Del DeVries : Blog Notes-March 2010

Printable Puzzles nice resource for a plane trip! Creative mix of crosswords, reverse word search, logic puzzles, and cryptograms. _2010-03-05
Plagiarism detection software - a couple of options
1. DOC Cop a detection tool that generates a color coded html report of possible matches. Limited to 550 word maximum on a web search based on a user defined string length (words). Result report can be used to directly find the linked text on the web. Tested and "under reported" the results.
2. SeeSources.com can upload a file or paste in text for testing. Results contains links which are more extensive than Doc Cop, but are harder to use (specific text isn't as easy to figure out). Paid version available with more capabilities. _2010-03-22
Using Blogs and Wikis as instructional tools
- Just-in-Time Teaching method which uses 2 questions for preclass reading assignments
  1. What is the most difficult part of the material we will discuss in the next class?
  2. A choice of one of the following:
    1. What is the most interesting part of the material? or
    2. How does the material connect to something else you have learned in the graduate program? or
    3. How is this material useful or relevant to your career interests?
- Student responses are in a blog or a wiki
- RSS is used to consolidate responses into a single repository of responses. Also students can review each others responses.

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

James Thurber