I was extremely happy to read about this lawsuit over anti-plagiarism software over at the Washington Post. Why? How can I think this is a good thing? Because I’ve been in a school that used such a service and relied on it utterly, and pointlessly, to the detriment of many.
The real way to catch cheats is to have sufficient staff working with students, to get to know them, to understand them, to offer quality education. When a good educational environment is created, there is no need for automated software because the teacher knows his/her students well enough to make the call. That’s my opinion, anyway. In my opinion, introducing software to do the job of quality teachers only serves to pander to those who would have 1000 students in a class and a teacher so overworked they struggle to name even a handful of the students they’re seeing on a daily basis. And I’ve seen that kind of situation, too.
Jon.