San Diego Computer Using Educators Convention November 6th

Yes, that's right the SDCUE conference is coming soon and if you are in the San Diego Region, you might want to check it out. It is a great way to hear best practices on how others are using technology effectively in the classroom as well as connect with other educators in our community.

SDCUE Members pay $50, University Students pay $25, and it is free for Administrators. See this page for more prices and register (pre-registration ends this Friday Oct 29th). If you can get a group of 5 or more you can get an even bigger discount. If you wait until the day of the event it is $60 so make sure you sign up.

The sessions go from 8:30am to 3:00 and the overview schedule can be found here and a more detailed schedule here.

For more information check out the main site SDCUE.org. Are you planning on being there? Let me know in the comments and lets connect at the conference!

Wolfram Alpha for Powerful Science, Math, and Humanities Research

Data is everywhere, it doesn't matter what you teach, you need data and researching the web is a fast and great way to do it. Sometimes, we don't always get what we want.

If you have not tried it, enter 5 pounds to grams in Google. The effect is even cooler because of Google Instant. Or try entering 60/2.5. For all that Google can do, it is also a great calculator or conversion tool. In fact Google is able to do all kinds of helpful things besides just searching for websites (link)

Yet, try entering y=2x+5 and you will receive websites that may help you understand linear equations or maybe eventually show you the graph but this isn't exactly what you meant. What if you are researching different countries and comparing demographics? England and China, England vs China, no matter what you try, you will still need to root through search results.

Now I love Google, this would happen if you were using Yahoo, Bing, or any other search engine because that is what they do, find and return web pages that match your search terms. This all changed last year when WolframAlpha.com emerged on the scene. Developed by Stephen Wolfram and his colleagues, it touts itself as a "Computational Knowledge Engine". For those of you familiar with Stephen Wolfram's previous work with Mathematica, the website is powered by the same algorithims.

Try it out or look at some of the examples. I honestly, could spend a lot of time going through each one. They are just so beautiful and helpful. Going to our original examples, go to WolframAlpha.com and type in y=2x+5 and hit enter. There is the graph you were looking for. WolframAlpha.com is a full fledged graphing calculator.

Now try England vs China. This will not pull up sports scores or obscure websites with those keywords. You are presented with a useful side by side comparison of the two countries' demographics, landmass, etc.

I enjoy typing in my name as it will tell me how many others of me there are in the world. The examples are certainly worth your time. Click around and see the possibilities of seeing data in a way that is truly useful.  This isn't surprising from Stephen Wolfram who has spend a great deal of time and energy trying to make the world's knowledge not only searchable but computational. Data is worthless if we cannot work with it and that is exactly what Mathematica and Wolframalpha.com were intended to do. You can see more of Mr. Wolfram's philosophy in this TED talk where he draws from his research and writings in A New Kind of Science.

In an effort to make Wolfram Alpha more accessible, others have implemented this in Firefox, and Chrome, (free) and now Android, iPhone, and iPad (for $1.99).

Two other free options for educators are Wolfram Alpha Demonstrations, and Widgets. Demonstrations are similar to the examples, but with a large amount of interactivity. Show your students a physics or math principle, art and color, sports examples, optical illusions, and more. Widgets are an option for you or your students to create your own mini Wolfram Alpha program. It is easy to create one to add to your website or for your classroom, there is also a gallery of premade widgets.

Whether you teach the humanities or sciences, WolframAlpha has the power to make data managable and useful. If you haven't already go over to the site and browse you will find it hard to leave.

How to Curb Plagiarism in Your Classroom

If our goal is to teach, our students is to learn, and our primary method of assessing that is through assignments and tests; then the highest concern is that of making sure each student has done their own work.

Before we discuss plagiarism, we should mention the term Digital Native. Digital Native is the name many have given the generation of students who have grown up their entire lives with Mobile Phones,Google, YouTube, Torrent Sharing, etc. Usually, the term is pejorative, saying that these students have no social skills, ability to think deeply, or respect for copyright.

All of these are true/false in varying degrees just as much as it would be for any other person on Earth. Stereotypes get us nowhere.

Plagiarism is considered a growing problem within schools because of the pervasiveness of the Internet. Sharing information and  files is so easy that students can find the definition of a word faster than they can say it.

I believe that plagiarism can be curbed if not eliminated from the classroom in a few ways. 

• Plagiarism Checkers - There are free and paid versions of these. They allow you to cut and paste or upload a file to check it against the Internet to see if anyone has already used it. The problem with this is if someone from your own class wants to share with another student the online checker will fail. Basically, it will prevent them from plagiarizing sources but not other students. Additionally, this will only work for written work and not math for example. However, it does have it's place. Google will help you find the one that is right for you.
•  Blooms Taxonomy - In a previous post, I suggested you reflect upon your curriculum and where it is on the Bloom's Taxonomy pyramid. If you are asking your students to recall a definition or equation then you are creating an environment where they simply need to ask a friend or Google for the answer. While you might think that Googling answers is a mentality that needs to be squashed. My challenge remains for you to assess the students through application and creation. It is pretty difficult to copy when each is expected to provide their own thoughts. 
• For those in math, I recommend ALEKS and Accelerated Math. Personally I like ALEKS more because it explains and uses less paper. They both will create differentiated work for students to work at their own pace as well as have different copies of the assignment. If the thought of that creates fear from a grading perspective, fear not for both of these programs will grade them for you.
• Copyright Education - Even veteran teachers are unclear about what constitutes fair use. Teaching students how to cite and when and what is appropriate for each assignment will go a long way. I would imagine this article would be true of any age, but it drives home the importance of clarifying the fine line. I also recommend this resource as it clarifies the law.

I always tell my students that, "No one cheats their way through Medical School". You can rest easy, that if they are cheating now, it will eventually catch up with them. Additionally I will quote Seymour Papert who pioneered Technology in the Classroom decades ago saying, "In the future, people will be hired not for what they  know, but what they are able to find."

Finally, I leave you with this funny and uplifting TED talk.