INTRODUCTION Teaching students whose technological skills far surpass our own creates interesting dilemmas for educators. We assign our traditional research questions, whereupon students submit wonderful work that we know is the result of internet searching, “cut and paste,” and a little slick polishing. Much of what is handed in is beyond the experience of the average classroom teacher who is too busy to spend the time upgrading her internet and technology skills. We are often too easily impressed by what appears to be the resourcefulness of our students. But today it is easy to download assignments, customized as they are by services that can be accessed at home and at school.
The Beating the Cheating Webquest was designed by secondary classroom teachers learning about information literacy in a UBC summer course, The Information Literate School Community, taught by visiting professor Dr. James Henri from Charles Sturt University in New South Wales. We are “technology neophytes” but we too have seen the “downloaded” assignment and grappled with the problems of assessment. We hope that your time spent on our webquest will be worthwhile professional development, as well as an interesting journey into cyberspace and “hyperlearning.” TASK You are a member of your school’s Professional Development Committee. The Staff at your school have been grumbling about the problems of increasing student plagiarism from the internet sources readily available to them. You have agreed to review your present practices and the school and District policies on cheating. You will be presenting some constructive and proactive strategies for your colleagues and some suggestions for how practice and policies might be revised. Your “search” for ideas will take you to some interesting sites. At each of these, you will answer some questions and evaluate your present approach, in light of the information you find there. You will:
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Be engaged in a webquest
Evaluate webquests as learning strategies
Visit
various websites
Gather
information and ideas to “cheat-proof” learning opportunities
