Are we raising a society of "Cut & Paste" thinkers?

How do we teach research skills?  How do we explain research assignments? More importantly, how do we assess our student's work?  Are we raising a society of "cut & paste" thinkers.  We need to be careful about what we assign and what we accept from our students.  We need to ask ourselves, "What are our goals for our students in each assignment?"  My answer is to break down the assignment into manageable/accessible bits.  Students need to learn to attack an assignment of this type like they would a pizza, one slice at at a time.   My research project is to simulate a radio show from a period in history.

Students need to produce:

1. An interview with a musician, contemporary to a period in history.
2. An interview with a political or public figure, contemporary to the same period in history.
3. A brief current events spotlight of the day - in sports, entertainment, and weather.

Come visit my website at www.theradiohour.net and give your students something to think about.

Comments

[Cathy Gelman]

Everything I've read about plagiarizing, cutting and pasting etc. is that the best antidote is to assign projects that are not conducive to plagiarism; that is those that require more creative thinking and application of knowledge. That way, the product the students create is original and not found on the Internet. Your radio hour interviews fit the bill!