Comments on: Big week for the open dictionary http://www.k12opened.com/blog/archives/106 A blog for reflecting on the opportunities and challenges in open education Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:45:54 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Algot Runeman http://www.k12opened.com/blog/archives/106/comment-page-1#comment-392 Algot Runeman Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:21:29 +0000 http://www.k12opened.com/blog/archives/106#comment-392 Along the way to modern education, we have encountered a major stumbling block. It is called "plagiarism" and does damage to students when they knowingly copy text verbatim from a source. However, big however, standing on the shoulders of our predecessors is the best way to make progress. Students need to have sources that can be gathered together and presented as what they are: a mashup which effectively illustrates the concept being discussed in the "research" paper. I suspect that the younger a student is, the less strenuous the effort of the teacher in chastising plagiarism. Of course, the level of writing expected of young students is not very high. Educators gradually ramp up the expectations as the years in school advance. Effective mashup is rarely, if at all, encouraged. Because each individual student needs to develop his or her writing skills, contributing to a group writing project probably isn't very often encouraged by teachers. Teachers, the educators we are trying to get involved in these group projects, the dictionary, textbooks, etc. are a product of the current education system. Writing this comment has made me wonder if our educational system has begun to fall behind the availability of information. When teachers were the "smartest" people in town and books were difficult to access, the process of enlightening children relied less on research papers, I would bet, and writing was assigned that asked students to tell about things they knew (think 4H, perhaps). Today, the volume of accessible information has grown beyond the ability of teachers to easily verify the students' sources, much less quickly check to be sure long passages are not quoted verbatim. Of course, we want to have students explore beyond their neighborhoods. We say students should be "citizens of the world" and this DEMANDS that students study and write about more than they used to. Naturally, we want students to explore, but are we up to the task of keeping up with the explorations of the best of our students? Finally, will contributing to open education attract teachers who have been "kept in line" by their own teachers in the past and whose own current school districts define the acceptable curriculum, especially in states with high stakes testing like Massachusetts, USA with its MCAS? Well, there will be some, rebels who challenge the norms. It feels good to be a rebel. Let's get to work. Along the way to modern education, we have encountered a major stumbling block. It is called “plagiarism” and does damage to students when they knowingly copy text verbatim from a source. However, big however, standing on the shoulders of our predecessors is the best way to make progress. Students need to have sources that can be gathered together and presented as what they are: a mashup which effectively illustrates the concept being discussed in the “research” paper. I suspect that the younger a student is, the less strenuous the effort of the teacher in chastising plagiarism. Of course, the level of writing expected of young students is not very high. Educators gradually ramp up the expectations as the years in school advance. Effective mashup is rarely, if at all, encouraged. Because each individual student needs to develop his or her writing skills, contributing to a group writing project probably isn’t very often encouraged by teachers.

Teachers, the educators we are trying to get involved in these group projects, the dictionary, textbooks, etc. are a product of the current education system. Writing this comment has made me wonder if our educational system has begun to fall behind the availability of information. When teachers were the “smartest” people in town and books were difficult to access, the process of enlightening children relied less on research papers, I would bet, and writing was assigned that asked students to tell about things they knew (think 4H, perhaps).

Today, the volume of accessible information has grown beyond the ability of teachers to easily verify the students’ sources, much less quickly check to be sure long passages are not quoted verbatim. Of course, we want to have students explore beyond their neighborhoods. We say students should be “citizens of the world” and this DEMANDS that students study and write about more than they used to. Naturally, we want students to explore, but are we up to the task of keeping up with the explorations of the best of our students?

Finally, will contributing to open education attract teachers who have been “kept in line” by their own teachers in the past and whose own current school districts define the acceptable curriculum, especially in states with high stakes testing like Massachusetts, USA with its MCAS?

Well, there will be some, rebels who challenge the norms. It feels good to be a rebel. Let’s get to work.

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