Mrs. Andrade Rules!

Could technology become a nightmare for teachers?

 In the film “Revolution in the classroom and in Social lives,” more and more students struggle to focus and therefore teachers need to do something different.  A social studies teacher quoted “we almost have to be entertainers.”  Students are bored without technology since they consume so much Media every day.  “If there is no media in the classroom is like walking into a desert.” 

Nowadays, students are used to quickness, smart board, podcasts and other things and therefore they don’t read books anymore but instead they look it up in the internet under Sparknotes and it will summarize the entire book for them.  Instead of reading, the students are to busy logged on to My Space or Facebook since they are the most popular networking websites.  Those two sites could become addicting to the students to the point of competing who could get the most friends.  Furthermore, the students would take it as a challenge and therefore be logged on My Space or Facebook even more to try to win the competition distracting them from schoolwork.

The problem is not only that My Space or Facebook distracts the students from school but it is also that they get to personal in these websites and end up in arguments.  It all starts verbally online and could escalate and end up in a fight just like in the video “Revolution in the classroom and Social lives.”  These arguments and fights end up taking place in school, in the middle of a lesson when everybody is in class.  Therefore, I think that all this new technology could become a nightmare for all teachers.

 What is cheating and what is not?

The definition of cheating is… an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition.  Cheating characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one’s own interest, and often at the expense of others.  Cheating implies the breaking of rules.  Plagiarism is a way of cheating and could have serious consequences.  If you are caught plagiarizing, it could result in suspension, a letter drop of your grade or even worst.

Teachers are having trouble deciding what is cheating and what is not.  Students have access to the internet outside of school and they use it to their advantage.  If a book report or any assignment that involves research is given, then students look for the information in the internet and end up plagiarizing.  If the teacher suspects that, the students are not being honest in writing the book report by them then he needs to give them consequences if he finds out that they are being dishonest.

Some teachers are already taking measures in preventing students from cheating.  These teachers are trying to control it by having their students complete their homework assignments in class.  In addition, teachers are now requiring students to summit certain assignments through Turn it in.com.  What this website does is that it searches for familiar words and the teacher identifies if it is plagiarism.  In conclusion, I think that some of the book reports should be given in class so you could prevent the students from having access to other sources.