Going digital
I’m excited about making my Digital Story Project. First of all, I found a new graphic organizer that I really like, easel.ly. It is simple to use, very intuitive, and looks professional. It is in beta form right now; I hope it sticks around.
As I began scripting my story and immediately began thinking about potential locations at which to film. I have a friend who owns a used book store, and there is a public library right across the street from him. I also have a few props in mind. This should be fun.
The struggle I am just beginning to face is the collaboration aspect of the assignment. My nature is to work by myself most of the time. I realize getting fresh perspectives and extra eyes on the project will make for a better end result, but sometimes I am hesitant to let go of “my” project to let others edit or alter it. I need to check my ego and be open to the ideas and suggestions of colleagues.
Citing sources and plagiarism
I’ve noticed a startling increase in academic plagiarism in the past six or seven years. I don’t think digital natives really understand that copying and pasting information from various sources on the internet is the intellectual equivalent of theft. After all, at its very core, the internet is a means of searching for information from a variety of sources and synthesizing and transferring that information in a variety of forms to many different locations and users. It does this quite efficiently, and modern users don’t like to be slowed down by processes like citing sources for the information they share. Issues of Copyright and Fair Use can complicate matters even more.
If we want students to avoid plagiarizing, we need to educate them on how to cite sources, and we need to make it easy. Technology can be a partner in this, with software that automatically generates bibliographies, works-cited pages and such. But in the end, the student needs to know what plagiarism is and what it isn’t, as well as the consequences for plagiarizing and how to avoid plagiarizing.
I wonder if showing students real-life stories of people who got in trouble for plagiarizing would help -- Politicians like Senator Scott Brown, who cut and pasted a large portion of Senator Elizabeth Dole’s website onto his own (Hayden, 2011), or economics professor Brian Swart, who lost his job and had his PhD. rescinded after it came to light he had plagiarized at least four published articles and his doctoral dissertation. (Sullivan & Gardiner, 2013)
Sources:
Hayden, E. (October 13, 2011) Scott Brown’s Website Plagiarizes Elizabeth Dole. The Atlantic Wire. Retrieved from http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/10/scott-browns-website-plagiarizes-elizabeth-dole/43617/
Sullivan, P. & Gardner H. (February 13, 2013) Econ Professor Swart resigned due to plagiarism. Scarlett & Black (Grinnell College newspaper). Retrieved from http://www.thesandb.com/news/econ-professor-swart-resigned-due-to-plagiarism.html
You know Keith I was always a little confused by some seemingly bright people plagiarizing another persons work. Is it there ego? Did they just get lazy? Why the resistance to just borrowing and citing?
ReplyDeleteIt's probably different reasons for different people. I can imagine someone who is under pressure to "publish or perish" but lacks the self-confidence to advance his own original ideas might resort to plagiarism. I think with politicians, it tends to be laziness. I'm not sure if plagiarism is on the rise or if it's being caught more often. The internet and Boolean search algorithms make it both easier to plagiarize and easier to catch plagiarists.
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