Valenza. Another suggestion to help avoid plagiarism is to have the students present and defend their projects orally. It is important to insure that students understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid plagiarizing. A workshop on plagiarism  through a WebQuest is available online; one conclusion drawn in the WebQuest is that the student needs to learn to be responsible enough not to plagiarize.

Children are like sponges, absorbing everything around them; they are multi-tasking constantly, and their fingers are learning to keep up with their brains.  Click here to read the post from Will Richardson about students who already know so much more than we do about what is probably more important for their futures that much of what we are trying to teach them; then read about what he learned from the students.  For a glimpse into the future, read about classrooms with no walls and no students in the NY Times.

 If you find these articles interesting, perhaps you would like to know more about how to subscribe to an rss feed (rss– really simple syndication – you subscribe to an rss feed to keep up with sites that are frequently updated).  Google reader is what I use to subscribe to feeds; then when I have a little time, I click on Google reader and choose the articles that interest me.  For more information about rss, read this article from Microsoft in 2004 (are we behind?).