Classrooms that discourage plagiarism and welcome technology

Pearson, Nancy Guillot. (2011). Classrooms that discourage plagiarism and welcome technology. English Journal, 100(6), 54-59.

This article might have been better approached as two articles instead of as one. The author is really talking about two distinct topics: 1) the increasing problem of Internet plagiarism, and the reasons for it, and 2) ways to use technology creatively in the classroom. Combining the two topics in one article kept either topic from being developed in depth. This article gives us only the smallest taste of either topic, and both topics are important enough to warrant articles of their own.

Pearson does try to make the link between the two topics, but that link perhaps needs to be made more explicit, and the connection between the two topics should be smoother. The article almost seemed like a patchwork of two articles, and the shift from causes of plagiarism to ways of teaching with technology occurs quite abruptly and suddenly. Only at the very end of the article was I able to clearly see the point that I think Pearson was trying to make: that one important way of preventing plagiarism is to make more meaningful assignments that students can engage with and take ownership of, and that there are many ways to incorporate technology to make these kinds of assignments.

If I were to divide this article into two, I’d like to see a much deeper examination of the reasons why plagiarism is a growing problem today. That would be a good article in itself. For the second article, I’d like to see the list of “alternative” assignments that incorporate technology be expanded and developed in more detail, with classroom examples and even examples of student work attached. As the current article is, we get not much more than a bullet list of intriguing possibilities, but not much specific information as to how these assignments could be implemented in the classroom.

All in all, this article attacked two good topics, but fell short of fully exploring either one to my satisfaction. As a result, this article was less useful for me than I hoped it would be.