There is nothing more frustrating as an on call teacher than seeing students who are ill prepared for the realities of academic life. I have encountered countless senior students who are unable to properly find, let alone, vet, quote, and cite academic sources. For some reason students think that if they are offering a presentation, particularly PowerPoint presentation, the usual quotation and citation requirements do not apply. Students “borrow” freely, usually from various online sources, academic or otherwise, and do not seem to understand the concept of intellectual property. Students need to understand that by upholding and contributing to the protection of intellectual property rights they are doing something valuable, something honorable. They are actively and thoughtfully participating in upholding an important system of values. Not simply the cultural values of the academic world, but also the wider world. If we as a society no longer fight to protect the sanctity of personal intellectual products, what value do creativity and creation have?
And, so, I am struggling. I want to do something for my final project that will not only be personally meaningful, instructive, and motivating, but will also be of value to my future school library program and students. I created a blog last summer that focused on research, writing, and referencing processes and skills. And, I will admit, it is a dry read. Which is partially why I would like to upgrade, update, reevaluate what I have created in order to make some much needed changes. The focus of my group and personal inquiry has been the use of social media in the classroom, so I would love to look for ways to make this project more social and interactive. Ideally, I would like to have students creating, posting, and curating the content of such a project, but as I have no school, let alone class, to work with that is not an immediate reality. I can see the value of providing information, and guidance really, about the use of these important processes and skills, but I am not sure how to approach or present the necessary information.
We often hear educators complaining about students’ lack of skill with regards to appropriate attribution and citations. Often the complaint is framed as a moral or ethical deficiency – the students know better but they choose to flaunt the rules. Given how widespread the problem is, and how it can seriously harm a students’ academic career, there is great need to address the education of students, and teachers, on how to build good online academic habits.