vendredi 23 mars 2012

Outgoogling the lazy students

What teacher hasn't sighed and cursed wikipedia and google after finding pure tosh copied and pasted staight off the Web in their students' papers, including class work. Smartphones and the incredible offer available for all kinds of essays seem to have made original and personal work a thing of the past.

A French Lit teacher from a Paris lycée explains how he carefully plotted a revenge on his class, by planting fictitious info on Wikipedia and various forums about an obscure poet, then giving his students an assignment on the said poet. The work was supposed not to require any research, but a good proportion of the students used ready-made papers on a paying site which the teacher himself had submitted; he says it was meaningless nonsense dressed up to sound academic, but was readily accepted by two of these sites specialized in selling papers.

Les élèves de Loys Bonod ont bien de la chance : piégés par leur prof, ils ont reçu une bonne leçon sur l'usage intelligent de l'internet. Je reste admirative de la démarche pédagogique et de l'engagement du bonhomme! Jeu de piste à suivre ici

samedi 17 mars 2012

Beau et (pas trop) con à la fois

Sur le site du Guardian ce matin, une petite vidéo d'un monsieur dont on préfère oublier ses activités cafetières, qui utilise sa notoriété pour la bonne cause.


On espérait que la partition du Soudan permettrait de vrais changements dans la région , mais la situation humanitaire et politique reste proche du désastre.