Doug Johnson

The Fence or the Ambulance: Are You Punishing or Preventing Plagiarism in Your School?

Too much effort is expended in education trying to catch plagiarism in student work. Teachers and media specialists are using various web services and techniques using search engines to determine if or how much of student writing is lifted from online sources. While such tools are necessary and can be effective, educators should also be creating assignments, especially those that involve research, that minimize the likelihood of plagiarism in the first place. This workshop gives teachers the tools that help them design LPP (Low Probability of Plagiarism) projects that require original, thoughtful research.

Handouts:
    Fence or the Ambulance
    Fence or the Ambulance (1 page)

Written comments about this presentation:

• You engaged me from the minute you introduced your wife to us and then introduced your children to us in your address. I have a great passion and  appreciation for true stories and from that moment on you had me. … I don’t want to go on but thank you for the long trip down to Perth it is appreciated more than you will ever know. I have come home from the function tonight, feeling full of joy for the job that I do and I can’t wait for tomorrow for the rest of the conference.
• Better than I expected and I expected a lot.
• I attended your workshop on designing assignments to help prevent plagiarism at NECC. I really enjoyed your presentation. I am using what I learned from your workshop to create a workshop to help teachers design better assignments. The workshop will look at assignment design, improving  research skills to help students understand the process of research, evaluate resources, organize information.
• We are combining the process with software that allows students to check their work against plagiarism software. (Mydropbox.com) A teacher from schools using the plagiarism software will need to attend a workshop on improving assignment design to get access to the software.