Quantifying Innovative Practices
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Discussion on positive ideas and news that add to excellence in education. Discussion of negative ideas and news that can be used to learn how to change and improve excellence in education
Friday, March 9, 2012
What is the new definition of Cheating?
Talking to some high school students who are taking on-line courses. They have on class period a day that they all get together in the same room and work on their on-line class. The purpose of this may not be evident. It is a scheduling situation that is trying to remedy students who do not work independently out of school on on-line classes. Many students, and often the best students, do not budget their time effectively so as to complete the on-line class on time. When they find they are two weeks away from the completion of the course and they haven't even finished two chapters, they drop the course. The school is still paying for the dropped course since we can't use the past practice of charging the student if they fail or drop the class too late. A big waste of time and staff effort. So now they all get together to encourage each other and help each other. There might be up to 8 different on-line courses in the classroom with up to 15 students working at one time. A staff member or associate is assigned to assist if needed. It is more like an on-line study hall. So now that you know the make-up of the class here is the dilema. On-line courses through the area college may or may not have a college teacher on hand to help with questions. Often times when they are available it is through phone or email, both of which involve time and can be bogged down due to technology. The students have decided to help each other. Tests are taken on line and none are required to be proctored. So the students again help each other. The students explain that the tests are open book so using each others resources and computers is their definition of open book. They also take pride in the concept that they might be signed up for one class but in the study hall situation they are learning at least three or more topics. Is this a technoligal natives interpretation of 'Open Book Testing and On-Line Classes" ? Or is this cheating the technology way? I can see points either way. How about you?
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Okay my take from age old eduational wisdom. I hated tests taht just asked for reguritating facts. I was a good student and an honest student but a student who could not remember dates. I admit a couple of tests I wrote dates on my hands. The test did not ask me why the civil war happened, what was Lincoln's philosphy of the war, they asked me when the battles happened month, date, and year. So if I was to take that to the way that students take tests now I would say that using each other as resources (if they have read the material) would be a positive way to learn. The problem being that I have supervised on line classes where students have not read one thing they were assigned and asked others who had to take the test for them or answer the questions for them. So what do we do? Design the tests so that can not happen. I don't think on line courses are doing a great job at that. I think there needs to be more proctored tests. I know that sounds like I do not trust students but it would sent a message. I have proctored tests and taken proctored tests, it is a method that works. How would that look for 'University of Pheonix " users? How would they pay for that service. I think the new job out there in education at this point is being a professional 'Proctor"
ReplyDeleteIt all comes down to the fact that if an individual feels that the educational learning that they are recieving is important and relative to their goals they won't cheat. I don't cheat when I take on-line classes because I know I need to know the information or that the assignments may not seem to be relative to me at the time but might be later.(An assumption that has been wrong at times I admit) I also respect the learning process. Now when the learning process is not respected by the teacher or the institution I get mad and have withdrawn from a class. Money spent and not refunded. I do have a feeling that with the use of technology in learning that a lot of students are finding the the classes just a hoop in the array of hoops they have to jump through and that the respect for learning (since often time the learning process and program have been very poor) is not there. So cheating to the technology native is not cheating at all and the concept of cheating does not even exist in the form that we know. Interesting thought process sounds like a doctorial thesis. What would Scott McLoud thing of that? He probably has....
ReplyDeleteJust a thought. Talking with my kids. They were discussing parenting that they thought they would never do. Let technology babysit their kids. Now the most I ever worried about was having my kids watch TV all day. That did bother me and sometimes I did it but most of the time I limited the time and made them turn it off. I did not have games for them to play and they had to go to a friends house to play games. Except for my last child who does have all the other tech toys and they do seem to babysit him at times but only now that he is older. Never when he was younger. My own kids say that they let the babies watch the DVD's (educational of course) TV that is educational, then they have a DVD player in the car when they go somewhere and use it every single time, and also talked about letting their kids play with the smart phones or watch a show while shopping and in the shopping carts. Okay is that considered parental cheating. I would say "YES" they would say "NO". What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI would be more apt to call these student "creative" or "problem-solvers" than "cheaters" in this instance. The key, as you have noted, is making the on-line learning more effective. Expressing what they would DO with the information is more important that expressing what they KNOW and put on the page. You can say "Pi R squared" all you want, but if you can't put it into practice, you are going to get the wrong circle size.
ReplyDeleteI will say I have seen lots of students who are asking others to take the tests and do the assignments that they should be doing on-line. No different then doing papers for students I am sure. Not as easy to catch, especially the test taking idea. On line teachers who build a relationship with the students do catch the work done by others. The key is the relationships that are created on line through skype and emails and texting. It gives the instructor an idea of who the student is. Iowa on Line does that and I highly recommend those classes. Many online teachers have such a large student load that they can't possibly create a relationship. Lots of this sounds familiar to classroom teaching. Did you notice.
ReplyDelete