Journal #3

A War of Words
Jim Patterson

In this article, Jim Paterson looks at opposing views to new programs created in the past 10 years to help battle plagiarism. One teacher thinks that some of the new programs created help students cite their work and present it in a much more organized manner. The specific program that she talks about walks students through a step by step process that allows them to display the original material alongside their own paraphrased thoughts. On the other hand, one teacher claims that there is no substitute for "good teaching" and feels that the programs infringe on students rights by comparing the papers written to material that is already out there.

1. Should teachers be more accepting of new programs created to help students?

I think that instead of looking for everything that is wrong with a new program or software to assist students, teachers should be more accepting and focus on what is in the best interest of the student. Many times teachers take a stand off approach to changes because they like to do things the way they always have. However, that may not always be the best approach from a student stand point. There is so much new educational technology available that I feel teachers should research and use in place of “good old teaching”. Every student has a different learning style and the blackboard might not be the best way to reach every student.

2. Is plagiarism serious enough to warrant these types of programs to be created?

Before the days of educational technology and computers, it would have been easy for teachers to open up an encyclopedia and compare articles to material brought in by students. In those days, the encyclopedia was the best source for research. Now with the internet, there is a vast amount of material that can be accessed by a student, and without some way to monitor it, a students work would be very hard to disprove. Whenever there is new technology or processes created for anything positive, there will always be someone who will use it in a negative way. It’s sad, but it’s true.