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Re: [xmca] FW: The Shadow Scholar - He writes your students' papers.
Nancy
Your comment
"teach them to feel proud that they can cite and DIALOGUE with a scholar's
text"
resonates with my notion of the ideal of education.
If educational institutional structures are organized to motivate activity
through control [fear] then there is minimal room for trust to develop.
However, if motivation to dialogue with others [including scholarly texts]
is the motivating activity of educational institutions then the
organizational "rules" of engagagement will have to be reflected on.
I want to give a personal example of my time at university to highlight the
contrasting frames of reference within educational organizations and the
implicit "rules" of how we ought to behave at school.
I took a course in the Communication department where the assignment was to
create a GROUP project. Our grades would be determined in two parts. One
part of our grade would be evaluated on the quality of our group
project. The second part of our grade [50%] was to keep a diary of the
process of group formation and transformation during the project and to hand
in the diary. [this was to be in an informal conversational format]
At the first meeting I mentioned I only "needed" a "B" from this course [I
was motivated at the time to put my energy and focus into other courses
where I wanted to dialogue with different scholars but needed a
communications course to complete my BA.]
The reaction from the other members of my group was so intense it took me by
surprise. They ALL "needed" an "A" and wanted me to no longer participate
in any of their meetings. They made clear that my name would go on the group
project but that my continuing participation would create too much
conflict within the group to have me actually participate in the group
activity. I agreed and continued to right in my diary about this process of
group formation. [I considered I was still "in the group process" though
now in the position of a black sheep]
This experience [in the context of the 1960's counter cultural
re-examination of university organization] was a fascinating personal
experience of the larger question of educational civic virtures. These
ethical contradictions can be reflected on from a perspective of the
tensions between control and trust [open dialogue] in educational
organizational structures. I was motivated by a different "object" and my
actions caused extreme tension among the rest of the group who shared a
different object.
Larry
On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 6:32 AM, Nancy Mack <nancy.mack@wright.edu> wrote:
> I believe this does have much to do with issue of control.
>
> However, I believe that certain approaches to teaching have become so
> hegemonic that when they do not work, teachers struggle and become angry
> with the students versus looking for new methods or even researching the
> reasons why the method is ineffective.
>
> I am not faulting teachers as much as explaining how a weak method becomes
> the standard. I have an article under review in which I discuss how the
> current approach to teaching plagiarism uses an appeal to the emotion of
> fear to motivated students to cite texts versus teaching them to feel proud
> that they can cite and dialogue with a scholar's text.
>
> I draw a parallel to the old days when driver's education classes used
> "Last Prom" type films to scare students into driving safely. Research has
> shown that fear is an unpredictable motivator. In my inner-city school we
> never actually drove a car, we just viewed these movies and took tests for
> driver's training.
>
> I have had success in working from strategies like creating a favorite
> quote collection from a source, doing extensive reflection on three
> favorite quotes, analyzing the mechanics of a well-cited article, creating
> a vocabulary for introducing quotes, emphasizing how the student responds
> to the scholar, etc. I go so far as equating good citation with
> bragging--by golly I read this source, thought about it, found the best
> part, and now have something to say about it.
>
> No more drive by citations.
>
> Nancy
>
> Nancy Mack
>
> Professor of English
> Wright State University
>
> http://www.wright.edu/~nancy.mack
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>
> Date: Monday, January 10, 2011 8:50 am
> Subject: Re: [xmca] FW: The Shadow Scholar - He writes your students'
> papers.
> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>
> > I don't want to take a position on this topic, but was curious
> > about what
> > seems a contradiction between issues of "control and trust" in a
> > mannersimilar to Engstrom's article on the use of technology in
> > middle schools and
> > putting computers in the hallway. I wonder if the
> > concepts "control" and
> > "trust" are primary or basic constructs when discussing institutional
> > structures or containers. I was wondering when reading
> > Engstrom's article
> > if the terms control and trust were explanatory terms
> > within 2nd person
> > actor narratives or if Engstrom abstracted these terms as
> > explanatory 3rd
> > person narratives of what he observed in the middle school
> > environment. Do
> > others see a contradiction or tension in the discussion of
> > plagarism or is
> > it a clear case of civic virtue?
> >
> > Larry
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 12:40 AM, Rod Parker-Rees <
> > R.Parker-Rees@plymouth.ac.uk> wrote:
> >
> > > And I can also confirm that this extends to submissions to
> > peer reviewed
> > > journals, too. I have had the experience of receiving a paper
> > which was
> > > noticeably more lucid than the email which accompanied it, a
> > quick bit of
> > > googling revealed that the paper was the work of a student at
> > a UK
> > > university where the submitter had been working as a visiting
> > academic.>
> > > Rod
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-
> > bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
> > > Behalf Of Robert Lake
> > > Sent: 10 January 2011 01:20
> > > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > > Subject: Re: [xmca] FW: The Shadow Scholar - He writes your
> > students'> papers.
> > >
> > > I can verify that from my experience last semester.
> > >
> > > With one student I suspected because of an obvious misuse of
> > future tense
> > > in
> > > a paper, Google worked,,,,,, Turnitin missed it.
> > >
> > > On Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 6:46 PM, Nancy Mack
> > <nancy.mack@wright.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > > There are significant problems with commercial plagiarism
> > checkers.> > There are studies that indicate that a simple
> > google search for a unique
> > > > phrase is more accurate and is free.
> > > > See this study
> > > > http://wac.colostate.edu/journal/vol20/gillis.pdf
> > > >
> > > > The National Council of Teachers of English website has
> > several better
> > > > resources for issues of plagiarism. Here is just one resource:
> > > > http://www.ncte.org/magazine/archives/122871/
> > > >
> > > > Turnitin is very expensive. School districts are being
> > pressured to buy
> > > > this service. Some teachers are using these policing
> > mechanisms rather
> > > than
> > > > teaching students effective ways to use direct citation. Moreover,
> > > citation
> > > > practices do vary from discipline to discipline.
> > > >
> > > > Nancy
> > > >
> > > > Nancy Mack
> > > >
> > > > Professor of English
> > > > Wright State University
> > > >
> > > > http://www.wright.edu/~nancy.mack
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: David Cross <d.cross@tcu.edu>
> > > > Date: Sunday, January 9, 2011 6:22 pm
> > > > Subject: Re: [xmca] FW: The Shadow Scholar - He writes your
> > students'> > papers.
> > > > To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> > > >
> > > > > Turnitin is used at TCU ... it works well for plagiarism, but
> > > > > wouldn't
> > > > > have caught The Shadow Scholar.
> > > > >
> > > > > http://turnitin.com/static/index.php
> > > > >
> > > > > Cheers
> > > > >
> > > > > David Cross
> > > > > d.cross@tcu.edu
> > > > > www.davidcross.us
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > On Jan 9, 2011, at 4:11 PM, David H Kirshner wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > Karen,
> > > > > > I'd not heard of anti-plagiarism services.
> > > > > > What a great idea. Their use should be routine--a high-tech
> > > > > solution
> > > > > > to
> > > > > > a high-tech problem.
> > > > > > To tell you the truth, I don't know how they would be
> > able to detect
> > > > > > frauds like the Shadow Scholar, in that the papers are
> > one-of-
> > > > > a-kind,
> > > > > > not recycled. Yet some organized effort to combat this really
> > > > > is in
> > > > > > order. This is something that a union of university
> > > > > professors, or
> > > > > > some
> > > > > > other pan-university organization should undertake.
> > > > > > David
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > > From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-
> > > > > bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]> On Behalf Of Karen Heckert
> > > > > > Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2011 4:03 PM
> > > > > > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > > > > > Subject: Re: [xmca] FW: The Shadow Scholar - He writes your
> > > > > students'> papers.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > This is not amusing. This is horrifying. (You can tell
> > how old
> > > > > I am.)
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I recently finished an MS in I/O Psychology, and one professor
> > > > > made us
> > > > > > submit
> > > > > > everything we handed in to an online anti-plagiarism service.
> > > > > > Personally, I
> > > > > > thought she was nuts and certifiably paranoid. Now I
> > understand.> > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > About fifteen years ago I spent some time in a Ph.D program
> > > > > and
> > > > > > teaching
> > > > > >
> > > > > > undergrads. One day I received two exactly identical papers
> > > > > from two
> > > > > > different
> > > > > > students. Some astute questioning uncovered the fact
> > that the best
> > > > > > student in
> > > > > > the class (Chinese) and several American students were
> > pooling their
> > > > > > resources
> > > > > > to write the research papers. Since their exams were all
> > > > > written in
> > > > > > class, this
> > > > > > didn't bother me too much. I just stipulated that each student
> > > > > had to
> > > > > > write up
> > > > > > the work in their very own words for submission. But there
> > > > > wasn't a
> > > > > > question (I
> > > > > > think) of anybody getting paid - it was just a case of uniting
> > > > > in the
> > > > > > face of a
> > > > > > common enemy (the gradebook). Beng a student myself, I
> > > > > understood only
> > > > > > too well.
> > > > > > Besides, I figured, most research these days is done by teams,
> > > > > and
> > > > > > this
> > > > > > was a
> > > > > > little practical experience.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Another cautionary tale: One of my students who had been
> > > > > turning in
> > > > > > acceptable
> > > > > > papers all semester turned in one that read very much like
> > > > > > schizophrenese
> > > > > > word-salad. I called her into conference and asked her point
> > > > > blank,
> > > > > > "Are
> > > > > > you
> > > > > > dyslexic?" She said that she was, but that the student
> > > > > center's
> > > > > > writing
> > > > > > lab had
> > > > > > been helping her write her papers. This time she simply hadn't
> > > > > had
> > > > > > time
> > > > > > to take
> > > > > > her paper to them.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Having just survived another bout of our "educational" system,
> > > > > I
> > > > > > have to
> > > > > > agree
> > > > > > with many of the anonymous writer's points about
> > college, if
> > > > > not with
> > > > > > his/her
> > > > > > ethics. I find this sort of thing a far more serious symptom
> > > > > of "moral
> > > > > > decay"
> > > > > > than abortion or gay marriage. We in the US are supposed
> > to be a
> > > > > > meritocracy and
> > > > > > those things which undermine that threaten our existence in
> > > > > more
> > > > > > crucial
> > > > > > ways.
> > > > > > The "system" is failing the students and in the long run
> > > > > failing us
> > > > > > all.
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ________________________________
> > > > > > From: David H Kirshner <dkirsh@lsu.edu>
> > > > > > To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity"
> > <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>> > > > Sent: Thu, January 6, 2011
> > 3:17:56 PM
> > > > > > Subject: [xmca] FW: The Shadow Scholar - He writes your
> > students'> > > > papers.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Not a propos of anything, this is both amusing and disturbing.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > David
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ****************************
> > > > > >
> > > > > >> From the Chronicle Review [A Weekly Magazine of
> > > > > Ideas/Chronicle of
> > > > > > Higher Education], Friday, November 19, 2010, pp. B6-B9. See
> > > > > > http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ****************************
> > > > > >
> > > > > > The Shadow Scholar
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > The man who writes your students' papers tells his story
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > By Ed Dante
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > __________________________________________
> > > > > > _____
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> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > *Robert Lake Ed.D.
> > > *Assistant Professor
> > > Social Foundations of Education
> > > Dept. of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
> > > Georgia Southern University
> > > P. O. Box 8144
> > > Phone: (912) 478-5125
> > > Fax: (912) 478-5382
> > > Statesboro, GA 30460
> > >
> > > *Democracy must be born anew in every generation, and
> > education is its
> > > midwife.*
> > > *-*John Dewey.
> > > __________________________________________
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