Saturday, May 27, 2006

What is LOPSOD?

With two teenagers in the house, one must learn to adapt of be left in the dust. With computers, iPods, AIM, MySpace, and text-messaging, teenage communication has certainly evolved from passing notes in class.

I was at a gathering of Presbyterian elders and pastors last weekend. Around my table were eight bright and intelligent people. They had firm convictions about many things. At one point I asked them if they knew anything about MySpace. Only one did, and he had a teenager at home.

I went on to ask how many of their churches had a web site. Only one responded positively, the rest either said "no" or did not know. I believe the research shows that a great deal of new visitors find a new church by checking out the web site. But I digress, it is a new day.

Here is a helpful "dictionary" of net-speak called NetLingo. On this site you can find translations of text-messaging shorthand, email shorthand, smileys, and much more. It is worth a look. (H/T Education Wonks)

Oh, and LOPSOD means Long On Promises, Short on Delivery.

NTK

BFN

CYT

EOM

South Pasadena Sports

Last year on this Memorial Day weekend, we attended the CIF Southern Section Boys Volleyball championship match at Cypress College. South Pasadena was in the finals for the first time ever, but they lost in a very exciting match.

This year, the South Pasadena High School Boys Volleyball team did not make it out of the first round. Two weeks ago, they played the Mayfair Monsoons. After losing the first game, South Pasadena came back to win the second game. The third game was very exciting, but South Pasadena made too many unforced errors, and lost 29-27, after being ahead 24-21. This loss seemed to take the wind out of the Tigers' sails, and they went on to lose the fourth game. End of playoffs. End of season. There's always next year.

A week ago, the South Pasadena High School Boys Soccer team held its end of the season banquet. Both JV and Varsity players attended, and after a fine meal from Charlie's Trio, the coach presented some awards. Mark received an award for Best Defender. He also was surprised to find that he had been named as an Honorable Mention All League Defender for the Rio Hondo League. Nice job, son!

Friday, May 05, 2006

The Plague of Plagiarism

Nice alliteration, right? An interesting article from Regret the Error on a reporter from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution being fired for plagiarism. Evidently he wrote a 28 paragraph article, but 12 paragraphs were lifted from a previously published article.

But the Regret the Error folks have an interesting point.
So, is plagiarism strictly a numbers game? If you lift one paragraph, or six, is that just a failure of attribution? What about seven or 10? What if you say that you mistook the stolen material for your own. Is that acceptable? In the AJC example, the writer lifted 12 passages and had to resign. If he had only lifted five, could he have kept his job?

We don't ask these questions in a mocking tone. They are valid because it's almost impossible to resolve the different ways that newspapers handle plagiarism. Some see fit to fire the staffer and apologize to readers; others bury the incident in a correction, fail to explain clearly what happened, and just hope the whole thing goes away. Few take the time to investigate the previous work of the reporter in question.

I deal with this sort of thing every semester in my class(es) at Azusa Pacific University. This semester, I had two pairs of students turn in virtually the same papers. So, after some discussion, they flunked the assignment, 20% of their semester grade was a "zero".

Still, it is a good question. What constitutes plagiarism? Is it one quote, uncredited? Five quotes? What about eight quotes rewritten in similar but different language?

By the way, the cartoon is used with permission of the author, Randy Glasbergen. He has some really funny cartoons, and they can be found here. So I am NOT using someone else's work without their permission, or without giving credit to them. (As well as my hard earned $$$ for using it!) This cartoon is an oldie, but a goodie.

In my syllabus, I indicate the following, and I stressed it at the very first class session.
  1. Academic dishonesty corrupts the soul of the student and tarnishes the academic institution. It will not be tolerated in any form.
  2. Academic dishonesty includes plagiarizing from someone in class on a paper or quiz or exam.
  3. Academic dishonesty includes plagiarizing from a written source. If you use someone else's work, give credit where credit is due, always cite your sources.
  4. First Offense: "Zero" on the exam or work at issue.
  5. Second Offense: "Failure" of the course.
  6. For further information, see the Student Handbook

The Student Handbook has this to say:

http://www.apu.edu/registrar/undergraduate/policies/integrity/

Academic Integrity

The maintenance of academic integrity and quality education is the responsibility of each student at Azusa Pacific University. Cheating or plagiarism in connection with an academic program is an offense for which a student may be expelled, suspended, or given a less severe disciplinary action. Academic dishonesty is a serious offense that diminishes the quality of scholarship and defrauds those who depend upon the integrity of the educational system.

For more information, see the Academic Integrity Policy Brochure (PDF)*

Academic dishonesty includes:
  1. Intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized material, information, or study aids in any academic exercise.
  2. Using any external assistance (e.g., books, notes, calculators, and conversations with others) unless specifically authorized by the instructor.
  3. Allowing others to conduct research or prepare work for students without advance authorization from the instructor.
  4. Submitting portions of the same academic work for credit in more than one course without authorization.
  5. Intentional falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.
  6. Intentionally, or knowingly helping or attempting to help another commit an act of academic dishonesty.
  7. Intentionally or knowingly representing the words, ideas, or work of another as one's own in any academic exercise.

With the relative ease of "research" on the internet, from buying papers to just pulling off quotes, it is very tempting for any student to plagiarize. And yet, those of us who teach must help them resist the temptation.

Two of my students were quite apologetic over the incident. One was freaking out over the assignment, and asked the other for help. She sent him her paper, which he copied, making only minor adjustments. My students believe they are "good" people, and that this sort of behavior is an aberration. I disagree. I wrote to the offending parties:
I know enough of our fallen nature, which has not submitted to the discipline of the cross, is still alive and kicking in us. I am saddened for you to have your illusions of "being a good person" shocked by this incident, but it is better to know who we are really, and what forces we are dealing with, than to go through life with pious Christian platitudes. Jesus was, above all, not a pessimist nor an optimist, but a realist. And there lies the grace and truth of the matter.

There is forgiveness in Jesus to be sure. However, if I let this go unpunished, it is what Bonhoeffer calls "cheap grace." And the lesson will not be learned. I must follow the university guidelines, for your own sake and the sake of the university. As to the latter, I must uphold the tenets of academic discipline and integrity in this university, so this is my decision.

What C. S. Lewis Sounded Like

From an article on Christianity Today. Evidently the BBC has some old recordings that Lewis did during WWII, here. It is cool! Check it out.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

We're #2! We're #2! We're #2!

The South Pasadena High School boy's volleyball team went to play arch-rival San Marino this afternoon. At stake was the opportunity to go to the CIF playoffs. This was last regular season game, and the Tigers were 5-4 in league, and in 3rd place. The Titans were 4-5, and in 4th place. If the Titans won, a playoff between the Titans and Tigers would ensue, as each would have an identical 5-5 record. Fortunately, that did not happen.

(By the way, the picture of Mark and his friend, Kevin (Kurry) the setter, is from the alumni game earlier in the season. I love how high Mark is, and the look on Kurry's face, gazing up in awe at the white boy with hops.)

San Marino, using their boisterous crowd to their advantage, won the first game, I am thinking it was 25-20. The Tigers' coach wound up sitting all the starters about halfway through the game, so the second team played valiantly. But lost.

That move, though questionable, seemed to wake up the starters. They dominated games two and three. But they then lost focus, and lost a close game four, 27-25.

On to game five, the clincher. The Tigers won handily, though San Marino gave them a scare. A thrilling end to a five game match. Very good plays were made on both sides of the net, but South Pasadena was too tall, and too strong for San Marino to keep up with.

Mark had, by one count, 22 kills in the match. Sweeeeeeeeeet!

Bring on the playoffs!

Monday, May 01, 2006

Lehigh Acres Fire

Man, the world can be a small place at times. When I was the pastor at Faith United Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, one of the things we had to deal with was the proverbial "land in Florida." Turns out, though, that we did own real land in Florida. Seven lots, as a matter of fact. In Lehigh Acres. That's why when browsing the internet this evening, I came across this headline: Boys Arrested in Florida Fires. The first two grafs:
LEHIGH ACRES, Florida (AP) -- Two boys were charged Sunday with setting weekend brush fires that have destroyed or damaged more than two dozen homes and burned more than 1,500 acres in southwest Florida, authorities said.

The boys, ages 10 and 12, were arrested and charged as juveniles with intentional and reckless burning of land, a third-degree felony, Lee County sheriff's Lt. Robert Forrest said. Authorities were seeking a third youth.

So the place really DOES exist. Alas, we sold the lots in Florida. We probably paid more in property taxes over the years than we got from the proceeds of the sale. Oh well. Wonder if the donor was looking to benefit the church or just get a good tax write-off.

I wonder only because it became a pet peeve of mine at FUPC. In the adjacent Westminster House, where we had youth ministry, there were 27 couches in various states of disrepair. We dragged them all out one afternoon for the city of LA trash trucks to pick them up. Along with the 4 non-working microwave ovens, some the size of an old UNIVAC.

Why would someone donate a couch with missing cushions, or a broken leg, to a church? Why would anyone donate a non-working microwave to the church?

I can just see it.

A couple goes out and buys a new couch. The old one is falling apart, but they cannot stand the thought of just tossing it. "I know", says one. "Let's donate it to the church." What they really mean is, "Let's get a tax deduction, and let's leave this ratty old couch for the church to deal with." As if "the church" is some large, impersonal structure.

Well, at FUPC, I was one of the human faces of the church, and wound up throwing away dumpsters full of people's "generosity" to the church. Even the Goodwill and Salvation Army would not take some of this stuff we had bestowed upon us.

That's a long way from Lehigh Acres, I know. But it is late.