Week Four Case Study Response

Discusson Questions:

1. Mrs. Walker could have handled the plagarism sutuation differently.  Instead of teaching the entire class how to properly cite something, when some of them may already know, she could have asked students individually whether they knew how to cite a source.  She also could have had the students work in groups on a computer to help each other if they need to see how something is done properly. 

2.  I feel like wikis should not be used until students are in at least high school.  If they are used before students are mature enough to understand the responsibility of having an online account, there is a possibility that the privilage could be abused or used in the wrong way.  Also, for the reasons in the case study, students should be in high school.  In most high schools, information about plagarism is drilled into student's minds right off the bat and is constantly reviewed, so teachers wouldn't have to worry as much about whether or not the student knows what they're doing in regards to citing a source.

3.  To ensure that all students are involved in the writing and editing process, teachers can make sure that all students have the information and ability to work on a wiki.  A way to ensure this would be to make sure that all students have the login information so that they can work on the page.  Another thing would maybe be creating class time for students to work on the wiki.  Taking all of the students to a computer lab would give them all equal possibilities to work on it because some of them may not have computers at home or may not feel like they can contribute when they are on their own.

4.  I feel like it could be a touchy situation when it comes to plagarism.  There is a possibility that some of the students genuinely may not know that they plagarized, even if they are in high school.  But if they know how to cite something properly and didn't, then school rules regarding plagarism should be enforced.  Rules should be enforced especially if the students have been told what they were and weren't supposed to do prior to the day that they were caught by their teacher.  For the students that may not know how to cite something properly, they should be given taught what they are supposed to do and then should be held to the same standard as everyone else.

5.  I don't really know what other concerns I personally would have with the use of wikis.  The only things that I can think of are the things mentioned in the case study.  I think that plagarism is very important and needs to be monitored.  And the fact that wikis give students the ability to comment and change things on other's pages could be a problem if that ability is abused. But other than that, I don't see any problems with the use of wikis for school purposes.

Additional Question:
    The thing that really resonnated with me isn't mentioned in the case study very much but I think is important because it is not.  It doesn't say that there was any way to monitor the amount of work each student contributed  so there is not way to know which of the students was responsible for plagarizing in their presentation.  I think that the inablity to see what is going on, to a certain extent, could be damaging to individual students because they could all get in trouble as a response to what one student did.  I do agree with the use of wikis in the classroom because they seem to be good learning tools but I'm not sure how much I would use them.  I worry that certain students could be disadvantaged as a result of wikis used by groups.