Journal #2

A War of Words by Jim Patterson

This was such an interesting article, and it raised many questions in my mind. First, I see how gray an area plagiarism can be. I experienced this first hand while reading the article. I printed a hard copy to make notes--my own thoughts--in the margins. Right above paragraph #20, in the margins, I wrote: threat=reduction. In paragraph #21, the exact same word was used--threat--and a more elaborate explanation of my own explanation of "reduction", when discussing how sometimes by just having plagerism programs, plagerism can be reduced. I was one step ahead of the content this article, coming up with "threat=reduction". Now, if I had used the idea of threat=reduction in a paper, with the word "threat" as it appears in the article, I wonder if might be considered plagerism, as the same thing is said in the article, especially if a plagerism program was used to check my work. However, it came straight out of my mind, before I read what the article said. We are all human, and often share similar thoughts and use similar words.

1. How can I deter plagerism in my classroom? I think by teaching students the correct way to gather information--collecting items on index cards, for example--and teaching them the correct way to give credit to those whom they have gathered information from is one of the best deterrents. I don't think everyone plagerizes on purpose. Sometimes, I believe it can simply be because one does not know how to do what I mentioned above.

2. Is plagerism software useful or necessary? It seems that if students know there is such software being used to check their work, plagerism goes down. However, as I stated above, there are gray areas of plagerism that couldn't be detected accurately by such software.

Journal #1

Power of the Mashup by Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss

This article was about Mashup, which is an amazing way to create entirely new learning experiences by gathering information from many different sources (mainly via the web). The article discussed various programs that have been created as a result of Mashup, such as Google Lit Trips. Mashup makes it possible for students to have a multidimensional learning experience. This was an exciting article to read. It really made me want to get out and teach literature again! I also felt very overwhelmed reading this article, as I realized just how much I need to learn and how far I still have to go to incorporate such incredible learning experiences via technology into my classroom.

1. How can I promote deeper learning into my classroom projects? I am thinking it might be interesting for students to do their own mashup, instead of only experiencing the results of one. If kids participate in the gathering of knowledge to create something totally new, they could really gain a deep understanding of their new information.

2. How can I be certain that technology plays a secondary role to the information gathered and created? Obviously, the vehicle (technology, with all its bells and whistles) used to do the mashup is very exciting and important to learn how to use. However, I would want to stress in projects done with technology that while the process is important, the information gathered, the way it is used, and what the new knowledge has taught us is most important.