Ancient History Ramblings

On the subject of cheating......

Since I am on the subject of cheating, I also saw a story about "Test-Answer Site Removes Professors' Ability to Block Their Tests." I was intrigued to see this story, about which I knew nothing beforehand, concerning a site for students to post test questions they had received on exams. I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, people should be allowed to do what they want to do within the limits of free speech. I certainly appreciate the use of technology. On the other hand, I am concerned that students would use this not as a study aide, but as a shortcut. It also raises the question concerning ownership of material from a class - handouts, readings, lectures, and tests. I had a student once tell me about another professor who made (in the eyes of the student) a big deal concerning the professor's view that she held the copyright to her class materials. I tried to explain that professors were usually concerned over companies or individuals trying to profit from the materials. I don't see this as much anymore (but I am not at a huge school anymore), but I can remember in grad school a company paying students for their notes so they could sell them to other students in the class. I looked on the site and did not see many questions, it will be interesting to see if it grows over the next few weeks notw that the site has gotten some publicity from the Wired Campus.

RSM

Cheating

In catching up on my email over the weekend, I saw an interesting article on Wired Campus - "Students Show How to Cheat via YouTube." Cheating is something that many academics worry about and it seems to be getting more and more attention each year. I have to admit that I have not seen an increase in cheating on tests, but have seen an increase in plagiarism (whether through ignorance or intentional). Certainly the rise in plagiarism is due to the increased availability of materials and sources online. As for cheating, though, what I have seen online and on television seems to imply that cheating has gone hi-tech. This article and accompanying video certainly illustrate this point.

RSM 

On Vacation

I am on vacation in England until the wseekend. I'll catch up on the blogging starting Monday and will be back to blogging every day.

PS - There is a Krispy Kreme shop 100 meters from my hotel.

RSM

PKAP Website Migration

I got an email from my college technical support staff late this afternoon letting me know that they had moved the PKAP website from its old location (www.chss.iup.edu/pkap/) to its new home at www.pkap.org. On one hand, this is good news and I have been wondering when this would happen. On the other hand, when they moved the site this broke a lot of the links, including the navigation bar. This is a minor problem in that I just need to login to the site and fix some of the pages. Well, I hope it is minor, the navigation bar took a lot of time to get it to work at the old site, so we will see what happens. The problem is that they did not give me the information I need to login to the new site and so I can't make any changes until they answer my email, which they will hopefully do tomorrow when they get in to work. I hope to be able to fix the website by Monday, but we will see how much I can get done. I also need to put in a redirect at the old site and update Google Analytics. In addition, Sam Fee has offered to help us upgrade the website and make it more visually appealing.

RSM

TV and Archaeology

I often have students ask me about documentaries or historically based shows/movies they catch on television. Usually they want to talk about the accuracy of the show. I have to admit I am of two minds here. On one hand, I feel that if a show or movie gets people interested in history then that is a good thing. On the other hand, the proliferation of channels showing documentaries has led to a decrease in accuracy since there is now less competition and it is a seller's market. (I realize that this is the same argument used about the dilution of pitching talent in MLB caused by expansion of teams). For a very good synopsis of the issues check out what Eric Cline wrote in his article entitled "Raiders of the Faux Ark" originally published in the Boston Globe, but also available at the AIA website. I particularly like this article, not only because it is well-written and persuasively argued, but because he also mentions the Naked Archaeologist a show on the History Channel that students frequently ask me about. I also have to confess that the intent of the producers of the show/movie is important to my view on it. For example, I saw an interview with several of the producers of the recent movie, 300, and appreciated the fact that they said they changed things to make the movie more visually appealing and entertaining. And yes, I know some people argue that history doesn't need to be tinkered with to be exciting, but I also understand that movies are made to make money. I do, however, get very ticked off when I see or hear producers of movies/shows going on at great length about their product's historical accuracy and attention to detail but then see errors or inaccuracies in their production. I hope this makes sense somehow, and is not just a bizarre rambling.

RSM

CNN Shortcut

Today, between classes who were reviewing for finals, I ran across an article on cnn.com entitled "Shortcuts: How to make it as an archaeologist" by Paul Sussman posted back on December 11, 2006 - an interesting little piece. Over the last few summers I have read a couple of Sussman's books - The Lost Army of Cambyses and The Last Secret of the Temple. According to this article, to become an archaeologist you need to:

1) Forget the bull whip
2) Study hard, get the qualifications
3) Volunteer as "trowel fodder"
4) Resign yourself to a lifetime of poorly-paid obscurity
5) Find Nefertiti

I certainly agree with the first four and while number 5 would be great, I don't think one should concentrate on making the spectacular discovery since that can lead to issues, problems, and frustration. But then again I am happy with lots of pot sherds, so what do I know?

RSM