Big Teacher May be Watching

I know a number of adults still who bemoan the end of books, but it turns out that digital textbooks may give teachers yet another set of tools to monitor their students. The latest of those tools to gain a following is one offered by CourseSmart that allows educators to track the total time it takes students to read a digital textbook. While some have raised concerns over privacy, officials say students may opt out of the tracking feature, but of course, most teachers will be suspicious why.

But I Spent Hours on It!

Here’s another factoid that is good for parents to have at their fingertips -  did you know that Microsoft Word has a little-known feature called total editing time? This is a good way to monitor how long kids are spending on a writing assignment and it works like this: when you start working on a new Word document, a timer starts, and once you save the document, the time consumed, thus far, is saved as the ‘total editing time’. You continue to work on the document, and save it again, and the time elapsed since the last save is added to the total editing time or how long a kid has spent on an assignment. This is also good to know - a teacher can also check this out when your child sends a Word document by email or uploads it on a school server. Just a word to the wise kid– saying “but I spent hours on this” can easily be verified.

Is Your School Using a Plagiarism Prevention Service?

If your school uses a plagiarism prevention service, such as Turnitin or Safe Assign, make sure that it is being used to entice students to learn how to write better (the carrot) and not as just another way to fail them (the stick). The service should not be used as a teacher’s own private detection center, but instead, especially in middle school and the early years of high school, as a way for students to learn to recognize what parts of their work may not be original and/or may not be cited properly. Plagiarism prevention works best when it is used by students and teachers to improve writing and research skills and not just as a way for teachers to “catch” students. And, if you don’t know … the beginning of the school year is the best time to ask.

Don’t Copy That 2

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has a new web site aimed at helping educate K-12 students about the ethical and legal use of copyrighted materials, such as software, books, articles, music and movies. Called Don't Copy That 2  it includes a hip rap music video that addresses the dangers of engaging in piracy and the importance of respecting the creative output of others.  While mainly aimed at teachers, it can also be helpful for parents concerned about the issue. Support materials for the video, lesson plans for middle and high school teachers, a glossary, and other resources that can be helpful to parents and educators in confronting these complex and important concepts.

Plagiarism-Detection Software Shown Not to Be All That Effective

A German university review of plagiarism detection services, used by so many US high schools, finds only a few services “partially useful” at best. We’ve brought some of the issues with these services to your attention with columns on the subject in our Parenting with Technology section and if you have a high school student who is required to use one of these services like the popular TurnItIn.com, you owe to yourself to become familiar with potential issues, especially now as they are also being used to flag college admissions applications. As the review said “Plagiarism is a social problem, we need better education on how to properly write and research. Software is only a tool." And of course, as we all know, computers make mistakes.

Illegal Downloading

In the wake of the media’s recognition, there also seems to be some revisiting of the issue of illegal downloading as well. So much of all these behaviors are what parent’s model. Be nice and chances your kids will be nice. Don’t take advantage of the system and copy or plagiarize and chances are your kids won’t either. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to discuss the temptations or why it is wrong or even why despite the pain or expense, you just have to do the right thing.  As my daughter once said to me when she was about six when I told her that it was just as easy to be nice as nasty, she said “You always say that Mom, but sometimes it just isn’t true.” She’s right, and that’s why we all have to watch ourselves. If you haven’t talked about the issues or illegal downloads or plagiarism with your kids lately, you might want to take a look at this article on illegal downloading. It’s still a crime despite the fact, as the kids would say, that “everyone is doing it.”