Schools use high-tech tools for plagiarism
Sun and weekly Herald
September 19, 2006
By SUSAN E. HOFFMAN, NEIL HUGHES and GABRIELA RAMIREZTurnItIn.com is helpful learning program
* Schools in North Port and Charlotte County are using TurnItIn.com, an Internet program that checks students' papers for materials they have copied from other sources. It is a tool to teach about plagiarism and students can use it to learn to write better papers.
The Internet has made it easy for students to access information about virtually any subject they study.
But with a few clicks of the mouse, it's also possible to find some papers on line, copy the section of interest, paste it into a term paper and pass it off as original work. It's easy and it's wrong. It's called plagiarism.
Now, however, there are some high-tech tools that make it just as easy for teachers to fight plagiarism and teach students what they should and should not do when researching and writing a paper.
TurnItIn.com is a tool that North Port High School has used for five years. It's also being used in Charlotte County schools on a regular basis.
"We don't use it to punish kids," said Donna Day, Instructional Technology facilitator at the school. "We use it as a training tool so they can learn what is and is not OK."
TurnItIn.com is an online program through which students can submit an electronic version of a term paper. The program uses a database of countless books, articles and other published sources, including papers previously submitted by other students from all over the world. In mere seconds, the software identifies sections of the paper that appear to have been copied from other sources.
Day said the program is often used by the school's history, science and English teachers. For example, Worth David has his history students submit the first draft of their papers through TurnItIn.com, so they can see what portions might raise questions. This gives them the opportunity to make corrections before submitting the final version.
"Some students think that just because you can do it (copy and paste from other sources), it must be OK," Day said. "This program is a tool to teach them they should not be copying, and shows them how they can cite other material."
Jennifer Wood, who teaches sophomore biology, uses the program in her class for one big paper the students turn for the semester. "I find that often students have learned how to write an original paper in their English classes, but they have not yet learned how to transfer those skills to other studies," she said.
"It's not like I'm tying to catch them," Wood said. "But when their paper goes through TurnItIn, the students seem surprised at how much it catches."
The program even shows when a student has merely paraphrased someone else's work. "I hope they retain these skills as they go on in school," Wood said.
Charlotte County's three high schools have been using TurnItIn.com for more than a year, said Rene Desjardins, the district's assistant superintendent for learning.
Charlotte County Public Schools, like North Port, see the site as a learning tool, rather than a way to catch students who plagiarize.
The difficulty in catching plagiarism is a factor, Desjardins said, especially when teachers are grading dozens of papers.
"It's guilty only if you get caught," he said. "What we'd rather do is tell the kids up front that we're using TurnItIn.com, let them do their work, submit it into TurnItIn.com, see if they've made any errors in documentation. If they have to fix it, do it, and then turn it in."
The district's up-front policy is fair, cuts down on plagiarism and educates, he said.
"You would have to be pretty slow or really defiant to turn in a plagiarized paper," Desjardins said.
David said many of his honors students will go on to college. "Their professors will use this system to check their papers, so it helps them to learn at this level."
David said last year, out of about 60 students in two classes, only four or five had serious copying problems, and the students learned how to correct them. "It was a real 'teachable moment,'" he said. He also teaches students how to properly document their sources.
Students seem mixed in their assessment of TurnItIn.com.
"It's not an effective say of detecting plagiarism because little words like 'and' and 'but' sometimes come up as (being) plagiarized," said Sheresa Mesquita, 17, a senior at North Port High. She admitted the program gave her an idea how to cite references in her papers.
But North Port senior Christie Calabro, 17, said the program "helped me see what information I needed to twitch and cite appropriately before the final copy was due." Calabro said she thought it was beneficial to students, but if the grade is based on the amount of work plagiarized, "some might be in trouble."
More tools
Both school districts have accounts with TurnItIn.com and students can sign on at the school or from their home computers. Teachers can also have the papers submitted electronically through the system, allowing them to run the same plagiarism check the students can.
The Internet offers a wealth of other resources for students for schools to use.
"We have a subscription to AtomicLearning.com" at North Port High, Day said. This site has Internet lessons about hundreds of topics, from bridge to Photoshop.
Day said the school has also purchased the right to use Blackboard.com, an Internet program that will let teachers put entire classes on line, as well as give students access to many other courses. There are links to FCAT study guides and many research tools.
"The Internet has made it easy for students to copy others' work," Day said, "but it also gives us some great learning tools. We look at TurnItIn.com as just another tool to help students learn."