Week Five

It hit me right between the eyes.  I have to admit that I had never considered it before; at least not until I read my weekly assignment for our class.  But my classmates who are teaching grade school are experiencing plagiarism with their students, just as I am with my college students.  This week we had a reading within our Technology to teach literacy: a resource for k-8 teachers (Anderson, 2008) that had a first person narrative from an instructor about her experiences working with young students as she helped them with their writing. 

 

Now, writing papers in sixth grade on up - that made sense to me prior to this week.  But I had not really ever experienced with my own children or obviously myself, exploring, researching, writing, and possibly plagiarizing younger than that.  The challenges I face with my students, I cannot imagine the challenges with students a decade, two or three decades younger. 

However, would it be easier to get students of a younger age to practice more ethical behaviors because they have not become aware of the possibilities to bend the rules, shall we say?  And as an instructor of young students would I find it best to keep all writing assignments to in-class work.  Not that I am saying parents would do the work for their child; or not assist their child at all.  I am just wondering if I would find it best to work with the students in a laboratory environment at the school.  Possibly working with the students in this setting would help to in still the quality writing habits that we hope all students will possess as they successfully matriculate through the system. 

On the college level, I am always amazed when I am working with a student who will highlight entire passages from another person's document and turn it in as their own work without any recognition of any kind.  And usually, they at surprised, as if they had no idea that the two or three paragraphs were word for word, punctuation for punctuation identical to another person's writing; more often than not a published work.

I am a member of a social networking "group"  affiliated with an active student organization at the institution where I got my undergraduate degree.  The first week of this semester, I and I assume from the way it was sent, all members of the student organization, were sent an email promoting the sale of "plagiarism free", "cited to specifications", "completely error free", "on the topic of your choice" research papers, thesis, and/or dissertations.  The young lady who was promoting them is currently a student at the university.  And I am pretty confident that she was breaking a student code of conduct, IF she was really the one selling the papers.  However, I really think she was just an inside promoter for an outside company. 

I am sure that any and all persons who will read this blog will agree that they have heard of papers having being sold before.  I just had not had one promoted to me through my social network affiliation prior to this semester.  It truly makes me wonder what else is out there that I am not being exposed to that our students are doing and are working on to avoid actually writing their own papers.  If they would spend half as much time really doing the work as they spend trying to figure out how to get out of doing the work, wouldn't they create amazing things?!

There are days that I wonder what the world will be like when I am my grandmother's age.  (I don't think she would mind me telling you that she is 95).  What will people be reading?  Who will be doing the writing and who will be doing the "fact checking"?  How will education be shaped then?  Will every student from kindergarten on up be online learners? 

It is a big thought.  One I cannot answer today.  I am just still learning as I blog.

Reference:

Anderson, R., Grant, M., & Speck, B. (2008). Technology to teach literacy: a resource for k-8 teachers. (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.

Week Four

My Secret Addiction

I have a problem.  I will admit it right here out in the open.  I have an addiction to films.  I love to watch films.  All types from the early 1930s through the current films of this month; regardless of the genre.  I do not mind what the critics have said or what my friends or colleagues thought about the film.  I just enjoy films.  However, I do have to admit that I take greater pleasure in movies in which I have read the play or book first. 


There is something about holding the weight of a book in my hands and turning the page with anticipation of what the writer was visualizing for the characters to experience in the next moments of their lives.  Then I imagine how the book could be turned into a screenplay.  The costumes, the scenery, the actors chosen for each part; every piece fascinates me.  After I read the book, I love to compare the book to the film; whenever possible.  But, sometimes, as you can imagine, that is not possible.  So it is not a mandatory prerequisite for all of my film viewing. 




I sang in Carnegie Hall
Memorial Day 1987
with the
Southeast MO State
University Concert Choir

My Family & I with Mr. Whipple
"Please Don't Squeese The Charmin"
( I am in the white dress)

As I am taking this class, I am fascinated that we are building a story online. Choosing a story was difficult. I am a story teller. My life reads like a work of fiction because I have been so very blessed and have gotten to do so many wonderful things and have met so many facinating people. Buiding this story online is as if I were building my own film. What colors ill I choose? What will the scenes look like?

I unfortunately was ill this last weekend.  When I am ill, I always turn on films that can play in the background.  I choose ones in which I can drift in and out and know exactly what is going on.  There are many for me to choose from.  A sort of comfort food for my mind.  

This weekend I watched “His Girl Friday” with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.  Based on the play, "The Front Page". It is a wonderful 1940 screwball comedy about a newspaper man who is about to lose his best reporter and former wife to another man.  So he tries to get her to stay by enticing her with a huge story.  First of all, it is a wonderful example of how women were not seen as equal in the work force.  Second, how the media worked – through pens, paper, cameras, and people running around on foot to get the story.  But the most important tool that is utilized by the reporters is the typewriter.  The reporters are utilizing manual typewriters that they clank and bang the keys to get the stories typed out so they may be given to their newspapers type setters.

This movie was remade in 1988 – “Switching Channels” – starring Burt Reynolds in the Cary Grant role, Kathleen Turner in the Rosalind Russell role, with Christopher Reeve playing the finance' Only this time they are working for a cable news network patterned after CNN.  They had to worry about what her make-up looked like and the camera angles and they utilized a copy machine.  Photo copies of different stories were made and then given to the on screen reporters to read from. 

If the movie was remade today, what would it be like?  Would it be a company like Yahoo that writes the story for online readers?  Would it be an online magazine focused upon a specific subject matter?  Would the characters utilize iPads and smartphones instead of manual typewriters and photocopiers?  I had a wonderful time imagining the cast that I would put into my new version of the film.  Of course, the budget would not be realistic because the actors would want too much money.  And I do not think anyone would really want to film the movie in my small home town.  But I had a lovely time fantasizing about what it could be like if it could be remade today. 

Instead, I think I will look for a copy of a good book that I can hold in my hands and turn the pages.  I am off to the library with my card in my hands.  Hope I don’t come home with a DVD instead J.

Films referenced at the top of the page:

Pride & Prejudice (2005) Based on:

Austen, J. (1813). Pride and prejudice. Whitehall. United Kingdom. 

Somewhere in Time (1980) Based on:

Matheson, R.(1975). Bid time return. Viking Press, United States.

 

Little Women (1933) Based on:

Alcott, L.M. (1868). Little women. Roberts Brothers, United States.

 

Anna and the King of Siam (1946) Based on:

Landon, M. (1944). Anna and the king of Siam. Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN.

Week Three

This week we are discussing why we have to teach reading when we actually teach music or math or science.  I find this to be an interesting thought because I have been raised in a home with a parent who was a K-12 educator and a had other relatives who were K-12 educators and I never got the impression that reading was not part of all subjects.  That may sound silly, but I didn't. 

So, I asked a colleague if I was a little off and she said yes and no.  She teaches both adult basic education classes and college classes.  She came to complete her own GED late in life.  She said that she had wonderful mentors who taught her the way my family thought.  That every subject has reading thread throughout, but that when she worked on her undergraduate degree she found that not all instructors thought that way.  And as I thought about my own education, she was right, I had instructors who did not incorporate literacy either.

But the key to this class is technology and literacy.  And I need to learn about technology!  I love the ideas in the text we are using!  If I only had been able to use technology to learn my vocabulary words in the 6th grade, Miss Larson, so would have given me an "A" for the year!  I am the world's worst speller.  I need a spell check for my spell check!  But in the Pearson book there are different ideas of how students and instructors can collaborate through technology with vocabulary development.  My favorite passages was how the talking aids helped support students advance their reading levels in the Reinking and Richman 1990 study (Anderson, p.71).

As part of this week, we are designing our own graphic organizer.  I have to admit that I am a little nervous that my tech knowledge is not yet up to this level yet.  But I am excited to try! Stay tuned.