Reflection on Plagiarism

  Plagiarism is a huge problem growing as technology grows. With knowledge accessible at the click of a mouse on the vast web, more and more authors fall victim to someone who uses their works without the proper citation. If students look hard enough, they may even be able to find websites that sells completed essays. What are teachers to do?

  Breaking ethics, which isn't the goal of the majority of students, is done when the student doesn't know how to correctly cite the sources or when the student ran out of time to correctly write their own works. The American Psychological Association (APA) manual is an excellent source to help avoid plagiarism. Another resource that helps out greatly is www.citationmachine.net. This website will correctly cite your resources for you in most popular formats (MLA, APA, and others). All you have to do is enter the information you have about your source, and it will put it into proper format. You then copy and paste the format into your paper. Nice!

  Another tool both students and teachers can use is www.turnitin.com. This is a website where you can submit your paper and it will check vast databases to see how much of the paper is plagiarized. This helps the teacher by reducing his or her time checking papers and their authenticity. It helps students to understand what public domain is and what is considered someone else's works.

 
   This directly supports the NETS-T standard of "Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility". It helps teachers support:

      a. Advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources. 

      c. Promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information.

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Web Tools Reflection

  Today’s technology is everywhere—cell phones, IPods, and computers to name a few. Technology is used from hospitals to traffic lights, so introducing and using web tools in the classroom as an introduction to technology is the smart and logical way to go.

  Most students are already exposed to technology at home from the Sony Play Station to Game Boys, to the games played on the home computer. So when they come to school, they already know how to play games and navigate a computer or some sort of game system. So why not incorporate this knowledge while teaching new material? There are many web sites offering free games geared towards learning. Using these web tools to supplement material already taught keeps students motivated and may even take the place of doing worksheets as homework.

  Using technology in the classroom in this way will support the NETS-S standard of Creativity and Innovation, where students will apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products or processes while playing technology based learning games. Under this same standard, they will use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues. They will also use the NETS-S Technology Operations and Concepts standard when they understand and use technology systems as well as transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies. 

  Using web tools as a teacher helps me organize my work. There are countless programs to choose from. Database programs allows for recording, organizing and managing information in related categories, and to retrieve, manipulate, and display this information in various forms. Some examples are MS Access and FileMaker Pro. 

 I guess the most difficult part of working with web tools was trying to learn how to maneuver through the different options and settings of different programs. It takes some time to be able to go through everything to see what they do. Every program is different, so trying to remember which program had which button to do certain things was definitely a challenge. 

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Movie Project Reflection

  Movie Maker is a great tool to use for assignments for my students in science class. I would have my science students use the Movie Maker to make a video documentary of their progress of their science fair projects. I would ask them to take pictures of the different stages of their group science projects as they complete experiments, do research, and putting the project board together. This would be fun and would enable them to share their science fair ideas with other classes in the school and possibly even with classrooms throughout the country.

   Using Movie Maker in this way would spark other student ideas and could possibly find better ways to do their projects and find data. It may also renew student interest back into science.

   This would fall into the NETS•S standards 1 and 2, creating "original works as a means of personal or group expression" and using "digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively” as well as “communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.” 

   I really enjoyed making a movie using my friend's paintings. I just can't wait to show her the movie! I am sure she will just love it and maybe possibly use it to further her follower base.


:)