Running head: GRAVA & SHUB: ISSUES PAPER

Issues Paper

Alison C. Grava & Crystal Shub

ET 680 Role of the Technology Leader

Loyola University Maryland

Dr. David M. Marcovitz, Professor

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WHAT IS THE ISSUE

Being a leader in a school is a daunting task at any level. We, as educators, often quote

individuals without realizing that it is an act of plagiarism. Merriam-Webster defines plagiarism

as the act of using another person's words or ideas without giving credit to that person

(Plagiarism, 2015). We watch leaders of our country violate this. How are we to hold

administrators, teachers, and student accountable to this issue if often we do not understand how

to prevent it? The biggest issue that we have as leaders in a school system is to help teach all

stakeholders how to prevent violating plagiarism. Plagiarism is the umbrella, which also has

implications dealing with copyright and acceptable use policies when dealing with the school

systems.

As leaders in educational technology, it is paramount that we help direct our colleagues

and students toward proper citation practices. Technology provides teachers and students with

access to so much information that it is important that we respect where and who that

information comes from in order to avoid the violation of intellectual property. Whether a

teacher is working toward furthering their education or presenting information to students, giving

credit to the individual who had originally published the idea is important. When dealing with

the furthering of an education, the teacher must provide proper citation for where they have

found their information; otherwise, the institution of higher learning can expel the educator from

the university or college without a second thought. That is when the leader in education

technology can play the important role in helping the educator prevent theft of intellectual

property.

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Many teachers in todays classrooms do not realize that copying an image from the

internet without providing attribution is a form of plagiarism. When they do take these images,

they are often sharing them with their students for educational purposes. While we know that it

is done without malice, it is often forgiven, but it is up to the teacher to be a role model for the

student. Since many of the teachers in our school did not necessarily learn about how to provide

attribution when they were in school because the internet was still evolving, it is up to the

technology leader to guide the teachers as they navigate the technology changes that have since

taken place. Many may not see this as a big deal, but violating plagiarism can have bigger

consequences.

Plagiarism is one of the most important issues to work with in a school system on several

levels. When working with the faculty and staff of a school, this issue must be addressed heavily

in order to prevent passing along unprofessional practices to the students in our classrooms.

Every year, we have our students read and sign their Student/Parent handbooks suggesting that

they have read and understood all of the policies of a school system. At the high school level,

the teachers go over the specific policy that addresses academic integrity and more specifically,

plagiarism. When a student violates plagiarism, they receive no credit for the assignment and a

referral goes to the administration, which is placed in their record. At the high school level, this

can prevent the student from getting in the National Honors Society. The problem occurs when a

teacher is not practicing appropriate citation or attribution. If they actively violate the plagiarism,

policy provided by the school system, how could they hold their students to such academic

standards?

In order to prevent plagiarism with the students, it is important that the teachers take a

more active role in educating the students how to avoid such infractions. Howard and Davies

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state, Students don't need threats; students need pedagogy (2009). The implication is simple; if

you teach students how to understand the resource they are working with, summarize

appropriately, and how to show where the information comes from, then the students will meet

the expectations of intellectual property.

Plagiarism goes hand in hand with copyright. When dealing with preventing plagiarism,

it is important to know how to decipher the convulsion of copyright law. If copyright is violated,

it can have dire consequences in the real world. For example, in 2006, Associated Press

photographer Mannie Garcia (Shinoskie, 2010) that was used by graphic artist Shepard Fairey to

create the 2008 Obama Hope posters took a photo of President Obama. Because the

Associated Press employed Garcia, his photo was covered by copyright law (Shinoskie, 2010)

according to the claim made by the Associated Press. According to Fairey, his use of the photo

from the Associated Press was covered by Fair Use Policy (Shinoskie, 2010). The subsequent

court case dragged on for two years. Without a full understanding, the implications of copyright

violation can have a significant impact on an individuals life. Fairey was given probation

(Brooks, 2012) for his bad faith effort in obtaining the appropriate permission for using the photo

(Shinoskie, 2010) two years after the initial filing of the lawsuit. While this is a real world

example of plagiarism and violation of copyright, at the school level, it is vital that these real

world applications be presented to both teachers and students in order to reinforce the importance

of learning the appropriate way to cite resources.

For teachers in particular, copyright is important to understand when dealing with the

materials that are copied and shared with the students in the classroom. Most of the materials

that are provided to teachers from the county level are paid for through materials of adoption

committees. However, it is when a teacher finds materials on their own that they must be aware

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of what permissions are given for the reproduction of those materials. As an educational

technology leader, navigating the electronic realm of sharing materials is an important

distinction. According to American University Library What Faculty Need to Know About

Copyright for Teaching, materials can be shared electronically under the fair use aspect of

copyright as long as it is presented in a permanent platform like Blackboard and there must be a

reminder that the materials are not to be copied and redistributed to others (2010). However,

there should be an attempt to obtain permissions, despite the fair use coverage.

Because it is so easy to copy images from the internet, it is the role of the educational

technology leader to help the teachers present these images in accordance with copyright laws,

thus avoiding plagiarism and helping the teacher to be a role model for students. With the fair

use aspect of copyright, the teachers need to learn how to attribute properly the images they use

to the individual whose intellectual property it is. By providing the proper citation, the teacher is

modeling appropriate conduct for the students, which can be parroted when the student provides

images in presentations. If the students are taught how to provide citations and are exposed to

this practice, they can avoid violating copyright laws and prevent the consequences of plagiarism

at the school level.

Acceptable use policy is another consideration that goes along with plagiarism as it

pertains to the use of school technology resources where the students are finding their researched

information and faculty is pulling resources. The policies are in place to protect all stakeholders

in education. The acceptable use policy is ambiguous for faculty and staff in the fact that they

often state that a violation of the policy will result in administrative sanctions that may include

prohibited or restricted use of AACPS electronic communications and computer resources

(Anne Arundel County Public Schools, 2016). It is just as ambiguous for the students when it

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states, subject to disciplinary action for computer misconduct (Anne Arundel County Public

Schools, 2016), but it has four levels of consequences in place. Those consequences are at the

discretion of the administrator in charge of the student who violates the policy.

The major issue of plagiarism is also addressed in an ambiguous way. In both

Montgomery County Public Schools and Anne Arundel County Public Schools, plagiarism is

addressed in the Student Code of Conduct in which students receive at the beginning of each

year. Plagiarism is in the Code of Conduct as academic dishonesty in which they define it as

taking someone else's work or ideas. In the Student Code of Conduct, it discusses what

plagiarism is briefly, and what the consequences are. For plagiarism, depending on the severity,

the consequences can range from a conference to a recommendation for expulsion in

Montgomery County Schools (Student Code of Conduct, 2015, p 27). For Anne Arundel County,

the range is similar but does not extend beyond in-school consequences (A Guide to Students

Rights and Responsibilities|2015-2016, 2015, p. 9). According to the literature, the lowest level

of consequence should be considered first, and then it should be followed by progressively more

severe consequences. For the first offense of plagiarism in Montgomery County Schools, it

warrants a level one or two response. A level 1 response is considered a classroom and teacher-

led response with consequences such as a written apology, talk with school counselor, or

detention. A level two response involves the teacher and administrative support, which could

include consequences such as community service, peer mediation, or temporary removal from

class (Student Code of Conduct, 2015). In Anne Arundel County Public Schools, the level one

and two response mirrors that of Montgomery County Schools, but the level three response

involves alternative responses that consist of out of classroom interventions (A Guide to Students

Rights and Responsibilities|2015-2016, 2015, p. 9). Aside from the level of consequence,

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students are to receive a zero on the assignment in which they plagiarized. In both Montgomery

County and Anne Arundel County, plagiarism and academic dishonesty is taken very seriously.

However, all of these violations are system specific, whereas, the violation of plagiarism has

farther-reaching implications making it the most important issue to address.

Through the role of the technology leader, we can teach both faculty and students how to

utilize the citation generators that are available on the internet. These generators are not a simple

as they appear. Often when you input the web address of the resource being worked with, it is

missing important information. While faculty may know how to find the missing information for

the citation, the students need to be taught where on a website the missing information may be

found. Likewise, Microsoft Word has a citation creator that the technology leader can train all

stakeholders in its use. These trainings can be done as a professional development or it can be

done as a screencast so that the faculty and students can refer to it as they work directly with

writing or creating documents and presentations. Similarly, professional development and

screencasts can be created to teach how to provide attributions for images.

When teachers are faced with the rising numbers of students in their classes, it can be

challenging to keep track of possible violations of plagiarism policies. The educational

technology leader can help the faculty learn to use the various plagiarism checkers that are at

their disposal. Anne Arundel County Public School has a plagiarism checker through our

Blackboard site. The role of the technology leader can be to train teachers how to use this

resource in order to catch the plagiarism that involves altering the words just enough to make it

sound like the students voice. This will reduce the likelihood of plagiarism, and the time it takes

for the teacher to find such violations.

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES NEEDED

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At the elementary level, it is imperative that students are provided with the foundational

understanding of plagiarism and its relationship to academic dishonesty. It is necessary to teach

what plagiarism is, what it looks like, and how to avoid it. It is important as emerging writers to

be authentic in the realm of academics. Educators can teach many ways elementary students

about plagiarism. On BrainPop, a very popular educational website with cartoon videos and

activities to supplement teaching and learning, there is a section on plagiarism. Teachers can

show students the video on plagiarism and have supplementary activities to support their

understanding. Some activities can include exposing them to examples and non-examples of

plagiarism. Students need to see what is looks like and what is expected. Afterwards, teachers

can have an open conversation about why the examples were violations of plagiarism. By

examining examples and providing a foundational understanding, students can be cognizant early

on.

In the primary grades, students begin to learn how to take notes and utilize them to create

projects on various topics. In order for students to be successful, educators need to provide by

helping students to understand the resource. It would be helpful for teachers to scaffold for

students to demonstrate how to take a resource and use it to support their own work, without

violating plagiarism. At the primary level, students need to be taught how to take notes by

paraphrasing and providing credit if something is to be directly taken from the source. Students

will only be able to do so if they are provided with the scaffolded experiences to understand how

to provide credit where credit is due. If we clearly demonstrate to students how to be authentic at

the elementary level, students will hopefully be better educated and prepared to be college and

career ready.

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Administration and the technology leader need to work cohesively to create policies and

procedures to inform students and parents at their school what plagiarism is and how it will be

handled upon violation. In the academic dishonesty and plagiarism policy of the school,

plagiarism needs to be clearly defined and examples need to be provided. Then, should a student

violate the plagiarism policy, clear consequences need to be outlined. The technology leader

should work with administration to determine a fair and realistic consequence as it relates to the

countys policy and vision of the school. As teachers, we need to remember that students must be

given the opportunity to improve based on mistakes and their ability to learn from them. Students

will not prevent making the same mistakes in the future if they are not given the opportunity to

do better. In the county, if students plagiarize, students are given a zero on the assignment and

other administrative action can be taken. At the elementary level, the technology leader needs to

propose a more realistic consequence to provide students with the opportunity to learn and thrive

early on. If students violate the plagiarism policy, they should be given a zero; however, they

should have an opportunity to meet with the teacher to examine the violation and redo to

improve the assignment with the ability to achieve up to 75%. By providing students with the

possibility to learn from their mistake, they will have more of a foundational understanding and

avoid making that mistake in the upper grades where action that is more serious can be taken.

We are in the business of teaching not punishing. It is the responsibility of the school

system to teach the students how to avoid violating plagiarism. The first policy that should be

addressed is the actions taken against stakeholders that violate the plagiarism policy. The

technology leader should conduct professional development to address how teachers and other

faculty members should cite their use of information that is protected by intellectual property.

By educating, the educators in how they should show these citations will prevent the spread of

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unprofessional practices. Once a faculty member is taught how to cite the information, they can

then be held to the policies that are addressed in the school systems handbook.

Subsequently, the teachers can go about addressing the plagiarism issues in the

classroom. This should be a teachable moment. If the schools create a school-wide way of

teaching the appropriate way to use the corresponding citation style, the plagiarism policy can

then be enforced. However, the current policy is to give the student who violates the policy a

zero for the offending assignment and a referral to be placed in the students file. This does not

teach the student to avoid this infraction in the future.

Teachers should review the appropriate style guide for their subject area in order to

provide the works cited to reflect the resource being used. Likewise, the procedure for citing the

information within the assignment, whether that be print or non-print based. Therefore, the

policy needs to reflect the action of teaching the student in order to prevent a reoccurrence of the

violation.

Rather than giving an absolute zero for the assignment, the act of reviewing the

assignment with the student and teaching them how to address the plagiarized aspects

appropriately provides the student with the opportunity to redo the assignment in order to correct

the infraction. Once that is addressed, if the student does take this opportunity, they could then

resubmit the assignment for a minimum score. This should be done on a sliding scale across all

school levels. For the elementary and middle school level, this should bring the student to the

average level of score according to a school-wide policy. For the high school level, it should be

looked at through the 9-10 band bringing the assignment to a percentage of below average level

(in AACPS that would be 60%) and in the 11-12 band bringing the assignment to the minimum

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level of 50%. By treating the minimum score as the reward for taking the time to learn the

appropriate way to avoid plagiarism in the future.

MEMOS TO PRINCIPALS

Shub Memo to Principal Forest Knolls Elementary School:

Dear Principal Bernstein,

Forest Knolls Elementary is a place that thrives on the strong and dedicated community

of teachers, students, parents, and administration. To continue to nurture such a wonderful

learning environment, we should continuously seek ways to challenge our students and hold

them to the high expectations that we know will make them successful. Plagiarism and academic

dishonesty is an area in which I believe we can be more straightforward and supportive in order

to benefit our students to become college and career ready in an ever changing and competitive

global society.

Just a few years ago, students in grades 3-5 were provided with 1:1 Chromebooks. This

was such a great opportunity for our students. With the increase in technology, it is so important

that all stakeholders be embrace the changes. There are many facets of utilizing the new

technology; one that needs to be at the forefront is academic integrity. With the use of

Chromebooks for several tasks and projects, students need to be provided with the foundational

understanding and expectations for using the technology in a way to support their education.

Students are able to access many resources (e-books, articles, videos, pictures, etc.) that can

support their learning. I propose that we provide extensive support to teach students about how to

use appropriately these resources to prevent plagiarism.

In order for students to understand the implications of plagiarism, we must teach them

what it is, how it can be violated, and what we can do to prevent it now and in the future. In

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order to do so I propose that administration, teachers, and the technology leader work in unison

to address the issue of plagiarism. Using engaging activities and lessons, students will

understand what plagiarism is, why it is such an important issue, and how they can be authentic

in their creations. It is also imperative that we collaborate as a team to provide a policy on

plagiarism for all stakeholders, especially parents, so they can understand our expectations and

best support their child in their academics.

Regardless of planning procedures to deter students from plagiarizing, I am fully aware

that there will be instances when the policy is violated. In MCPS, it is stated that students should

receive appropriate consequences based on the level of the academic dishonesty violation. I

understand this policy to ensure that students are given punitive action; however, I propose that

students at our school, at the elementary level, be given a realistic and appropriate consequence. I

propose that if students are to violate the plagiarism policy, they are required to have a

conversation with the teacher to identify and improve the assignment. Then they should be given

the opportunity to redo the assignment with the ability to achieve up to 75%. By providing

students with the possibility to learn from their mistake, they will have more of a foundational

understanding and avoid making that mistake in future and especially in the upper grades where

more action that is serious can be taken.

Through supporting students from the elementary level and educating them on academic

integrity and plagiarism, I hope to continue to nurture the strong and dedicated community of

learning we have at Forest Knolls Elementary School. Thank you for your continuous dedication

as our school leader, and considering this policy change.

Grava Memo to Principal Myers at South River High School:

Dear Principal Myers,

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In recent years, our school has addressed more and more cases of violations of Board

Policy 613 - Academic Integrity, more specifically the act of plagiarism. Currently, our policy

states that when there is a violation of this aspect of the policy, we give the student a zero for the

offense on the assignment and write a referral to be placed in the students file. At South River

High School, we also place a hold on their opportunity to become a member of the National

Honors Society for a year. While I agree with the actions taken when this violation takes place, I

feel that the finality of a zero goes against what we are to do as educators in teaching students

how to prevent this from happening. I feel that we need to create a new policy in our school to

use this violation as a teachable moment and award the student with some credit if they take the

appropriate steps to learn from this violation.

This should not be something that is placed on the student alone. We need to address this

issue at faculty level first in order to establish the foundation of citation for the teachers before

addressing it at the student level. I feel that we should conduct professional development on how

to use the appropriate style guide for APA and MLA in order to establish a school-wide norm for

how to create both a works cited and in-text citation. It would up to the individual teacher to

teach the pedagogy in understanding how to understand the resources that the students would

need to appropriately summarize the information.

Despite this step, we know that there will be times that the plagiarism policy will be

violated. I feel that we should continue to follow the policy as Anne Arundel County Public

Schools have provided us with an addendum. Once the teacher has followed the policy of giving

the assignment a zero and writing the referral, the teacher and student should be given the option

to go through a teachable moment. The student would have to meet with the teacher that the

violation took place in order to have a tutorial providing how to fix and avoid plagiarism on the

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assignment that the offense took place. Then the student may be given the opportunity to redo

the assignment according to the guidelines adhering to the appropriate citation style for the

assignment and resubmit for a minimum score.

This addendum would be done on a sliding scale according to the grade-level of the

student. Since we work with two different bands according to the Common Core State Standards

for Career and College Readiness, we should follow the same proficiency bands. For the 9-10

band, the student who submits their work should receive a minimum score of 60% in order to

reflect below proficiency; therefore, the score will influence the overall grade in the class, but

not destroy the learning process. Similarly, the same procedure should be followed for the 11-12

grade band, but the student should receive the minimum score of 50% in accordance with the

Board of Educations minimum score policy.

The most important aspect of this change in policy is to prepare our students for life

beyond the walls of South River High School. This policy would encourage ongoing learning,

which supports our educational goal of creating lifelong learners. It supports our desire to teach

students that they must have consequences for violating policies, but it will not prevent their

grade from reflecting their ability to understand the concepts in the subject area. It will increase

the school-wide GPA. Furthermore, the help to build stronger relationships between the teachers

and students because the learning process is being respected, rather than the result of a grade.

This will also support the relationship between the school and parent, as it will show our good-

faith effort to nurture the education of their student rather than the punitive nature of the zero.

Thank you for considering this policy change. I believe that it will benefit all

stakeholders in our school and further our county push to greatness.

CONCLUSION

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After conducting extensive research in the issues of plagiarism, copyright, and acceptable

use policies, we feel that addressing plagiarism is paramount in our schools. As we prepare our

students from Pre-K through 12th grade, we hold the responsibility to prepare the students to be

contributing members of our society. Through our research, we found that there are varying

degrees plagiarism can be violated. It is our responsibility as technology leaders in our schools to

make sure that the faculty and students know how to avoid committing these violations through

educating all stakeholders how to avoid making such mistakes. Through professional

development, we can help the faculty learn how they are violating this policy in order to model

appropriate intellectual property practices for our students. Likewise, we can turn a violation of

plagiarism into a teachable moment for our students in order to help them learn to prevent this

violation going forward in their education. Paying attention to the maturing levels of the student

provides the level of differentiated support needed to help navigate our students through their

educational paths. Navigating the technology can be a daunting task; educational technology

leaders can play an important role in preventing the violation of plagiarism through helping train

all stakeholders in educational technology resources that exist in order to help maintain citations

for intellectual property.

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RESOURCES

American University Library. (2010). What Faculty Need to Know About Copyright for Teaching

[PDF file]. Washington D.C. American University. Retrieved July 2, 2016, from

https://www.american.edu/library/documents/upload/Copyright_for_Teaching.pdf

Anne Arundel County Public Schools. (Spring 2016). Employee Handbook [PDF file]. Anne

Arundel County Public Schools Division of Human Resources. Retrieved July 4, 2016,

http://www.aacps.org/humanresources/handbook.pdf

Brooks, K. (2012, September 9). Shepard Fairey Sentenced To Probation For Destroying

Evidence Involved With AP Civil Case. The Huffington Post. Retrieved July 3, 2016,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/07/shepard-fairey-sentenced_n_1864785.html

A Guide to Students Rights and Responsibilities|2015-2016. (2015). Student Handbook [PDF

file]. Anne Arundel County Public Schools. Retrieved July 4, 2016, from

http://www.aacps.org/html/studt/studenthandbook.pdf

Howard, R. M., & Davies, L. J. (2009, March). Plagiarism in the Internet Age. Educational

Leadership, 66(6), 64-67. Retrieved July 1, 2016, from

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Plagiarism-

in-the-Internet-Age.aspx

Plagiarism. (2015, June 9). Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved June 29, 2016, from

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarism

Shinoskie, R. L. (2010). In Defense of Fairey and Fair Use [PDF file]. Entertainment and Sports

Lawyer, 28(1), 16-20. Retrieved July 2, 2016, from

http://www.mpplaw.com/files/Publication/f32ae399-90df-483d-8a4c-

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44d9d1fdfad5/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/adc311e1-d301-4155-8cef-

4c543c92afb3/InDefenseofFaireyandFairUse.pdf

Student Code of Conduct. (2015). Student Handbook [PDF file]. Montgomery County Public

Schools. Retrieved July 4, 2016,

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/students/rights/CodeofConduct.pdf

Student Rights and Responsibilities. (2015). Regulation: Montgomery County Public Schools

[PDF file]. Retrieved July, 4, 2016,

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/jfara.pdf

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