Today has been a rough day. I had two students that I have a tremendous amount of faith in cheat on an exam. What do I do? Previously, I would have chosen to simply report them so that this is recorded in their academic transcripts. However, I do not want to tarnish their records for life. Thus, I am put into a moral dillema. I have decided to split their grade evenly between the two of them. With half the effort, you get half the grade. I don’t want them to fail my class or to withdraw. So, they will also be required to write a 500-word essay on why cheating is bad. I am hoping from this experience they will have learned their lesson. Afterall, this is the place where we allow them to make mistakes, right? I learned this lesson in first grade. I wrote words on a piece of paper before my first spelling test, and I used it to cheat. The funny thing is, I wrote the words down without looking how to spell them. Well, my first grade teacher busted me. I never forgot that. I hope my students will not forget this.
Archive for September, 2006
I recently spoke to my colleague, Les Stern, about the importance of teaching information and computer literacy in the criminal justice curriculum. Training our future law enforcement officers the fundamentals of computing, information access, and related criminal justice systems ought to be an essential part of the curriculum - we both agree.
I offered to help him develop this curriculum for the Post-Secondary Adult Vocational program at SJRCC. I am not sure this will go anywhere, but I do believe it is an interesting area and research problem. I do not know much about law enforcement, but I do know that our police officers have to make tough decisions everyday in their life. And we all know people must use information and good judgement to make decisions. So where does computing fit in a broad curriculum for training students to be corrections officers, police officers, highway patrol officers, and the future of our domestic saftey.
My friend and future research colleague is completing her PhD in criminal justice also expressed an interest in this initiative. Perhaps we can develop a collaborative grant to pursue the initiative. I am in Tampa tonight to speak with her about it. I think this will be a winner! Well, back to studying for my qualifying exams.
Today, I had a discussion with my boss about the number and types of assignments I have my students complete in their classes. In my classes, I generally have my students complete five to six programming assignments. I usually create my own assignments with the intent of minimizing the amount of busy work my students have to do.
I hate busy work, and I am sure most students do too. However, my boss and a colleague both agree, as well as educational research, that keeping students busy strengthens their work ethic and increases their performance on exams. I have decided to find a happy medium. I am going to have, at minimum, seven assignments in my programming classes from now on with three exams. This way students move in smaller increments, and I am not bombarding them with menial tasks.
Aside from that, I am also working on a paper for my social foundations course and assignment two in my interactive media course. I have to drive to Tampa, again, this weekend. Hopefully, things will slow down after my qualifying exams. Well, back to work.
This is my first official blog entry. My goal is to develop this blog into a useful forum for individuals interested in education, computing, and business and the relationships among these things. I also want to share my ideas, concerns, research, and beliefs with the world. I believe that blogs provide us an opportunity to have a voice… to make a difference. Please check back soon for updates. This is a work in progress and considering I have my qualifying exams this term, I suspect it will be neglected for a little while.