Patry shares a good story about a high school student who risked a failing grade by not “turning it [her paper] in” to the plagiarism checking service. He closes with an analysis I completely agree with (and even uses the correct pluralization of “bravo”):
Brava to the student, her teacher, and her supportive father. I have complained numerous times about efforts to “educate” students about copyright. Teaching students that they have to agree to whatever terms a private company imposes on them because their own school district will refuse to award a grade unless they do, teaches, in my opinion, the wrong message: first, it assumes all students are cheats; second, it teaches them that their own teachers are willing to abdicate their responsibility to private companies; and third, it teaches them their own teachers do not care what the terms imposed by those private companies are. I don’t think those are the value we want our students to learn.
Sirius Buyout of Rival XM Approved - New York Times
For those (Chairman Martin?) who would rather trust antitrust law over FCC oversight…
The merger was approved without conditions despite opposition from consumer groups and an intense lobbying campaign by the land-based radio industry.
FCC approves new method for tracking broadband’s reach | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
This is good news… after all, if you’re going to do a study, you might as well get the best data you can.
Salon calls out a Time magazine journalist for his factual errors and sloppy journalism. It sounds to me more like an editorial disguised as journalism. The author misses the Time magazine connection to TimeWarner’s telecommunication services. There’s likely no conspiracy here, but the synergy deserves to at least be acknowledged.
TheStar.com | GTA | Student faces Facebook consequences
A Ryerson University student is facing academic misconduct charges for organizing a Facebook group for fellow chemistry students to “get help with some of the questions the professor would give students to do online.” As he describes it:
“So we each would be given chemistry questions and if we were having trouble, we’d post the question and say: `Does anyone get how to do this one? I didn’t get it right and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.’ Exactly what we would say to each other if we were sitting in the Dungeon [a physical study space],” said Avenir yesterday.
I can see that the prof might be worried about an online version of answer keys that I’ve been told have been popular in fraternities for years. Yet if this is a method of studying that students find valuable, and they go about it in an honest way, it should be encouraged…especially since they’re going to do it anyway. It might be more work for an instructor to structure questions so that answers can’t be shared, but it’s work that all students would benefit from.
