Turnitin
It is hard to give an opinion about purchase or not the Turnitin software just watching a preview, because we are not talking about any technological resource. In fact, we must decide if this product it is or not the best solution to stop the students’ cheating. From this point of view, I can imagine the education world working better with technologies, but I cannot imagine the students learning life’s values from the computers.
On the other hand, I think to purchase Turnitin could stop the plagiarism in any context or educational level, but it is only a temporary solution. Even though the best advantage of Turnitin is to compare the students’ papers with internet documents, this is its Achilles’ heel at the same time, because the software it is not able to check the authenticity of the ideas if those ideas cannot be founded in the World Wide Web.
Wanting to improve the quality of the mark process, we could fall easily in a never-ending hunting; altering the essence of the educational process, which is training people in the context of the values of a specific culture. The assessment plays an important role in the entire teaching and learning process; even that, it should be just a tool and not a goal. That is my reason to not recommend purchase Turniting.com at any educational level.
I believe the following strategies are most important to encourage original work and discourage plagiarism:
1. Providing appropriate spaces to create. With this resource the teachers can reinforce the concept of Academic Honesty in their students.
2. Giving to the students the required knowledge to obtain the best support using internet to research at any topic.
3. Watching carefully the assessment and introducing changes to improve this process according to the characteristics of each class.
Finally, I think technology can support those strategies if the teachers are able to integrate it into the classroom such as a regular tool to learn. Therefore, the students will understand that computers and Internet are valuable and useful resources and not only last-minute solutions.
Re: Turnitin
Hello Yorka, I would have to agree with you, purchasing Turitin is not the solution to a bigger problem. We need to decide what values we want to teach our children. I do more than just teach academics to my students; many values that are instilled in young children have not been taught to my students. Some days I do not even teach academics, they come second to behavior and emotional problems. Until we can teach children what their parents are not teaching them, we cannot focus on academics. Computers should be used as a tool to learn, not as the only source. Computers need to be integrated into each classroom; they should not just be a new class. If values are instilled at a young age and we teach our students to take pride in their work we may lesson the practice of plagiarism, however I don't think we ever prevent it from happening by using an on line tool.
Denise McCall
Re: Michelle Burrill - Turnitin(Reply)
Hi Michelle
As a teacher I would like to appreciate Turnitin like a useful tool in a higher institution. But if the students are able to submit intentionally papers that are not authentic, I can easily imagine them paying others for their authentic papers and ideas to avoid be detected by Turnitin.
I think the technology is a great resource supporting the teacher’s work, but in this specific topic I believe the teacher cannot be replaced by the computer to assess the papers. Probably the biggest goal is to recover the value of the relationship among the teachers and their students based on the truth and trust.
Re: Why I would not buy or use Turnitin(Reply)
Hi Bill
Usually teachers are thinking in the student’s duties. With your arguments you made me think in the “student’s rights”. Thank you!