The Great Divide

[bedora]

Yesterday I went to a meeting of the college senate (that makes me a senator, I think!). It was my first since my boss asked me to be our rep. I may have missed one other as the email for this one just barely caught my attention and then I remembered I was supposed to go! In any case, I'm hoping it will be my only one since the next will be in

Comments

[iammightee]

It's an interesting topic! I am sure there are loads of people who would love to be learning for learning's sake, but in this day and age, that just can't be as feasible as it was in the past. I've pondered for some time the possibility of getting a degree, but if I did, the goal would be the credential. I love learning, but I do that in my own time, you know? If I end up doing that, it'll be because I need the degree and my focus will be on the pursuit of that goal.

[myrafly]

Elitism and education is a lively topic for me. It seems to me every generation or so we should be changing things up.

I remember in College English they ENCOURAGED us to use a paper from another class. That's how modren they were 30 years ago!

[mrs_talksalot]

In my Education Specialist program for our last course we were required to synthesize all our courses' papers into our final paper. Also, during the program I often used my previous work to support or enhance the current writing assignment. That's called application. In the education field, that's a higher order thinking skill.

I think the students have a valid point. How can you call it plagarism, if they are using their own words? That's like saying a musician who puts out an album cannot perform his songs at a concert, because the songs were already used to make money.

Now I will say I was suprised when I read that students may be submitting their papers twice for two different courses. However, it seems to me that the problem there is the faculties' failure to offer courses that are not repetitive in content or assignments. If students are able to double dip, then they are being short changed. They are not learning anything new.

[drugtzar]

In florida it appears all of the schools are just teaching students to pass the FCAT test. They spend at least half a year drilling them. The problem is that they are not teaching them reasoning skills or anything else. It is rote memorization. There are a lot of resources for people who want to take coursed on their own time. I read the other day about some coursed that are available free on line from places like MIT. I think they have physics and other things. There are also a lot of museums that post virtual tours on the web. In regards to students using the same paper twice, one would hope that they had to change at least some of the content.