Sean Zwagerman's "The Scarlet P"

I think Zwagerman frames the dilemma here nicely. He explains, persuasively, that the power given over to surveillance technologies like turnitin.com can disrupt roles and relationships in the classroom and that the simplistic, "track it down and punish it" approach fails to appreciate some of the larger problems at play in scenarios involving plagiarism. Unfortunately, our reliance on these technologies to ensure trust can paradoxically blind us from what we really want for our students: integrity. Using Zwagerman's ethical framework, I think it would be interesting to imagine a set of values and competencies beyond trust and solidarity. The music industry, for instance, is beginning to learn that music data isn't as valuable as embodied experiences. Forget the album. Sell the concert, the backstage party. Make it into a 3-D movie and convince people they need to be there to see it first. For many teachers with firmly established beliefs, it may be hard to imagine what students and parents might sign up for if the essay dies, but I think there are plenty of three-dimensional, 360 degree, surround-sound writing activities that can help teachers, students, and writers destroy the concept of plagiarism. Will students continue to betray our trust? Of course. Teachers will betray student trust as well. But I hope we can do away with the system that memorializes these rather small slights with things like academic death penalties and even firings.