Listening to students

Wired Campus, The Chronicle of Higher Education, has great post and accompanying video featuring the use of technology in the classroom created by group of students at the University of Denver.

"The video was inspired by a recent survey of classroom technology use at the university. Over all, the survey found that while many students wish for more technology, others would be happy with less, considering it a distraction. And while some professors are Luddites, others have eagerly jumped on board and wish their students would catch up." - Class Produces Parody, 2/9/10

After the eTech conference earlier this month, I have a plethora of new resources and technology ideas for both classroom and library. But using technology simply for the sake of using technology is not right for anyone. There needs to be reason, focus, and purpose; finding that technology balance is an ongoing process.

The dog ate my homework

One of the more interesting posts in my bloglines account this morning was from Wired Campus: 'The Computer Ate My Homework': How to Detect Fake Techno-Excuses. It's a report on a new web site, Corrupted-Files.com, that will (for a price) create a corrupted file for students to submit to instructors. Instead of missing a deadline or imagining an excuse, this web site enables purchasers to turn in that assignment in a completely unreadable format.

Q: Is this cheating?

A: It's a fine line… It's basically just a good excuse vs. outright cheating but even though you are handing in your own work, you are getting an unfair advantage so by that definition, yes you are cheating. Please ask your professors for an extension before you use a corrupted file. This is meant to be used as a last resort, a one time thing, not a crutch! Everyone is entitled to a second chance, but not a third. - Corrupted Files.com, FAQ's Page

Putting aside for a minute the interesting ethics of the FAQ's page and tentative contact information site disclaimer, the Wired Campus post and it's subsequent comments make good points regarding plagiarism and cheating. I particularly enjoyed the comment from a user who puts this statement in his/her syllabus: "Any corrupted files are YOUR responsibility. Check your outbox after you send the file, open the attachment. Any files I cannot open will receive a zero." Plain, simple, to the point.

The site offers a wide variety of customized corrupted files (the list is rather extensive) with a 12 hours turn-around and 100% satisfaction guaranteed; if you have that much time, just finish the assignment.

Brown Bag, lunch?

Brown Bag is a new feature offered by The Chronicle Wired Campus Blog:

"Join Chronicle editors every Thursday at noon, starting this week, for The Brown Bag, a new live chat on higher education’s hot topics. Every week we will be joined by an expert from the world of higher-education finance and technology to answer your questions about recent news and to share ideas on how you can run
your institution more effectively." - The Chronicle Wired, 9/6/06

This announcement falls into the "it's a small world" category because the featured speaker is from Case Western Reserve University, Lev S. Gonick, vice president for information-technology services and chief information officer and Rebecca works at CWRU.

Tags: Library Cloud, Chronicle of Higher Education, Chronicle Wired, Academics, Education