How to prevent accidental plagiarism in an online world

BY LESLEY VOS, eSchool News

Students write a lot, and the issue of plagiarism (or, at least, wrong paraphrasing) remains topical. As educators, what can you do to help students avoid the problem? Everything starts with suspicion. You take a student’s essay, start reading it, and it doesn’t feel right. The writing structure, word constructions, and deductions are unlike this mentee of yours! You go to PlagiarismCheck, Copyscape, or any other resource to check that essay for plagiarism and…ta da! You were right. The essay has obvious signs of plagiarism. Don’t hurry up to blame a student. They might plagiarize accidentally. A responsible educator, you can help students write original academic papers and teach them to distinguish whether they opine on the topic or simply paraphrase statements, taken from third party sources. Here’s how.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/05/04/prevent-accidental-plagiarism/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=27566

Google Adds Safety Feature to Android Gmail App After E-Mail Phishing Attack

By Sri Ravipati, THE Journal

A word of warning: If there is an e-mail in your inbox asking you to open a Google Doc from someone, don’t open it. A day after the recent attack, Google rolled out a new safeguard to its Android Gmail app. The phishing scam attempted to hack a user’s Google account after the user clicks a link that appears to be from a trusted individual. Google was able to stop the attack after about 1 million (just 0.1 percent) of all Gmail users had seen one of the e-mails. Now with the Gmail app updates, when a phony link appears in an e-mail, Google will warn the user, with an alert: “The site you are trying to visit has been identified as a forgery intended to trick you into disclosing financial, personal or other sensitive information.”

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/05/04/google-adds-safety-feature-to-android-gmail-app-after-email-phishing-attack.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=27551

6 South Carolina High Schools Will Launch Aerospace Curriculum This Fall

By Sri Ravipati, THE Journal

A group of South Carolina companies called SC Aerospace, supported by the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness and the South Carolina Department of Commerce, are introducing an aerospace curriculum in six high schools. This fall, each of the following schools will receive $50,000 from the South Carolina Department of Education to cover course costs

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/05/10/6-south-carolina-high-schools-to-launch-aerospace-curriculum-this-fall.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=27541

Using MOOC Data for Your Benefit

by Lee Maxey, Chief Learning Officer

If chief learning officers could tap into research showing how people are learning most effectively online, it could greatly improve learning content. By talking to universities about their approach to, and results from, online learning, CLOs could change the way their learning and development teams design courses and think about learning. For instance, a plethora of schools publish massive open online courses, or MOOCs. Organizations like edX, launched by Harvard University and MIT, have added dozens of leading schools to present free courses online. Coursera and Udacity have, too. Each of these organizations, and the schools that supply courses, extract heaps of data about what people are clicking on to learn, which in turn demonstrates retention rates. If learning leaders want to understand this data, they can start by contacting the person running the MOOCs for, say, HarvardX or the Harvard Business School. Boston’s Berkelee College of Music supplies MOOCs via something akin to a startup, which is run from within the school itself.

http://www.clomedia.com/2016/05/13/using-mooc-data-for-your-benefit/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15864

NComputing provides easy access to Windows on Chromebook

by eSchool News

NComputing has launched the Chromebook CX110 and Chrome app, giving U.S. schools the ability to easily run Windows applications on their Chromebooks. More than half of all computers used in U.S. K-12 schools are Chromebooks, and now NComputing Chromebooks – with the vSpace client – provides easy, multi-user access to the Windows, Java or Silverlight applications often necessary for learning and testing applications. vSpace software benefits schools by providing a centrally managed, reliable and scalable solution that delivers as many as one hundred individual Windows desktops from a single computer. This creates a cost-effective and easy-to-deploy solution for schools who can now use a single Chromebook device to access all their ChromeOS and Windows applications.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2016/05/13/company-provides-a-windows-desktop-on-chromebooks/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15861

Social media’s top 50 colleges and universities

BY RONALD BETHKE, eCampusNews

Engagement, impact and responsiveness were all key to landing a spot on the list of the best institutions on social media. Technology and data company Engagement Labs released its 2016 ranking of the top 50 U.S. colleges and universities on social media networks Facebook and Twitter. As the higher education landscape becomes more competitive than ever, social media has become an increasingly important way for colleges and universities to gain an edge over one another. Social media is especially helpful for schools not only with regards to recruitment and retention, but also to communicate with current and prospective students in a timely and effective manner that matches their tastes.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/social-media-colleges/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15859

Video game could transform middle school students’ online learning

by Nathan Hurst, University of Missouri Columbia

With more middle school students learning online every year, experts have identified a growing need for high-quality educational approaches that take advantage of current technology. The Department of Education recently awarded a group of researchers at the University of Missouri $2.7 million to support the development of an educational video game for middle school distance learners. Through playing the game, students will learn lessons about water systems and practice scientific argumentation. Teachers can monitor students’ progress and intervene during the game to support the individual needs of each student.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-05/uom-vgc051415.php

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8 Must-Have Google Chrome Apps for Students

By Pamela DeLoatch, Edudemic

It’s not easy being a student. As classes, athletics, and extracurricular activities become more demanding, even the most conscientious students can have difficulty prioritizing and focusing on their work. Fortunately, for this technology savvy generation, there are a host of tools that can help students stay on top of their game. Google Chrome, the free web browser, offers applications (but if you don’t want the kids to laugh at you, be sure to call them apps), that function like software programs in the computer. With these apps, you and your students can get work done more quickly and easily. Although many apps are mostly for fun, others can be extremely effective in helping students stay organized and productive.

http://www.edudemic.com/8-must-have-google-chrome-apps-for-students/

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Intel grants $5M for computer science program

By Doug Oakley, The Oakland Tribune

McClymonds and Oakland Technical high schools in California will share a $5 million grant over five years to grow computer science and engineering programs, courtesy of tech giant Intel. With the Intel grant, the Oakland Unified School District this year has accepted about $28 million from organizations interested in sponsoring different programs this year including an $11 million grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies to develop pathways to careers in the health industry and a $5 million grant from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation for early learning. Intel will help the two schools develop curriculum, buy computers, train teachers and offer employee mentors and job shadowing programs. Officials hope it will produce 600 college ready graduates who will seek college degrees and careers in engineering and computer science.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/05/14/intel-computer-science-049/

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5 Online Tools to Help Combat Plagiarism

by Melissa Burns, Edutopia

All K-12 educators know how students are complaining about the piles of homework they get. If you ask for their opinion, teachers will tell you that they don’t assign more homework than students can handle, but they do have trouble convincing them to pay attention to even the simplest assignments. All students complain when they need to write an essay. Some will fail to deliver it, and others will deliver what educators hate the most — a plagiarized paper. You can never be sure whether or not a student has worked on an assignment all by him- or herself, but at least you can be sure that the content is unique. There are many modern tools that help you discover copied sentences and paragraphs, so your job is to make students understand that they should start thinking with their own heads. Using other people’s words as their own won’t take them anywhere.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/online-tools-to-combat-plagiarism-melissa-burns

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Providing Feedback on Student Writing and Video

By Greg Kulowiec, Edudemic

Providing timely and effective feedback on student work is a critical component to any classroom. As students increasingly operate and create in a digital environment, emerging tools provide unique new opportunities for teachers to provide feedback on both written work and video projects. Here are some technologies that will help you.

http://www.edudemic.com/providing-feedback-student-writing-video/

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But Is That Ethical? Ask This App

by Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The disclaimer on Santa Clara University’s new mobile app strikes an ominous tone: “In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website/app.” The Santa Clara ethicists hope that people who make decisions that will change lives—business leaders, hospital administrators, and school officials, for instance—will use the app as a guide. The Ethical Decision Making app is an attempt to bring applied ethics into 21st century. It is not so much a Magic 8-Ball as a pocket Socrates, which is to say the app asks more questions than it answers. The idea is that someone facing a decision can use it to evaluate each possible option. Once the user gets past the disclaimer, the app asks him or her to list all the stakeholders in the decision. The app then asks the user to consider the implications of the option at hand according to five categories of “good.”

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/but-is-that-ethical-ask-this-app/52717

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