We are in an age
where written analyses of nearly every major work of literature and
vast amounts of subject matter are available on nearly any given
subject. Some of it is even true! Thus the Internet fulfills its
intended purpose as an “information transfer” concept.
Literally any subject will have dozens of web sites devoted to it.
Opinions abound on nearly everything and even rankings by the web communities
on hot topics. But how can this abundance of information be used by
students to create their own original work and not resort to just a
copy and paste effort?
At the fall 2004
GaETC Conference, author and speaker Tammy Worcester clearly delineated
the frustration of both students and teachers in avoiding plagiarism
and trying to find plagiarism. While identifying a plagiarized work
can be done, it involves work on the teacher’s
part that could be better spent. Her suggestion was a three tier “Building
Block Model”. This would include:
1. Collect Blocks (Gather Information)
2. Organize Blocks (Critical Thinking)
3. Build New Structure (Product/Presentation)
She concluded her
session with demonstrations of several Block 3 results: A Post Card,
Acrostic, Hats! Off, Fact Flipper and What Am I? All were built using
Microsoft’s
PowerPoint presentation software.
When I returned
to the classroom, I decided to implement a few of her ideas. When
assigning a historical research paper on a computer pioneer to eighth
graders, I realized most of the papers were as she illustrated, just
copy and paste productions. Generally, I would assign a 2-3 page
paper with citations on a computer pioneer. Invariably, all I would
receive is a copy and paste job from a few websites. Instead, using
Tammy’s suggestions, I had them read at least two websites
of information on their subject and then write out 7-10 facts about
their computer pioneer from each website. Some guidelines had to be
given so as to avoid obvious facts like “he was a man,” “he
had arms and legs,” etc. The focus was on facts that contributed
to recognition of the computer pioneers.
From their web research, the students constructed a list of short
factual statements with each one getting progressively longer. When
centered on a PowerPoint slide it formed a triangle that could later
be folded to form a paper hat that we could display on the bulletin
board. The next activity was for them to take another five facts and
create and print matching questions and answers. The two pages were
put together in such a way that each question formed a flap that when
lifted revealed the answer. We concluded our unit by rewording these
questions into a Jeopardy game format that the entire class played.
The results were
gratifying. On their computer history test, I asked all of them to
list five facts about the computer pioneer they researched; and everyone
received a grade of 100%. My conclusion was that the students learned
and retained more information about their subject than had they written
a 3 or 4 page paper. Too many assignments encourage and enable students
to take the easy route and plagiarize content. They learn less and
can become numb to the idea that plagiarizing is wrong. I am reviewing
my curriculum to look for other ways to interject projects – especially
team based – to increase student excitement and participation
in learning. Sharing the student’s work on bulletin boards has
been one way of showing fellow teachers what can be done with PowerPoint
software beyond presentations. Project based learning certainly makes
learning fun and creative, and the retention much higher.
