Regarding "First-Year Writing Gets a New Look": I attended a session at last semester's TYCA West conference in which 3 professors who required their first-year comp students to complete, in groups, several non-traditional projects such as story boards, websites, T-shirts, and comic strips talked about how they did it and how it worked. I have some information and handouts they developed in response to problems that arose due to the unconventional nature of the projects, including forms for group self-evaluation and project proposals. While I know this class focuses on theory, I'd be happy to share this practical stuff with anyone who's interested.
Regarding "Internet Creates Opportunities to Cheat": My own horror story. When I was working at CSN, the director of the Nursing program asked me to assess whether or not a student had plagiarized the final paper that was all that was standing between the young woman and graduation. She had. All but 2 paragraphs in a 1o-page paper came from 2 articles. I might have thought that she didn't understand the rules of attribution, but she'd tried to cover herself by stating that she was citing no sources because she'd gotten the information from her mother, who'd been a nurse for 20 years. She didn't graduate. The worst part of the whole episode (from my perspective) was that the director had told the young woman who I was, and the student came looking for me. Needless to say, I refused to perform that function for the Nursing Department again!
Regarding "Text Messages May Be Classroom Conduit": This was not what I was expecting, perhaps because I read it after the article about cheating. While I'd never considered the positive classroom possibilities for texting, I have had experience with students texting test questions to their friends . . . and with them taking pictures of tests and emailing them to friends who would be taking the test at a later time. And with students employing text messaging shorthand in papers. There was one girl (and I use the term advisedly) whom I could not convince that 2B was unacceptable in formal writing! She handed the paper in and got a D!
Peace.
