Monday 20 January 2014

Cheating is learning

The topic for the first week of Dave Cormier's #rhizo14 course is 'Cheating AS Learning' but I've called this post 'Cheating IS Learning' because that's what I say to students all the time in the classroom. When I chuck a question at them in the classroom, I often (well in the first few weeks at least) find them staring back at me blankly. This is, plainly, because they don't know the answer to the question. Pretty much every single one of them has some kind of mobile device on their person that they can whip out and use to cheat but they're all so well trained in standards of teaching and learning that they believe that unless they can pull the answer out of their memory banks then it's not valid as an answer. As soon as I suggest that they can 'cheat' (i.e. they can look up the answer on their phone) then suddenly they are into it. It often becomes a bit of a race to see who can get to the answer first.

The phrase 'cheating is learning' became a kind of catchphrase in that class alongside another one that I picked up from Lindsay Jordan: "No one knows as much as everyone". Lindsay explains it as: 10 people working together on something will always achieve more than one person competing against the other 9. These two principles are, of course, linked; I'll get onto that link in a bit.

There are lots of ways students can cheat: they can look stuff up online (invariably they google it which often gets them to wikipedia), they can look stuff up in a book (usually their text book) or their notes, they can ask someone else in the room or they can ask the teacher. The point is that I want it to be clear to my students that the whole principle of learning has to work from the assumption that there is a whole pile of stuff they don't yet know; not knowing it isn't a big deal, but not finding out is.

The link between 'cheating is learning' and 'noone knows as much as everyone' is, of course, that learning collaboratively (and by extension working collaboratively) is a very productive approach.  The principle  I offer is that I don't expect them to come to an active learning session with the complete picture, but I do expect them to come with at least some of the jigsaw puzzle pieces. It's likely that not everyone will come with the same pieces so the job of work to be done in the learning session is for each student to declare which pieces they've brought and do what they can to piece them together with the pieces that others have brought. It's still highly likely that at the end of that session they they'll have that annoying charity-shop jigsaw scenario of missing pieces, but the  picture should at least be starting to form.

The student reflective responses to these types of classes are always positive: that they feel they've really learned something because they've had to figure it out for themselves rather than simply being told it. This is, of course, heuristic learning at its best.

The first thing that I want to reflect on in this post is that after my confident declaration that 'cheating is learning' I routinely find myself muttering 'don't tell my colleagues I said that'. There's something deeply iconoclastic about saying these things and believing them to be true. That's especially the case for someone who, as I do, also sits on academic misconduct panels. So the first reflective question I pose (to myself and others reading this) is: what are the limits we might want to or be required to impose upon collaborative learning within the academy? What role might rhizomatic learning play in 'loosening the regulatory bolts'?

The other thing I want to reflect on is how this approach I've described fits within a rhizomatic model of learning. It still very much works from the 'arborescent' assumption that the principle of good learning is finding (whether through cheating or not) the right answers to questions. This is, of course, all well and good for things that are arborescent, but, as Deleuze and Guattari put it, 'we're tired of trees... they've made us suffer too much' (15). So the second reflective question I ask (again of myself and others) is how might the 'cheating is learning' principle apply in a rhizomatic context and, particularly, a context in which I want to value and reward students not for answering questions to which we already know the answers, but instead for asking questions we've never thought to ask before (even if we don't yet have any answers)?

21 comments:

  1. Like this cheating as learning

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Cath,
    fascinating post - I could see that your students were learning how to find something out - and the something out appeared to be facts (not sure of topic). What about when the something they had to find out was not facts but how to do something? The cheating then is different I think.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Cath and Frances,
      We were having a discussion about ebooks, I suggested that the internet could be the "almost perfect ebook" though some though it could be too much to handle. The point I would like to make is that regardless of trying to learn facts or how to do things, what we need is to teach new skills.
      Some argue that if a question is easily answered by googling it is not a good question, my feeling is that we take for granted what good questions are. I usually find myself asking silly questions, or having too sky-blue ideas. But sometimes, this silliness or almost crazy ideas lead me to new ways of looking at things.
      It's challenging to feel out of the system sometimes.

      Delete
    2. Frances: I agree that that is a different type of cheating, but I guess my point is that there are lots of types of cheating. Finding out how to do something (even stuff I should actually already know how to do or stuff I once knew how to do and have forgotten) - or procedural knowledge - is the central pillar of the Khan academy and, frankly, a lot of what I use YouTube for.
      Debbie - I guess that's the point of my final reflections. Asking questions like that is working from assumptions of right and wrong whereas rhizomes are really made up of indeterminacy. But, as D&G point out, there are things in the world that are arborescent, we just have to stop teaching (and learning) as if everything is.

      Delete
    3. Hi Cath - interesting post, but I agree with Frances. For me, what you describe as your approach to teaching, is a good introduction to searching for, filtering, selecting, remixing and repurposing information, i.e information seeking skills. Like Frances, I don't think that this is the same thing as 'cheating' - although I can see that if your students have always been told that using mobile phones in class is cheating, and then you suddenly tell them that they can use them, then what you are asking them to do might be interpreted as cheating. I still wonder whether making students feel comfortable about 'cheating' is ethical. Thanks for your post.

      Delete
    4. Hi Jenny - that issue of ethics is precisely where my reflections sit at the end: I guess I'm wanting to find out where the meaningful 'edges' to this thinking might sit, particularly for someone responsible for leading on academic integrity. I guess to put it in simple terms, there if there is a kind of it-feels-naughty emotion that emerges from something that I'm doing or encouraging my students to do, it might be worth attending to that.

      Delete
  3. The stuff is not the problem. The mass of stuff is.

    I am now working with my students on reflective curation of stuff which is meaningful to them using the 'recommendation engines' critically, using translators critically.

    We are trying to make it clear to them that the process is much more important than the product. Indeed the process in language learning or any learning is key. Life-long learning is what it says - a process.

    We are then looking at the different means of communicating identies and competences.

    One of these competences is social networking.

    We have had institutionalised cheating in our systems for ever - the problem is the myth that we are all working on a flat playing surface.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I used cheating as "learning" in junior high when I copied the answers from tests that my sister had a year earlier, and then shared them. I only remember one kid getting caught because he got 100%. The rule was you had to have at least 5 mistakes. Cheater.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi, yes there is a certain behaviour inculcated into school and university students that "remembering" is superior to "looking up" rather ironic given Bloom's cognitive hierarchy. I have been operating an inquiry based learning model for a while now which tries to get over this in giving permission for this "dynamic research" model - i.e. allowing students to be active users of the technology during teaching / learning sessions.

    The points Simon makes I thin is also important in terms of both the tutor and students thinking about curation as a key tool. Rather then setting the students off to onto the morass I look to be, and see one of the key roles of the tutor as, a "network Sherpa" packing the right "bag" of stuff where they can begin.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The bank thought is typically typically your being assured that or maybe a account. merely embody for your proceed a spree beside your proof of revenue, your most up-to-date ancient typical commonplace bank affirmation so you current state ikon we tend to tend to. N. or even passport. the actual Salaryday and Size loan may be a marvelous product in addition pay day loans near me to product and services that will permits quite few persons daily. Anytime emergencies occur, glimpse realize people.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The main advantage of this theme is that this theme is whereas not the faxing of documents. The fax less day advance is to boot an issue matter in this the capitalist will issue the money whereas not requesting the faxing. In faxing, usually the payday loans jackson-MS time is wasted in faxing the documents and verification the documents. The capitalist checks the foremost points at intervals the faxed documents.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The abridgement of accessory turns lending into a added chancy transaction and accustomed that the applicants usually accept bad acclaim or decrepit acclaim histories, the accident is already rather high. That is the capital acumen why absorption ante on these loans are college but bethink admitting that if the bulk is college than the ones answerable on acclaim cards, you should about-face bottomward the offer. Overpaying in agreement of interests will not advice you cull your affairs through.
    cash advance

    ReplyDelete
  10. The anchored adaptation of these loans has abundant bigger features. Not alone they accommodate college amounts and best claim programs (which agency lower account payments), but they additionally allegation lower ante alike for those with bad acclaim or accomplished bankruptcies. These loans are based on disinterestedness and thus, they crave that you accept acceptable disinterestedness accessible on your property. But if you do, you can get bargain costs with minimum interests aloof like with a home loan.
    check cashing in fresno

    ReplyDelete
  11. But as with any anatomy of borrowing, payday loans accept risks and traps, and of beforehand all adopted money comes at a cost. The bulk of a payday accommodation over the abbreviate term, which is what they are advised for, is not actual much, and can be compared to the bulk of a demography a auto ride. Like a auto - payday loans are VERY big-ticket for a continued cruise - but acceptable for the abbreviate booty on an casual basis.
    Check Cashing

    ReplyDelete
  12. So, behindhand of what a lender may acquaint you, if you anticipate you may charge to accumulate a accommodation for best than (say) 4 weeks, or two to three paydays, again you should be cerebration about added agency to accommodated your allotment needs. If you accept a abiding need, or bereft assets to accomplish concise payments, these are acceptable affidavit to abstain accepting a payday appearance of banknote advance.
    check cashing costa-mesa

    ReplyDelete
  13. Salah satu eksotisme gunung bromo yang sangat menarik perhatian para wisatawan ada hamparan lautan pasir berbisik di gunung bromo. Di titik wisata ini anda bisa menunggangi kuda sewaan milik penduduk lokal hanya dengan biaya 10.000 rupiah. Info paket wisata gunung bromo dari kota malang dan surabaya baca info disini.

    Elf short yang berkapasitas 12 seat menjadi mobil primadona di kota malang untuk perjalanan wisata di malang batu. Banyak tempat jasa penyewaan mobil elf short di malang yang bertarif murah dan sangat cocok di kantong backpacker. Selengkapnya sewa mobil elf short di malang klik tautan blog.

    Mobil jenis innova di kota surabaya banyak yang disewakan karena memang permintaan rental mobil innova di surabaya sangatlah tinggi. Harga sewa innova ini sangatlah terjangkau oleh berbagai kalangan. Selain itu kelebihan dari mengendarai innova ini sangatlah nyaman jika dibandingkan dengan mobil sejenis. Tempat kantor sewa mobil jenis innova di surabaya detail disini.

    Rental mobil elf di jogja yang berkapasitas bisa memuat 15-20 orang sangatlah banyak. Jenis mobil elf ini adalah long yang rata-rata berisi 18 seat. Dengan menyewa mobil elf jogja ini bisa anda pergunakan untuk kepentingan keluarga atau jalan-jalan wisata. Tarif sewa mobil elf di jogja lirik blog ini.

    Jenis mobil avanza banyak disewakan di kota denpasar bali. Biasanya kantor pelayanan jasa penyewaan mobil di bali ini sudah include antar jemput ke bandara ngurah rai atau ke terminal di bali. Mobil avanza ini sangat nyaman dan berkapasitas 7 orang. Selengkapnya baca sewa mobil avanza di bali harga murah kunjungi link.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The student reflective responses to those styles of categories ar invariably positive: that they feel they've very learned one thing as a result of they've had to work it out for themselves instead of merely being told it. This is, of course, heuristic learning at its best Facility management pakistan.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The phrase cheating is learning became a form of catchword therein category aboard another one that I picked up from Lindsay Jordan nobody is aware of the maximum amount as everybody. Lindsay explains it as ten individuals operating along on one thing can continuously deliver the goods quite one person competitive against the opposite nine write an essay online.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Packers and Movers Jaipur as a Services providing company can make all the difference to your ###Home Relocation experience. Jaipur based Company which offers versatile solutions, Right team that easily reduce the stress associated with a ✔✔✔Household Shifting, ***Vehicle Transportation. we help things run smoothly and reduce breakages and offer you seamless, Affordable, Reliable Shifting Services, Compare Shifting Charge
    Packers And Movers Jaipur to Bangalore
    Packers And Movers Jaipur to Delhi
    Packers And Movers Jaipur to ahmedabad
    Packers And Movers Jaipur to Gurgaon
    Packers And Movers Jaipur to Kolkata
    For More Details Please Visit Here :
    Packers And Movers Jaipur

    ReplyDelete