Using Technology Responsibly

   This year each student will come to class with the ability to access a wealth of information, at any time, from their chromebook. How empowering! It is important that we build good habits now so that we can responsibly use the internet in high school and beyond. 

   One "bad habit" to avoid is copying large portions of one person's writing, and passing it off as our own. In other words, plagiarism! In my experience, students who struggle to rephrase facts found on the internet do not intend to hurt anyone or "cheat." They simply have trouble understanding the text or do not want to be marked wrong. Again - this is a habit that we can work around. Please keep in mind that I would always rather read your thoughtful insights rather than some "expert's" online. 

   We will work on learning how to rephrase, summarize, or if necessary, professionally cite information that we find online. Also, I am always willing to help anyone who is struggling to put information found on the internet into their own words. It is my policy, however, that work that is largely copied and pasted from the internet (or a friend) cannot be accepted and will be returned to the student to complete again.