Dear All,
Thanks for this link Jordan and Nick. To be perfectly frank, I thought I was
going to see one of those sites where you can buy an essay, bells, whistles,
warts and all and then pretend it's your own. Revise. it, though, isn't in
the same category as far as I can tell.
I had a quick look around and didn't look at the customising essay tips
since Julie's done that for us; and I have to say that there is some very
useful stuff on this site.
Since there's no business or accounting stuff there, I had a look at Eng Lit
and was seriously disappointed. If I were an Eng Lit student I would have
come away saying, "I could have told you that"!. In the Eng Lang section, I
noted a number of useful tips about spelling, punctuation and grammar that
students seem never to be able to get enough of.
I suppose we should keep a watching brief over this site; but my reaction is
that it's probably not much more than a marketing tool that will help
promote and boost sales of "proper" revision aids. If this is the case; and
it's an honest attempt at helping students, then good luck to Revise. It. If
it's an attempt to make the weak seem strong then our fears may be founded.
Duncan Williamson
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Julie Parton
Sent: 22 September 2000 11:14
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Are my fears unfounded?
I had a look at the Revise.it tips for "customising" essays. If a student
attempted to do this with coursework they should be quite rightly thrown off
the course, the exam board informed and quite possibly thrown out of the
school.
With the incresed workload students will be facing from the new
specifications the temptation to cheat will inevitably grow.
I am most especially worried about the suggestion of fabricating dates,
quotes and examples. The only consolation is teenagers are often so gormless
in what they fabricate that it is fairly easy to spot and then challenge
them to show the source material.
(I've seen some wierd attempts at cheating including the A level student who
was so impressed by Barclays Business Start up pack that he copied it out
and gave to me as an essay on starting a new business. Last year I had a lad
who was quite adamant that there was no Lloyds Bank in the Solihull area
.... I ended up making him phone Directory Enquiries to disprove that
one!!!)
Perhaps insisting on a full bibliography including page numbers and ISBN
numbers would be a way of detering those who have been caught out on
non-coursework / homework tasks!! Or even offered up as a deterent in the
first place. In my experience students hate having to do bibliographies at
the best of times!
Julie Parton
>From: david haynes <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Are my fears unfounded?
>Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 15:53:22 -0700 (PDT)
>
>This circular has arrived from 'Revise.it' a site set
>up by two undergrads at university.
>
>"
>Revise.it has just launched EssayLab, a collection of
>hundreds of free A grade GCSE and A-Level essays
>covering all the popular subjects and questions.
>
>Feel free to use them however you want… (we've also
>included a guide to making our essays look like one of
>your own)
>
>We hope you enjoyed the summer and that Revise.it can
>take some of the hassle out of the new term for you.
>
>Take care and have fun
>
>Jordan and Nick
>
>If you do not wish to receive any further email from
>revise.it go to
>http://www.revise.it/reviseit/common/stopmail.asp
>
>"
>
>Is it me being overanxious? My gut feeling is this
>development of their site is a retrograde one, one
>that encourages people to cheat ratehr than think;
>copy (even adapt) rather than investigate.
>
>Or is it me that's at fault for not bringing this to
>people's attention as a useful internet resource?
>
>David Haynes
>
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger.
>http://im.yahoo.com/
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|