It never ceases to amaze me (and my colleagues) who are not located in a high-tech jurisdiction the emphasis placed on these fancy tools.  It may interest viewers of this list to know that not all academics even have access to Turnitin and some of us rely as mentioned below on our understanding of student behaviour. 

However, as we all know, Human Geography departments are fixated on importing wealthy foreign students who pay top dollar.  Since these students are infrequently interviewed prior to offers being made academics have no ability to assess in person the potential probity of such students nor obtain a personal understanding of each student's status and personality. 

Additionally, this type of software is biased towards English speaking students.  Students proficient in foreign languages can easily plagiarise work and translate it into English.   Why should Chinese or Latin American students escape censure?

The solution is obvious and therefore will be rejected.  Support national students and reject the greed that demands second-rate international students.  This will permit interviews prior to offers and a better appreciation of the student as an individual rather than a cash-cow for avaricious academics to milk as disposable fodder. 


-----
It can also be used by students to check if they have paraphrased referenced work well enough before they submit it. Of course, a cynic might argue it can be used by students to check if they've got away with plagiarism. In this situation one's rodent detector still remains as an effective way to find plagiarism.

Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers on behalf of Ian Gordon
Sent: Fri 4/2/2010 12:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Turnitin

And, to endorse David's point about Turnitin as just a tool, it doesn't
actually pick up everything that is available on the internet - there
are some important exceptions which I will not mention - or (where
multiple versions of some text exist on the web) indicate how much of a
piece of work might actually have been derived from a single source. 

In my experience, though it can save a lot of effort, the traditional
tools of 'smelling a rat' and following up with a web search engine are
also still invaluable, in identifying the scale of potential plagiarism,
and interpreting what lies behind the symptoms that Turnitin reports.

Best,

Ian

Ian Gordon
Department of Geography and Environment
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
44+(0)20 7955 6180
[log in to unmask]


________________________________

From: A forum for critical and radical geographers
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lambert, D
Sent: 01 April 2010 19:52
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Turnitin


Dear Paul,

The program doesn't.  It's just a tool that aids a human being who knows
the field to do the actual investigation into a possible plagiarism
case.  (I speak as a chair of exams who has used it a lot.)

Regards,
David

* * *

Dr David Lambert
Reader in Historical Geography
Royal Holloway, University of London
http://www.gg.rhul.ac.uk/Lambert/ <http://www.gg.rhul.ac.uk/Lambert/>


________________________________

From: A forum for critical and radical geographers on behalf of Paul H.
Sent: Thu 01/04/2010 19:11
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Turnitin


Great question. How does the program differentiate between cliche
phrases and often entextualized discourse and actual plagiarism? What
portion of the final score is actual plagiarism?

 Paul







________________________________

Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 18:50:04 +0100
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Turnitin
To: [log in to unmask]



Can anyone advise me what is the current collective wisdom on Turnitin?



(Shame there's not a programme called Leaveitout, I reckon)



Dr Kelvin Mason

Distance Learning Tutor

Graduate School of the Environment

Unit 7 Dyfi Eco Parc

Machynlleth

SY20 8AX



[log in to unmask]

Tel: 01654 703065 ext. 25

Skype: kelvin.mason1



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