Kids, computers and schools

phatbear

A problem has arisen in the phatbear household that no matter how much chin stroking I do I cant seem to come up with a suitable answer.

My stepson has recently started high school and every day he claims that he has a stack of homework that his teacher has told him he must do on a computer, so in the past I let him get on with it, however I recently looked at some of work and asked him some questions relating to some of the words he had used in the essays, however he didnt understand them, so after a bit of interigation it came to light that the homework he had done and has been doing had all pretty much been plagiarised, his defence was that all his friends do it, however I tried to get it through to him that his friends wont be sitting his exams for him in 5 years times etc etc. Anyway today during one of his normal sunday rants he claimed that a teacher had said that if the homework wasnt done on a computer the work would be marked down. Now myself and Mrs Phatbear both work and earn good'ish money so the computer/printer/internet etc isnt a problem however I feel its extremely unfair on those families that cant afford such luxurys are they destined to get marked down through out high school and thus get lower exam marks lesser jobs etc etc etc?

I admit Im kinda new to this parenting thing, the 2 little bears are 12 ands 10 and I've been around for 4 years and I like to think of myself as a "with it", however I would like some feedback if in your experiences this kind of behaviour for shcools is normal?? I could go into great depth about what I found on MSN messenger that my 10 year old step daughter uses but thats a another story for another time.

All the best


The Bear

Spendless

phatbear wrote:

A problem has arisen in the phatbear household that no matter how much chin stroking I do I cant seem to come up with a suitable answer.

My stepson has recently started high school and every day he claims that he has a stack of homework that his teacher has told him he must do on a computer, so in the past I let him get on with it, however I recently looked at some of work and asked him some questions relating to some of the words he had used in the essays, however he didnt understand them, so after a bit of interigation it came to light that the homework he had done and has been doing had all pretty much been plagiarised, his defence was that all his friends do it, however I tried to get it through to him that his friends wont be sitting his exams for him in 5 years times etc etc. Anyway today during one of his normal sunday rants he claimed that a teacher had said that if the homework wasnt done on a computer the work would be marked down. Now myself and Mrs Phatbear both work and earn good'ish money so the computer/printer/internet etc isnt a problem however I feel its extremely unfair on those families that cant afford such luxurys are they destined to get marked down through out high school and thus get lower exam marks lesser jobs etc etc etc?

I admit Im kinda new to this parenting thing, the 2 little bears are 12 ands 10 and I've been around for 4 years and I like to think of myself as a "with it", however I would like some feedback if in your experiences this kind of behaviour for shcools is normal?? I could go into great depth about what I found on MSN messenger that my 10 year old step daughter uses but thats a another story for another time.

All the best


The Bear

Someone with older kids will answer you better than I can. (my eldest is 6), but my first thought was have you checked with the school that that is what is actually being said. What does ss say about the reason behind computer use.eg if it's cos some students have untidy handwriting then to me that needs working on cos AFAIK exams are still in own handwriting.

Quackers

Hello The Bear!

I have children aged 14 and 11 and they are both at High School.

I have had all the same conversations with my children as you by the sounds of things. Both my girls 'cut and paste' info from the net and then present it as a 'project' for school. It drives me nuts as I get the same reply 'everyone does it'.

Thing is, I did it too but dont want to tell them that!

Our pc has been poorly for a while and my youngest went mental the other day when her work wouldn't print out. When I suggested hand writing it she almost collapsed. She solved the problem by emailing all her work to her school email address and then printed it out before the lesson :eek: I wouldn't have known how to do that.

I've also done the 'what if there is no computer at home' question. The reply was that the school has facilities for the wok to be done before or after or during school on the computer. I've checked - they do!! So that solves that question. surely most schools will provide the facilities for children who do not have them at home. I imagine they do - I may be wrong?

I'm just going with the flow now and let them use the pc whenever for homework:rolleyes:

Do you think that children now just 'prefer' to do it on the computer rather than 'have to' just because everyone else is doing the same. I think that would be the case with most children. They just dont want to be seen as different.

conradmum

The easiest way to find out the answer would be to ask little bear's form tutor. They MAY be insisting the work is researched on the internet and word processed because these are essential skills these days.
However, simply copying text without understanding it definitely won't be what they have in mind. When it comes to GCSEs, the students are required to sign a form stating that it's all their own work, and examiners will quickly pick up on a disparity between the level of the coursework and their ability under exam conditions. Evidence of plagiarism will mean they fail that exam (and possibly others too).
Much better to get both little bears into the habit of doing their own work before such problems arise.

Lillibet_2

How about allowing them to type it on the PC but putting a password on the internet access so that they have to researh out of books (they probably won't belive encyclopedias also come in printed format!) & actually type what they want to say??? If they say you don't have the right reference books in the house...then that's what librarys are for.

Just an idea as I haven't had to deal with this problem yet as our Spud is only 7 months old, so no idea if it would actually work!!??.

nearlyrich

We were talking about uni assignments today and my DS says all the unis have referencing software which checks that the information written in essays etc is not taken from another source without being referenced.

It's a good idea to get used to doing the research on line but writing it up in their own words.

phatbear

Thanks for all your input thing is ive made all those points to him, but he's just finding his feet as an almost teenager, ie an answer for everything. Spendless and conradmum have pretty much hit the nail on the head with my next move Im gone try and book and appointment with his form tutor to see if the insistance of most teachers that the pupils have to use PC's is true. I recently made an an issue with a piece of homework, something along the lines of do an A-Z of the nations of the world and their biggest river and or highest moutain, I got his 10year old cute but away with the fairies sister to sit and use a book and I let hm loose on the PC, oddly enough she finished before he did, of course he blamed the stupid internet, at one point even saying that dictionary.com was wrong and that he knew better, gawd you've gota love kids roll on their 18th birthday!!!

Ta for now


The Bear

Bennifred

Lillibet wrote:

How about allowing them to type it on the PC but putting a password on the internet access so that they have to researh out of books (they probably won't belive encyclopedias also come in printed format!) & actually type what they want to say??? If they say you don't have the right reference books in the house...then that's what librarys are for.

Just an idea as I haven't had to deal with this problem yet as our Spud is only 7 months old, so no idea if it would actually work!!??.

This is exactly what we do (ds' 13 and 16). They do get to use the internet for some stuff but it means they have to ask, and at least then we know what they're looking for and can yay-or-nay. It is still a really important skill to be able to use books for reference and like any skill the more it is practised the easier it becomes. (Wish I had a pound for every time I've said that, lol!:rolleyes: )