Online Discussion: Virtual Class 2

Online Discussion: Virtual Class 2

Imagine that you are employed as a teacher or instructional technologist in a K-12 school or college/university. Would you purchase Turnitin.com (or recommend that it be purchased)? Justify your answer, making sure to identify the strategies you feel are most important to encourage original work and discourage plagiarism and how the technology supports (or doesn’t) the strategies you’ve identified.

Marie Altieri - Turnitin

I thought I was going to have a unique view - that our high school should not purchase Turnitin. However, it appears that so far everyone thinks we should not buy Turnitin. I do believe that my reasons are a bit different than those stated. I believe Turnitin would have a negative effect on our ability to teach writing. I believe that the process of teaching writing, and students submitting their written work creates a personal relationship between the teacher and the student. The teacher reads the essay, makes some detailed qualitative comments, and ideally is able to meet with the student to conference about their writing. There may even be time for a revision process. Through this process, the teacher gets to know the students "writing voice." If the student-teacher writing relationship is as I've described it, then someone analyzing a piece of writing can tell if the voice changes. My fear with a product like Turnitin is that it puts the teacher one step further away from the student and his or her work It depersonalizes it. If I want to check a phrase, or even think that a whole paper was stolen, there are inexpensive ways to search for patterns. But, I would hate to see analyzing essays turn into a software exercise where teachers aren't curled up fully immersed in the writing and giving thoughtful feedback. If I'm analyzing an essay using Turnitin, I can see myself cutting and pasting canned comments. I know that plagiarism is a very real issue, and I don't minimize it. I just think we would lose too much in the process of trying to prevent it.

I agree with you about thestudent and teacher relationship. In a K-12 setting the students are with their teachers everyday for a certain amount of time for a whole year.Throughout this time the teacher begins to know and understand the writing and character of the students, how they express themselves. Gradual improvement is one thing but an overnight writing transformation is a definite red flag that something isn't right. It seems that plagiarism maybe more easily detected in a setting such as this and the consequences are learned and understood right away for the prevention of plagiarism continuing for the student.

Hi Marie! Your comment about what turnitin could do to the teaching process really made me think. Teachers are so busy, and software such as turnitin could save teachers time in identifying suspicious writing, but it could also encourage them to distance themselves from their students’ work. Today, there are grading tools for essays and professional graders, which allow teachers to concentrate more on things considered more important. I agree with you that it is important for teachers to be involved in their students’ writing, however. I always found it rewarding to get acknowledgement and important feedback on my papers so I would know what I needed to work on and what materials I might need to review. Once I reached high school, teachers never got involved with the whole writing process, but that probably would have helped me immensely as well. I think it helps both the teacher and the student when they can develop a “personal relationship” (as you said) through writing. It can motivate and encourage students, and it allows the teacher to speak to specific student needs. How wonderful it would be if all educators had the resources to follow the kind of teaching you promote :)

The focus on a personal contact between teacher and student is an important teaching objective of mine. I see this as critical in order to move the student successfully through the course material. I agree that if one works closely with a student one can hear his or her voice from within the course material. It is then easier to hear a change in that student's voice and detect potential plagiarism. More importantly, knowing a student's voice puts a teacher in a position to know that student's strengths and weaknesses, as well as any need for remedial work.

I agree with you that a stronger teacher-student contact engenders more effective feedback. I think that any teaching strategy that removes a teacher from a student and depersonalizes his or her work, places that student at much greater risk of not having the support to be more fully successful