Spoken Notes – A New Turnitin.com Feature

Yesterday I wrote about the challenges teachers and administration face due to issue of cheating and getting around Turnitin.com‘s algorithms.

Something released a month ago appeared on my radar today: spoken notes that can be attached by a teacher. My reaction was “Niiice!”

Check out the short demonstration video below:

Questions for you

Are you using turnitin.com for your papers?

Is turnitin.com the equivalent of using a chainsaw to cut a piece of paper for your needs? If so, what do you use to provide feedback/suggestions?

Cheating Turnitin.com

Thanks fo the recent article from eCampus News titled “The top 10 ways college students plagiarize” I am now in the loop on cheating.

Cheating happens but with the advent of so many new types of software and sources of information determining if something is original or a copy isn’t the easiest of things to do. Turnitin.com aims to resolve that issue for schools.

Students on the other hand have people from all around the world trying to make Turnitin.com into nothing but a blip in the radar.

Following instructions in text can sometimes be confusing so countless videos have been posted to sites like YouTube and metacafe instructing anyone how to get around Turnitin.com’s algorithms. Of course it is all presented as information only. I should say the posters who think ahead include that brief note. 😉

One video I watched had over 11k views. Does the method still work? It’s possible though Turnitin.com will continue to improve their software and those trying to get around the algorithm will find other ways to win.

This was something new for me because of the unique projects that Sarah Lawrence has taking place in the classroom. Very few projects are copyable which means students have to do research for their papers.

Questions for you

Have you seen anyone get or try to get around Turnitin.com or other software like it?

What software is used at your school?

Resume Fabrication

Recently, Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson’s incorrect resume caught the tech world by storm. What did he do wrong?

According to his resume he has a computer science degree. Whoops, he doesn’t, even though that detail was included in an SEC filing and in several public bios. Walk that one back why don’t ya.

This week at Sarah Lawrence College students are preparing to walk at commencement and then off into the working world. On their resumes are internships, part time jobs and various skill sets that will hopefully help them find a job so they can begin paying off their student loans, buy dinner, and do something fun with their friends.

At a large company like Yahoo! one might think that this kind of thing wouldn’t happen… Ever!

What does this mean for the recent graduate who may have been manipulating their online presence during the time as an under-grad. Is that even possible? Better yet, will an employer care?

Recent graduates are not expected to have years worth of job history on their resume. It is a foot in the door that will help them sell their amazing skills. Some fields require extensive proof of training but at a liberal arts institution the sky is the limit and you never know what you’re going to see on someone’s resume.

Do students manipulate their resume to stand out? Is someone going to check to see if everything on the resume is true?

I think I’ll end with a bigger question, are resume’s becoming a thing of the past due to social media and online reputation options?

Goodbye Campus Network Storage?

With a one-two-three the need for network storage may have just become a thing of the past.

• Dropbox, the market mindshare leader, released and announced a series of updates.
• Microsoft sneakily beat Google to the punch by announcing an update to their Skydrive.
• And lastly, Google finally announced their fabled G: Drive.

Here is the quick

• Dropbox now makes it easier than ever to use their website and to share files with anyone. Their free limit is still 2 GB though .edu email addresses provide 500 MB of free storage for each referral.
• Microsoft’s Skydrive provides 7 GB of storage space and is incorporated into Office which means it’s easier than ever to have access to your documents. But take note, their Skydrive app is only available on OS X 10.7.
• Google Drive provides 5 GB of storage space for free and syncs with a Google Account. A quick thought, .edu’s using Google Apps, this is for you.

The Questions

How much network storage is needed on-campus, especially at small colleges/universities, when products that provide more and more storage for free?

Of course, this approach puts data off-site but isn’t most of it already not on a campus network drive when it comes to students and faculty?

Students have trouble when a machine dies because their work is on their personal computer and faculty often has trouble when a laptop, that has been provided to them by the school, dies. Faculty using desktops in their office often don’t use the network drive and lose their data because it’s not on the network.

Would it be easier for support staff on the client side and the network side to say, “Install this and save all your documents in X folder. If anything goes wrong with the computer or if you work on another computer, tablet, or smartphone you will have access to the most recent version of your files.”

Schools cannot compete with the development cycle of large companies like Dropbox, Microsoft, and Google and yet the people they need to support are using tools built by these companies more and more.

Bandwidth? It is mostly eaten up by video not documents so there should be little issue there.

Your Take

• Has your school moved to an off-site solution for document storage for a small/medium/large school?
• Which service(s) were considered?
• What reasons would keep your institution from moving to this type of model?

Historical Map Images on the Web and in Google Earth

Have you ever had a faculty member or a student ask you how they could see what something looked like in the past in a certain part of the world?

There are many resources on the web to see how things use to be. Some are limited, some are expansive. Here are a few that I’ve found and used in the classroom.

• http://welikia.org/ – Ever wondered what New York looked like before it was a city?  Welcome to Welikia, 1609.
• http://www.racontours.com/archive/map_animations.php – Animated maps
• http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/26/us/20091126-search-graphic.html – What’s Cooking on Thanksgiving
• http://traintimes.org.uk:81/map/tube/ – Live train map for the London Underground
• http://trendsmap.com/ – Real-time mapping of Twitter trends across the world.
• http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/06/05/books/20050605_BOOKMAP_GRAPHIC.html – A literary map of Manhattan

One that stands out to me is Google Earth’s historical map data.

Embedded in the Google Earth app is global imagery and even contains balloon images taken by the Joe on the street. There is information on how you can make your own balloon with little expense to you or your institution. Source: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2012/04/balloon-and-kite-imagery-in-google.html

Here is a brief Google Early how-to video to view historical maps.

Other resources

What map sites or resources do you use in the classroom or recommend to students and faculty?

Yawn. It’s 4/20.

It’s the big day when 4/20 makes it’s way into the main stream media and college students are presented as pot smoking hippies.

Yawn.

The ultimate 420 moment just passed by and I can say that I did not see any large groups outside or anyone flocking to be outside at 4:20 on 4/20.

Even in the social media circles, 4/20 is a ‘meh’ item that only a few people mention in passing.

This is one of those times where the press makes the news. Students are not always looking to get wasted.

Put a lid on the advertising posts and just enjoy the day.

Knowing Vs. Perceiving the Needs of Students

I’d like to open up the topic of knowing versus perceiving.

What would you say if I were I to ask you:

Do students use a laptop, tablet, or smartphone more?

It’s a bit of a tricky question because there is no context, though there are many in decision making positions at edu’s that have to rely on personal awareness, experience, observation, anticipated needs, and any number of other concerns before deciding to embark on a change of the infrastructure.

For the past 4 years a technology survey has been conducted here at SLC and we’ve learned some surprising things.

• Wireless was not only a technology of interest, it was imperative that it be in place everywhere.
• Students like ebooks but aren’t interested in ereaders/tablets.
• The scale of tech needed is not as dynammic or vast as a techy deciding what to purchase might think it to be.
• Students are thrilled by Google Apps as their email and they use it as a backup for their work.
• We now have a very accurate number of computers and other handheld tech that is brought to campus by students.

While we could have taken feedback from a number of students regarding wireless and extrapolated the needs, having the data provided decision makers on the tech and financial front what should take priority.

Other pieces of information were less obvious, especially the ebook interest, until it was discussed with students. Students need access to multiple books/documents in a classroom and ereaders limit their ability to flip to and from the key sections of text that they need when they need it in class. Books are still very popular because of this.

I wonder…

• What mechanisms are you using to gauge technical desire and/or needs?
• How involved are students, faculty and staff in new technology decisions?
• What mistakes were made because there was no data or interest in a technology acquisition?

I welcome any thoughts on the idea of knowing vs. perceiving the needs of students at an edu.

The Printer is Going Wireless

Google released “Cloud Printing” today for Windows users. Read the announcement here: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/print-from-your-phone-with-gmail-for.html

This means you can be on the road and print your important document at your printer of choice. It’s that simple. No biggie, right? Of course the printer is going wireless, isn’t everything?

It’s time to install the application and print while on the way to school/work! Hold that thought.

Academia is often slower to deploy such eye popping technologies for a variety of reasons, support being one of the biggest. Security is incredibly important and the I.T. world is not known for it’s rapid deployment of new technologies. The path followed is likely to be described as “Tried and true.” It’s safe and it’s proven. Two words a CIO will like.

What is the present state of printing at your institution?

• Can you print via the wireless network?
• Can you print from a laptop via Ethernet or wireless?
• Can you print to any printer or only a select printer?
• Do you have to swipe a card to release a job?

What would be the best solution for you – students, faculty, staff?

Students are going mobile – Duh

A growing trend is the mobile/hand-held market. Businesses know this. Google and Apple are competing for the mobile advertising crown and smart phones are selling in big numbers. A prediction I read yesterday places the smart phone at 50% of the market in the USA by the end of 2011.

Students are going mobile. Schools need to pay attention to this and get relevant information to students for reasons including: communication, retention, community, feedback, etc. When should this be done? ASAP.

For the past two years Sarah Lawrence College has polled its student body about a number of technical items including cell phones, texting, etc.

Looking at some of the highlights (significant increases, +6% or more, are bolded)…

Responses (of apprx 1500 total both years):

• 2008-2009 – 565
• 2009-2010 – 332

Computer ownership:

• 2008-2009 – 98%
• 2009-2010 – 97%

Cellphone ownership:

• 2008-2009 – Cell phone 80% Phone in residence (aka landline) 1% Both 16%
• 2009-2010 – Cell phone 80% Phone in residence (aka landline) 1% Both 12%

Carrier:

• 2008-2009 – Verizon 41% Cingular 35%
• 2009-2010 – Verizon 41% Cingular 32%

Receiving text messages:

• 2008-2009 – Once/day 13% Several times/day 62% Several times/week 12%
• 2009-2010 – Once/day 8% Several times/day 73% Several times/week 6%

Sending text messages:

• 2008-2009 – Once/day 16% Several times/day 58% Several times/week 10%
• 2009-2010 – Once/day 9% Several times/day 70% Several times/week 5%

Email checked via cell phone:

• 2008-2009 – Y –  22% N – 73%
• 2009-2010 – Y – 30% N – 61%

Web accessed via cell phone:

• 2008-2009 – Y – 23% N – 72%
• 2009-2010 – Y – 32% N – 60%

Non-iPhone

• 2008-2009 – 8%
• 2009-2010 – 14%

iPhone

• 2008-2009 – 12%
• 2009-2010 – 13%

iPod touch ownership:

• 2008-2009 – 10%
• 2009-2010 – 17%

Reviewing the data, our students are sending and receiving multiple text messages per day via their smart phone or iPod Touch and checking their email and browsing the web more using hand held devices. This is not outlier data. Next year I anticipate even higher use of text messaging and hand held web browsing.

What does this mean to SLC and to you (other institutions and companies)?

Now, yes now, is the time to begin implementing technologies that will be, at least, one-way communication with your constituents. They want to know what is going on and expect that we will provide the solution.

Emergency/weather notification systems are all the fad in the academic world. But students want more. They WANT to know more, to stay connected. An opt-in service is a best bet because there is no possible way to know what every student does/does not want.

I have just re-initiated my research and would love to hear from those of you who have found great SMS tools (for academia) – comments welcome.

I could say more and defend the trend but the title says it all. What are you/we doing to get our information mobile?

The Sarah Lawrence College Technology Survey 2009-2010 Response Numbers and Chart

A 29.97% response rate from the Sarah Lawrence Community without any incentives… Fantastic!

Below is the response chart for the tech survey. As you can see the response rate jumps significantly after a reminder is sent. Below the chart are the numbers used to create the graph.

Additional data will be posted soon. The survey close at midnight last night.

Click to view complete graph

Date    Total Responses    Complete Responses    Incomplete Responses    Remaining        Time
4/13/2010*    0    0    0    2161    launch    12:00
4/14/2010    161    136    25    2025        9:00
4/15/2010    179    152    27    2009        9:00
4/16/2010*    186    159    27    2002    reminder
4/17/2010
4/18/2010
4/19/2010    285    240    45    1921        9:15
4/20/2010*    295    251    44    1910    reminder    9:53
4/21/2010    359    304    55    1857        10:00
4/22/2010    369    313    56    1848        12:00
4/23/2010*    372    316    56    1845    reminder    9:00
4/24/2010
4/25/2010
4/26/2010*    432    368    64    1793    reminder    9:54
4/27/2010    557    467    90    1558    closed    9:13

* = reminder sent