Txt Spk In Schools Not A Big Deal

from the yet-again dept

While some of the headlines on the latest Pew Study about how "txt speak" is slipping into school writing assignments suggest the horror of a generation of kids who write LOL and use smileys in written communications, the actual results aren't that bad at all. What the study found was that, yes, occasionally some students let slip non-formal English, though that's hardly surprising. However, it's not particularly damaging, and it becomes a teaching point, helping students learn the difference between formal and informal English. This is nothing new. Every year we see the same basic study results, despite plenty of people flipping out. Despite long term worries about txt speak destroying the language, there's no evidence to support that.

In 2003, there was a study that showed that all this writing online was actually making kids more comfortable with writing in general. In 2004, a study showed (like this one) that with a little instruction kids easily understood the difference between texting and writing. In 2005, a study actually found that kids were better writers than in the past "using far more complex sentence structures, a wider vocabulary and a more accurate use of capital letters, punctuation and spelling" even if they sometimes let a txtism into their writing. And, in 2006, a study showed that students showed no ill effects from widespread text and IM messaging. In other words, this story is getting plenty of attention, but the details don't support the headline version that kids are unable to understand what's appropriate in their writing.

Also, one other interesting finding came out of this study: despite the fact that kids sometimes seem attached to their computers, two-thirds actually prefer to write assignments by hand. So, perhaps that'll put to rest that other circulating myth that kids aren't able to write by hand any more.

Filed Under: english, grammar, spelling, students, txt spk

Turnitin Found Not To Violate Student Copyrights

from the might-be-a-good-thing-for-Google... dept

Last year, we noted that some students were suing iParadigms, the makers of "Turnitin" the excessively popular plagiarism checker used by many colleges and high schools. The professors feed student papers into the system, and it returns a "score" judging how likely the paper is to be plagiarized. However, it also takes a copy of each paper and includes it in its database for future plagiarism checks. This annoyed quite a few students who felt that this was copyright infringement -- using their papers in a commercial database.

However, a court has now rejected the students' arguments and found that Turnitin does not violate the copyright of the students for a variety of reasons. First there is the fact that students had to agree to the terms of the service to use it -- even if they were forced to by their schools. However, the court finds that this is a problem for the schools, not Turnitin. But, much more interesting is the rationale for why storing those papers is considered "fair use." Among other things, the court found that Turnitin isn't using the papers for their creative meaning and even though it stores the entire document, it doesn't really publish a full copy of it for others to see.

That becomes especially interesting given the current lawsuit concerning Google's scanning of books from various university libraries, as it may be able to note the similarities in this situation to Turnitin's. There are some differences -- and clearly, the publishers will claim that the impact on the commercial value is quite different (despite evidence to the contrary -- but this ruling is likely to help Google's position at least somewhat.

Filed Under: copyright, homework, plagiarism, students, turnitin
Companies: iparadigms

Online Study Group Creator Not Expelled; But Still Punished

from the lesson-learned:-don't-study-with-others! dept

A couple weeks ago, we wrote about a student at Ryerson University in Canada, who was being threatened with expulsion for setting up an online study group via Facebook for his chemistry class. If he'd done the same thing with a group in the library, it would have been fine. But, somehow, in setting it up on Facebook, he got in trouble. After plenty of news attention over this, the school has decided not to expel him, but will still give him a zero on the assignment in question and will place a "disciplinary note" in his file. While it's good he wasn't expelled, it's difficult to see how the school can justify this type of punishment either. Here's a student trying to help both himself and the rest of the class better learn the subject matter, and he's punished for it? That doesn't seem right.

Filed Under: chemistry, online study group, ryerson, students
Companies: facebook

Will Politicians Now Ban Walking While Talking On A Mobile Phone?

from the but-are-they-reasonable-risks? dept

In the past we've seen stories about hikers not doing a very good job preparing for a hike, figuring that as long as they have a mobile phone with them, they can always call for help should things go wrong. Some recent studies are also now suggesting that students tend to take more risks when they have a mobile phone. Of course, by "risks" the studies uncover two things: the first is that students are more likely to walk through certain areas late at night if they have a mobile phone than without. Whether or not that's a reasonable risk is unclear. If someone were attacked, then they likely wouldn't be able to call for help, though if they're already on the phone it could be useful. Of course, the report also suggests that if they're chatting on the phone in such an area, they may not be paying careful attention to their surroundings, making them more vulnerable. The second finding (of a different study by the same researchers) found that people talking on mobile phones are much more likely to cross a busy road in front of traffic than those not on mobile phones.

If this sounds familiar, it might be because we've all seen plenty of studies that point out if you're driving while on a mobile phone, you're also more likely to be distracted and drive poorly. Yet, while there are all these new laws to ban driving while yakking on your mobile phone, will we now see legislation proposed to ban walking while yakking on your mobile phone as well? At some point, people need to learn to take responsibilities for their own actions -- and if they're making riskier decisions while talking on a phone, it's fine to educate them, but that doesn't mean we need to create a law to ban each and every activity.

Filed Under: mobile phones, risky behavior, students

Why Is The Hollywood Tail Wagging The Dog Of Academia?

from the that-seems-backwards dept

Hollywood's admission last week that its campus piracy stats were bogus raises an interesting question: why have colleges been so quick to roll over and accede to Hollywood's demands? Greg Sandoval points out that universities could have done their own studies a long time ago and had hard numbers to dispute the industry's accusations. If, as now appears to be the case, colleges are only responsible for a fairly small fraction of illegal file sharing, it makes the industry's demands that academia bend over backwards to help Hollywood in its anti-piracy fight a little unreasonable. The really screwy thing about this is that the movie industry is a relatively small part of the American economy. The industry's revenues in 2006 were just $42 billion. For comparison, Harvard alone has an endowment of $35 billion, and altogether the higher education sector has assets in the hundreds of billions of dollars. If they chose to stand up to Hollywood's bullying techniques, they would have little trouble mounting an effective legal defense. And given that Hollywood seems determined to paint students—academia's customers—in the worst possible light, it seems only appropriate that colleges be more proactive about countering unfair negative stereotypes of college campuses.

Filed Under: academia, movies, mpaa, piracy, students, studies
Companies: mpaa

Oregon Attorney General And University Of Oregon Tell The RIAA They're Not Its Free Investigators

from the can't-just-push-around-students dept

Earlier this year, the RIAA began to focus many of its file sharing lawsuits on college students. The RIAA incorrectly referred to it as an education campaign, when it might more accurately be described as pissing off the very people the RIAA needs to support any future business model (oops, too late for that). While the RIAA tried to force universities to just hand over the names of those it accused of file sharing, it was nice to see at least a few universities fight back. In most cases, this mean telling the RIAA to shove off, as it wasn't the university's job to help serve legal complaints. Eventually though, when subpoenas came through, most universities would hand over the info. However, it looks like the University of Oregon is taking a stand. Together with the Attorney General of Oregon, they've actually filed a motion to quash the RIAA's attempt to identify students at the school. In other words, they're not just refusing to pass on the info, they're actively pushing back against the RIAA's lawsuit.

Specifically, the Attorney General points out that with just IP addresses, it's basically impossible to identify the students that the RIAA is asking the university to hand over: "Plaintiffs' subpoena is unduly burdensome and overbroad. It seeks information that the university does not readily possess." In order for the university to figure out who was associated with those IPs, it would involve a level of investigation that isn't required (and shouldn't be required) under law. In other words, the university isn't there to be the free investigative arm of the RIAA. It doesn't get to just throw some weak evidence over the wall and tell the university to figure out who's responsible. Either it comes up with a better way to find the information itself, or it should stop filing these lawsuits. It should be interesting to see if this works... and if other universities follow suit.

Filed Under: colleges, copyright, file sharing, lawsuits, music, oregon, students
Companies: riaa, university of oregon

Is It Better To Study Economics Or Computer Science?

from the how-about-both? dept

Economist Arnold Kling is pointing out that while fewer college students are enrolling in computer science majors, the number focusing on economics is exploding. It's probably a rather cyclical trend -- but Kling suggests this isn't necessarily a bad thing. His point appears to be that you can pick up enough computer science on the side, but that learning economics could come in a lot more handy -- even in the technology industry. Of course, he leaves out the fact that you can also pick up an awful lot of economics on the side. I'd argue that both skills are important, and it's difficult to see one being much more important than the other. If you have a proclivity towards one, then pursue that -- but if you're really skilled, why not learn both?

Filed Under: computer science, economics, education, students

GameStop Suspends Manager Who Won't Sell Games To Kids With Bad Grades

from the can't-support-that-type-of-policy dept

Last week the news spread about a manager of a GameStop video game store in Dallas who, without corporate approval, had instituted a policy to encourage good grades. The policy was that he wouldn't sell video games to kids unless an adult confirms that the kid got good grades... and if the kid had straight As, the manager would buy him or her a free game. However, as the Raw Feed points out, it appears that GameStop wasn't too happy with this policy and has suspended the guy. This really isn't a huge surprise (going against corporate policy doesn't often end well), but the community reaction to the whole thing certainly suggests that there's a market for this kind of "good grades policy," and if GameStop won't allow it, then perhaps other video game stores might test it out to try to attract more business. It sounds like a lot of parents would support it. Of course, there's really nothing stopping parents from instituting the identical policy on their own... Also, you could just as easily argue the opposite position as well. If one retailer offers that policy and others don't, all the kids with bad grades are about to head over to the other store. Which do you think is the larger market?

Filed Under: good grades, students, video games
Companies: gamestop

And If We Put Bulletproof Textbooks In Bulletproof Backpacks, Then Think How Safe We'll All Be

from the educational-body-armor dept

About a year ago we had the story of a candidate for state school superintendent in Oklahoma who was advocating that textbooks be made with bulletproof covers as a method of protecting students in the exceptionally unlikely event of a school shooting. This seemed like a bizarre idea, especially when you weigh out the costs vs. the likelihood of any such event (and the actual protective ability of a bulletproof textbook). Of course, it appears that others have been thinking along the same lines, as one manufacturer is now selling bulletproof backpacks for your kids as they head back to school. Assuming you're worried that your kid goes to school in a warzone, feel free to pick one up -- but just imagine the protective power of one of those backpacks stuffed with bulletproof books?

Filed Under: bulletproof, students