Week 4 Case Study 08

1. Could Miss Walker have handled the plagiarism situation any differently?
I would have first taught a lesson on the importance of work being in your own words. Tell students of the serious harm that can be caused to them if they plagiarize (sue, jail, scare them a litte). Then after that I would teach them how to use information they found in their own words, give them examples "heres what I would do, Read it try to explain it to a friend in person to make sense then write what you said down." Show them online dictionaries and Thesauruses to help change their words.

2. If wikis are to be used in the classroom, at what grade level are the students
ready?
Its hard to say when students are ready, being that they all mature at different times. I would say no younger than 6th or 7th grade. Students also should have had a year or two of "experience" in research so they have experienced plagiarism and how to avoid it before.

3. What can be done to assure that ALL students are involved in the writing and
editing process?
I think Wiki's make it easy for students to get away with having someone else do all the work. Though now you should be able to track who has made changes/additions to a wiki that still doesn't solve it maybe one student is writing it all and sending the info to the other students. one way to ensure that students are doing their own research is to have students work on it in class and if they want to do outside work on their own they can but class will provide enough time to finish the project. That is the only way I can think of preventing someone from doing all the work.

4. What, if anything, should be done about those students that plagiarized work?
Should Miss Walker have allowed them to edit their work after she found
evidence of plagiarism, or just given them a “0”?
Its hard to say, have these students ever been told that they can't plagiarize? I would say that if students have been introduced to plagiarism then the research that was copied is "useless" and will be blanked out from the document, and an additional 5-10% will be docked from the score (some would say thats harsh, but hey they would learn at least im not letting the person they stole it from sue them). if students had never or were just introduced to plagiarism I would give them one day to make the proper edits. Before the grading above applies.

5. What, if any, other concerns do you envision with the use of wikis?
Public viewing of the wiki's, they would have to be set to private. Also the concern of sabotage, between groups and even group members would be a concern. I also feel like the parent concern would be hard to, being that say you go home as a 6th grader and "mom, im creating a wiki for the whole world to view on the internet" im pretty sure a lot of parents will be concerned about that.