Lecture Monday 4/13

In class on Monday we learned about legal issues and ethical issues. Examples of academic dishonesty are plagiarism, fabrication, deception, cheating, sabotage and professional misconduct. All of these things are examples of things that are illegal or wrong in the academic world. These things become difficult for teachers to police. There is a controversy as whether or not to enforce the rules to stop cheating or to try and deter them. I personally think that they go hand in hand. We should try and stop it before it happens, but also enforce rules and consequences when the rules are broken. A statistic says that 21% of teachers have ignored at least 1 clear cute case of cheating. It is a personal decision as to how strict you will be as a teacher with cheating. I personally think that you should not be tolerant with cheating. I do think that you should listen to the students, because sometimes things happen on accident or without the student’s knowledge. If this is true they should get a warning and be punished the next time.
Another issue is Facebook; we watched a movie about a teacher that was fired for the pictures and comments that she had put on Facebook. We discussed in class if we thought it was right for the teacher to be fired. I think that it is okay for a teacher to have a Facebook, I think that they should be careful about what they put on it. I don’t think the comments and picture she put where appropriate, but I don’t think that she should have been fired. I think that she should have been given a warning. I do understand thought that parents might have been uncomfortable. Finally we discussed copyright issues. It is a difficult thing to work around, but as a teacher you need to make sure you are not copying things and passing them out to your class without being legal.