"One subject that seems to be the focus of many of the blogs is the issue of cheating. Perhaps we sound pessimistic, but I think that being prepared is key to being a good instructor. "If [we] are prepared [we] shall not fear."
I think she's right! If we are well-prepared as teachers, we won't need to worry about students getting away with too much. I read an article about this where the author concluded that the best way to prevent students from cheating -- whether with technology or otherwise -- is to know your students. If you know them well enough, you'll know what work is theirs and what work isn't.
I do think technology might mean we need to assess differently in the past. For example, you can go to Google Answers (I showed you the early birds this a while back) and for the for the right price get any answer you want from smart researchers who'll do the work for you. Well that kind of destroys the validity of send-home tests, huh? The proliferation of English papers online also hurts the validity of student papers on generic, popular topics.
But maybe that just means we need to test differently, or different kinds of knowledge than we've done before.
Just something to think about!
