[CALIBK12] Turnitin.com

Wed Dec 3 10:38:52 PST 2008

What an awesome idea! Thank you for your support. 

P.S. Congratulations, again, on your President's Award, Doug!  I was able to see you at the Legislator's Luncheon at CSLA and cheer for you with everyone else. Very cool to meet and see so many who post at CALIB regularly and whose posts I read for help. 

Best wishes,

Connie 

--- On Wed, 12/3/08, Doug Achterman <DAchterman at sbhsd.k12.ca.us> wrote:

From: Doug Achterman <DAchterman at sbhsd.k12.ca.us>
Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] Turnitin.com
To: "Connie Young" <connie_young at khsd.k12.ca.us>, "Janet Hasbrouck" <JHASBROU at ausd.net>, wilkmike at earthlink.net, calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu
Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 9:59 AM

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I couldn’t agree with Connie more. 
In the digital age, how about this tweak:
Have students copy and paste ALL digital passages they’re using into a notes page that includes source information. You could even teach students to hyperlink their own text to the original passage, so the reader can shift easily from students’ text to the reference.

Doug Achterman
Library Media Teacher
San Benito High School
1220 Monterey St.
Hollister, CA  95023
(831)637-5831 ext. 181
dachterman at sbhsd.k12.ca.us
http://www.sbhsd.k12.ca.us/sbhslib/library.htm
********************************************************
School libraries raise student achievement.

From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu [mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of Connie Young
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 7:00 PM
To: Janet Hasbrouck; wilkmike at earthlink.net; calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu
Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] Turnitin.com

Ok, I must chime in... this is an area I love, and it saddens me that it is harder for teachers to devote much time to teaching research as a process: in these days of teaching to the tests, we leave this critical area of understanding behind. 

When I taught English, I could stop most plagiarism before it began. I simply has students draft the reports in class as much as I could. I'd take them to the labs to work and watch and guide them. Did it take more time than many teachers want to give up to produce quality research papers? Absolutely.

Would I teach differently? No. Why not? My students truly learned the value of properly citiing sources, and I think they (deep down) appreciated the chance to "get it right," instead of feeling that pressure to cheat or hurry the work. 

Most students don't "want" to be cheaters. I believe that. Maybe I am naive, but I believe it and I always have.

Did a few students still plagiarize. Yes, but the incidents were far less. 
I loved watching how proud students were of their work in the end. They had really mastered the learning.

Research is a process. As soon as we stop teaching it as such, we devalue research itself. 

This hurts everyone in the end. I hope to help any student who walks into my library through any phase of this process he wants help with.

Ok, I am off my soap box.

Connie Young

Teacher-Librarian

Frontier High School

Bakersfield, CA

From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu [calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of Janet Hasbrouck [JHASBROU at ausd.net]
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 3:55 PM
To: wilkmike at earthlink.net; calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu
Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] Turnitin.com

Hi Shelee,

We use Turnitin, but I don't think this has ever come up. We have had students, parents and their lawyers try to deny the cheating and plagiarism when it is detected. If you want to do some research, there have been several law suits filed by students for this very reason and the students lost the cases. I think that Turnitin has some links on their site under news releases or something like that. A Google search or eLibrary or Ebsco search would certainly give you some articles to read about the basis of the decisions.

Just my thoughts, but I would assume that in the situation you describe, the student's paper would still be subjected to scrutiny by the teacher checking for citations, etc, and the use of Google or other search engine searches of distinctive phrases, comparison to Sparks Notes, etc., the way we did before we had Turnitin if anything looks suspicious. We have particularly been gratified when it turns up papers turned in by siblings, trying to get by with not doing their own work.

Our teachers try to always use it in a uniform way. One example is having all assignments due in Turnitin at 7:30 in the morning. For those students without Internet access, they can come to the library before class at 8:00 and submit their work then.

Call me someday if you want to talk about this, but I don't know what else I can offer.

Janet HasBrouck, Librarian

Arcadia High School, Arcadia CA

>>> Shelee Wilkerson <wilkmike at earthlink.net> 12/2/2008 3:17 PM >>>

Does anyone out there use turnitin.com? If you do, have you ever run into a situation where the student refuses to use it? It was just brought to my attention that one of our students is refusing to use it because it is his "intellectual property" and does not agree with their terms and conditions. If you have run into this how did your school/administration deal with it? I am just curious. I was cc'd on the memo to administration and had to laugh. I give them credit for fighting the fight.

Shelee Wilkerson
South Pasadena High School_______________________________________________
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