Plagiarism and Technology
based on an article in the 10/02 NJECC Tech Exchange
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Recently I wrote an article for NJECC that began with a reference to a Gary Larson cartoon. The tag line was "Outstanding in the Field" with a cartoon showing a cow out standing in a field. I often think Tech Coordinators epitomize that situation. We are called upon as experts in technology, outstanding in our field, but if we don't have the requisite knowledge in the various elements of the curriculum, we could be just "left out."
Many of us started out as teachers. We knew curriculum; we knew kids. Over the years, we developed a sense that learning, even teaching, could be better served by something that was new and exciting — technology. Those of us who had experimented with this newfangled, wire-tangled "thing" jumped at the potential opportunities. There wasn't much direction in our leap, quantum or otherwise. Our efforts arose from a basic need to change what wasn't working for our students or for us as teachers, to change our roles in education, to embrace change because it was different and exciting, and because we could see possibilities.
Some of those possibilities have been realized, and that has been rewarding. Students, teachers and tech coordinators no longer have to suffer the slings and arrows of an outrageous Remington as it miscommunicates the information from our brain to our fingers, nor do we grieve for not paying more attention to our times tables and basic arithmetic. A few of us can even create a drawing using technology. But there hasn't been enough real change where it matters most—in supporting the interaction with students that only a teacher can create. Consider that in making the choice on the issue of plagiarism.
Technology has been around long enough that we now have a group of people who entered education primarily as tech people, irreverently known as the "wire people." They have helped bring about more change by, among other things, pushing us to become "wireless." That, too, has often been a blessing.
One common meeting ground for the curriculum people and the tech people has been staff development. Staff development is often seen as the standard-bearer for change, and many of you find yourselves developing programs for your staff while trying to manage all the other jobs that have fallen to you. This shift has occurred not because we are all that good (-: , not because technology has made our work loads lighter (-: , but primarily because someone decided that we were the change agents in the organization.
There is a difference between change agents and early adapters, but that distinction may not be grasped by the teachers, students, administrators, and parents who now come to you to solve problems and help them change whatever it is that is no longer working well enough.

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