In Part A, I had a few ideas that I was interested in exploring for this project. An issue I wanted to tackle was ethical behaviour online, particularly plagiarism. An interest I was thinking about delving into was finding ways to teach students some basic word processing and emailing skills that I feel many of them are lacking. Finally, an opportunity I was interested in pursuing was to search for digital tools I could use with my students to engage them in the assignments and subject matter using the 30 tablets our department purchased last year. As I thought about this project more, I narrowed down my topic to focusing on the issue. I decided that finding ways to incorporate word processing and emailing skills into my course is easy enough to do, I just need to take the time to teach it. I didn’t think I would get much out of researching the topic. As for the opportunity to search for digital tools for the tablets that my students could use, I decided that since I’m taking a leave of absence this year and I don’t have access to the tablets, that this could wait until my return. Therefore, my plan for this reading review has become a search for possible ways to teach students about plagiarism and the importance of citing their sources properly. Not only is this important for an English teacher to look into, it would also be applicable for a teacher librarian. My keywords became: plagiarism, ethical online behaviour, information literacy, digital tools, and high school students.
In Part B, my research experience started with me browsing through the links provided on the recommended reading list for this course. I discovered the draft for the new BC Education Curriculum which I had never seen before. One of the learning outcomes pertained directly to my topic: “Model legal and ethical behaviours when using information and technology by properly selecting, acquiring, and citing resources” (“Profile for digitally literate students”). Using ethical behaviour, such as citing sources, is an important part of becoming digitally literate. I decided to continue my exploration using the UBC library databases. I have used ERIC in the past which is an excellent database for teachers to use. The first article I found about teaching information ethics to high school students provided a set of standards for the 21st century learner developed by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL). The second standard: “Ethical behavior in the use of information must be taught” deals directly with my topic because here is another large school organization supporting the idea that high school students need to be taught ethical online behaviour (2007). With the idea that this draft from the BC Ministry of Education will soon become a reality, I decided to search for information on why plagiarism is a problem (this seemed a little obvious, but I found some interesting information) and ways to help solve the problem. According to one article by Evering and Moorman (2012), students choose to plagiarize because they lack integrity, maturity, were never taught ethical online behaviour; they are lazy, they don’t understand an assignment, or they don’t see taking someone else’s words or ideas as stealing because they aren’t publishing it as their own. The key learning that I took away from this article was that it is important to create a culture of academic integrity. This includes creating meaningful assignments and choosing topics that aren’t easily searchable on Google or other search engines. The article also suggests that having students complete more student-centered, inquiry-based assignments that focus more on critical thinking and application of knowledge will help prevent students from plagiarizing (Evering & Moorman, 2012, p. 39).
Along with interesting information, this article also provided excellent resources to check out including a 3 part lesson plan from readwritethink.org and some interesting tools such as RefMe, an online way to organize and cite sources. After going through several resources from ERIC, I looked up the BC Teacher-Librarian Association’s website to see what resources were available and they offer a resource section called Noodle Tools that supplies teachers with assignments to teach students how to properly research and cite their sources. These practical tools that I found will hopefully help me create an introductory lesson to proper research skills and etiquette that will help my students develop ethical online behaviour that they can take with them to university, their workplace, or even home. All in all, I found quite a bit of information on the subject of plagiarism, but I would have liked to find more digital tools to use to teach students how to cite sources properly without a program like RefMe to do the work for them.
References
21st Century Literacies: Tools for Reading the World. (2015). Retrieved 25 September 2015, from http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/
American Association for School Libraries. (2007). Standards for the 21st Century Learner. Retrieved 2 October 2015, from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/guidelinesandstandards/ learningstandards/AASL_Learning_Standards_2007.pdf
BC Ministry of Education. (2010). Profile for Digitally Literate Students. Retrieved 25 September 2015, from http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/dist_learning/1012profile.htm
Byrne, R. (2011). Ten Search Tools and Tactics Teachers and Students Need to Know. Retrieved 25 September 2015, from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/11/ten-search-tools-and-tactics- teachers.html#.VgiHYdJVikp
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. (2008). Retrieved 2 October 2015, from
http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/fairusemedialiteracy
Evering, L. C. & Moorman, G. (2012). Rethinking Plagiarism in the Digital Age. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 5(1), 35-44. Retrieved 25 September 2015, from Ebscohost.
Kardick, M. (2008). Exploring Plagiarism, Copyright, and Paraphrasing. Retrieved 25 September 2015, from http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/exploring-plagiarism-copyright- paraphrasing-1062.html
Lehman, K. (2009). Teaching Information Ethics to High School Students. Library Media Connection, 27(6), 28-30.Retrieved 25 September 2015, from Ebscohost.
In Part B, my research experience started with me browsing through the links provided on the recommended reading list for this course. I discovered the draft for the new BC Education Curriculum which I had never seen before. One of the learning outcomes pertained directly to my topic: “Model legal and ethical behaviours when using information and technology by properly selecting, acquiring, and citing resources” (“Profile for digitally literate students”). Using ethical behaviour, such as citing sources, is an important part of becoming digitally literate. I decided to continue my exploration using the UBC library databases. I have used ERIC in the past which is an excellent database for teachers to use. The first article I found about teaching information ethics to high school students provided a set of standards for the 21st century learner developed by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL). The second standard: “Ethical behavior in the use of information must be taught” deals directly with my topic because here is another large school organization supporting the idea that high school students need to be taught ethical online behaviour (2007). With the idea that this draft from the BC Ministry of Education will soon become a reality, I decided to search for information on why plagiarism is a problem (this seemed a little obvious, but I found some interesting information) and ways to help solve the problem. According to one article by Evering and Moorman (2012), students choose to plagiarize because they lack integrity, maturity, were never taught ethical online behaviour; they are lazy, they don’t understand an assignment, or they don’t see taking someone else’s words or ideas as stealing because they aren’t publishing it as their own. The key learning that I took away from this article was that it is important to create a culture of academic integrity. This includes creating meaningful assignments and choosing topics that aren’t easily searchable on Google or other search engines. The article also suggests that having students complete more student-centered, inquiry-based assignments that focus more on critical thinking and application of knowledge will help prevent students from plagiarizing (Evering & Moorman, 2012, p. 39).
Along with interesting information, this article also provided excellent resources to check out including a 3 part lesson plan from readwritethink.org and some interesting tools such as RefMe, an online way to organize and cite sources. After going through several resources from ERIC, I looked up the BC Teacher-Librarian Association’s website to see what resources were available and they offer a resource section called Noodle Tools that supplies teachers with assignments to teach students how to properly research and cite their sources. These practical tools that I found will hopefully help me create an introductory lesson to proper research skills and etiquette that will help my students develop ethical online behaviour that they can take with them to university, their workplace, or even home. All in all, I found quite a bit of information on the subject of plagiarism, but I would have liked to find more digital tools to use to teach students how to cite sources properly without a program like RefMe to do the work for them.
References
21st Century Literacies: Tools for Reading the World. (2015). Retrieved 25 September 2015, from http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/
American Association for School Libraries. (2007). Standards for the 21st Century Learner. Retrieved 2 October 2015, from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/guidelinesandstandards/ learningstandards/AASL_Learning_Standards_2007.pdf
BC Ministry of Education. (2010). Profile for Digitally Literate Students. Retrieved 25 September 2015, from http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/dist_learning/1012profile.htm
Byrne, R. (2011). Ten Search Tools and Tactics Teachers and Students Need to Know. Retrieved 25 September 2015, from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/11/ten-search-tools-and-tactics- teachers.html#.VgiHYdJVikp
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. (2008). Retrieved 2 October 2015, from
http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/fairusemedialiteracy
Evering, L. C. & Moorman, G. (2012). Rethinking Plagiarism in the Digital Age. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 5(1), 35-44. Retrieved 25 September 2015, from Ebscohost.
Kardick, M. (2008). Exploring Plagiarism, Copyright, and Paraphrasing. Retrieved 25 September 2015, from http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/exploring-plagiarism-copyright- paraphrasing-1062.html
Lehman, K. (2009). Teaching Information Ethics to High School Students. Library Media Connection, 27(6), 28-30.Retrieved 25 September 2015, from Ebscohost.
Great post, full of insightful reflection and useful evaluation. You've collected a ton of great looking websites, articles, and other valuble tools for your toolbox. One site that I use often with students to teach them the mechanics of citing and referencing is the OWL at Purdue. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
ReplyDeleteOverall, good final post for your reading review!