February 2021 archive

AI and paper mills

https://www.facebook.com/groups/onlinelearningcollective/permalink/761389994491701/

“What the invention of photography did to painting, this will do to teaching.”

AI can write a passing college paper in 20 minutes

Natural language processing is on the cusp of changing our relationship with machines forever.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-can-write-a-passing-college-paper-in-20-minutes/

The specific AI — GPT-3, for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 — was released in June 2020 by OpenAI, a research business co-founded by Elon Musk. It was developed to create content with a human language structure better than any of its predecessors.

According to a 2019 paper by the Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence, machines fundamentally lack commonsense reasoning — the ability to understand what they’re writing. That finding is based on a critical reevaluation of standard tests to determine commonsense reasoning in machines, such as the Winograd Schema Challenge.

Which makes the results of the EduRef experiment that much more striking. The writing prompts were given in a variety of subjects, including U.S. History, Research Methods (Covid-19 Vaccine Efficacy), Creative Writing, and Law. GPT-3 managed to score a “C” average across four subjects from professors, failing only one assignment.

Aside from potentially troubling implications for educators, what this points to is a dawning inflection point for natural language processing, heretofore a decidedly human characteristic.

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more on artificial intelligence in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=artificial+intelligence

more on paper mills in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=paper+mills

Formatting Styles

Discussion With PEN, SCSU Fulbright students

  1. What are formatting styles?

The more commonly-used styles include essay format APA, Chicago, Harvard, and MLA. In fact, MLA is among the most widely-used style

Each of the formatting styles has its own unique requirements in a number of areas such as:

  • Title or cover pages
  • Line spacing
  • Font style/size
  • Paragraph layout
  • Paragraph indentation
  • Page numbers
  • Margin sizes
  • Document binding
  • Editing, proofreading, and so on.
  1. Why different styles?

https://www.essay-writing-tips.com/formatting-styles/

In-text citations:

Apa style from Erika Price

Reference management tools: Zotero

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=zotero

essay mills

Cheating Companies Hacked Websites at MIT, Stanford, Columbia And More Than 100 Other Schools

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2021/02/25/cheating-companies-hacked-websites-at-mit-stanford-columbia–and-more-than-100-other-schools/

Jim Ridolfo at the University of Kentucky and William Hart-Davidson at Michigan State University have found that more than 100 websites of American colleges have been hacked or otherwise compromised by essay mills, the contract cheating providers that improperly sell academic work to students.

“If you Google something like essay help and Stanford,” Ridolfo said, “you’ll get school content injected by essay mills or find pages that redirect you to their services.”

block the SQL injections and to set regular scans for additional paper mill intrusions.

hese intrusions were from just 14 known cheating providers when there are probably hundreds of them.

this pattern of hacking legitimate university property to sell cheating services could get much more complex and much more dangerous.

Since cheating is a billion-dollar, global dark market, it’s not surprising. It’s just awful. And schools should move quickly to address it, not just with patches, but with policy and policing.

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more on plagiarism in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=plagiarism

Library Instruction ENG 191

Library Instruction delivered by Plamen Miltenoff, pmiltenoff@stcloudstate.edu

https://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/faculty/

ENG 191, Thursday (2PM)

 

Instructor: Kirstin Bratt

My name is Plamen Miltenoff (https://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/faculty/) and I am the InforMedia Specialist with the SCSU Library (https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/free-tech-instruction/).

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LIBRARY INSTRUCTION – Information, Digital and Media Literacy

  1. How (where from) do you receive your news? Do you think you are able to distinguish real news from fake news?
    1. Last year, researchers at Oxford University found that 70 countries had political disinformation campaigns over two years.
      https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2020/01/20/bots-and-disinformation/
    2. according to Pew Research Center, 68 percent of American adults get their news from social media—platforms where opinion is often presented as fact.
      results of the international test revealed that only 14 percent of U.S. students were able to reliably distinguish between fact and opinion.

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2020/01/16/fake-news-prevention/

News and Media Literacy (and the lack of) is not very different from Information Literacy

An “information literate” student is able to “locate, evaluate, and effectively use information from diverse sources.” See more About Information Literacy.

How does information literacy help me?

Every day we have questions that need answers. Where do we go? Whom can we trust? How can we find information to help ourselves? How can we help our family and friends? How can we learn about the world and be a better citizen? How can we make our voice heard?

The content of the tutorial is based on the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education as approved by the Board of Directors of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Information Literacy Standards | Field Notes

The standards are:

Standard 1. The information literate student determines the nature and extent of the
information needed

Standard 2. The information literate student accesses needed information effectively
and efficiently

Standard 3. The information literate student evaluates information and its sources
critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge
base and value system

Standard 4. The information literate student, individually or as a member of a group,
uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose

Standard 5. The information literate student understands many of the economic, legal,
and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses
information ethically and legally

Project Information Literacy
A national, longitudinal research study based in the University of Washington’s iSchool, compiling data on college students habits to seek and use information.

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  1. Developing Your Research Topic/Question
Research always starts with a question. But the success of your research also depends on how you formulate that question. If your topic is too broad or too narrow, you may have trouble finding information when you search. When developing your question/topic, consider the following:

Research always starts with a question. But the success of your research also depends on how you formulate that question. If your topic is too broad or too narrow, you may have trouble finding information when you search. When developing your question/topic, consider the following:

  • Is my question one that is likely to have been researched and for which data have been published? Believe it or not, not every topic has been researched and/or published in the literature.
  • Be flexible. Consider broadening or narrowing the topic if you are getting a limited number or an overwhelming number of results when you search. In nursing it can be helpful to narrow by thinking about a specific population (gender, age, disease or condition, etc.), intervention, or outcome.
  • Discuss your topic with your professor and be willing to alter your topic according to the guidance you receive.

  1. Getting Ready for Research
    Library Resources vs. the Internet
    How (where from) do you receive information about your professional interests?
    Advantages/disadvantages of using Web Resources

 

Evaluating Web Resources

  1. Google or similar; Yahoo, Bing
  2. Google Scholar
  3. Reddit, Digg, Quora
  4. Wikipedia
  5. Become a member of professional organizations and use their online information
  6. Use the SCSU library page to online databases
  1. Building Your List of Keywords

Keyword Searching - YouTube

    1. Why Keyword Searching?
      Why not just type in a phrase or sentence like you do in Google or Yahoo!?

      1. Because most electronic databases store and retrieve information differently than Internet search engines.
      2. A databases searches fields within a collection of records. These fields include the information commonly found in a citation plus an abstract (if available) and subject headings. Search engines search web content which is typically the full text of sources.
    1. The bottom line: you get better results in a database by using effective keyword search strategies.
    2. To develop an effective search strategy, you need to:
      1. determine the key concepts in your topic and
      2. develop a good list of keyword synonyms.
    1. Why use synonyms?
      Because there is more than one way to express a concept or idea. You don’t know if the article you’re looking for uses the same expression for a key concept that you are using.
    2. Consider: Will an author use:
      1. Hypertension or High Blood Pressure?
      2. Teach or Instruct?
      3. Therapy or Treatment?

Don’t get “keyword lock!” Be willing to try a different term as a keyword. If you are having trouble thinking of synonyms, check a thesaurus, dictionary, or reference book for ideas.

Keyword worksheet

  1. Library Resources

How to find the SCSU Library Website
SCSU online databases

    1. SCSU Library Web page

lib web page

  1. Basic Research Skills

Locating and Defining a Database
Database Searching Overview:
You can search using the SCSU library online dbases by choosing:
Simple search
Advanced search

Simple vs Advanced Search

  1. Identifying a Scholarly Source

scholarly sources

  1. Boolean operators

  1. Databases:
    CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, Health Source: Consumer Edition, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition

Psychology:
PsychINFO

General Science
ScienceDirect
Arts & Humanities Citation Index

  1. How do you evaluate a source of information to determine if it is appropriate for academic/scholarly use. There is no set “checklist” to complete but below are some criteria to consider when you are evaluating a source.
    1. ACCURACY
      1. Does the author cite reliable sources?
      2. How does the information compare with that in other works on the topic?
      3. Can you determine if the information has gone through peer-review?
      4. Are there factual, spelling, typographical, or grammatical errors?
    2. AUDIENCE
      1. Who do you think the authors are trying to reach?
      2. Is the language, vocabulary, style and tone appropriate for intended audience?
      3. What are the audience demographics? (age, educational level, etc.)
      4. Are the authors targeting a particular group or segment of society?
    3. AUTHORITY
      1. Who wrote the information found in the article or on the site?
      2. What are the author’s credentials/qualifications for this particular topic?
      3. Is the author affiliated with a particular organization or institution?
      4. What does that affiliation suggest about the author?
    1. CURRENCY
      1. Is the content current?
      2. Does the date of the information directly affect the accuracy or usefulness of the information?
    1. OBJECTIVITY/BIAS
      1. What is the author’s or website’s point of view?
      2. Is the point of view subtle or explicit?
      3. Is the information presented as fact or opinion?
      4. If opinion, is the opinion supported by credible data or informed argument?
      5. Is the information one-sided?
      6. Are alternate views represented?
      7. Does the point of view affect how you view the information?
    1. PURPOSE
      1. What is the author’s purpose or objective, to explain, provide new information or news, entertain, persuade or sell?
      2. Does the purpose affect how you view the information presented?
  1. InterLibrary Loan

  1. Copyright and Fair Use

Copyright & Fair Use: What is it? Why should I care? - Eda Talushllari's E-Portfolio
(https://sites.google.com/site/cuin3313/resources/copyright-fair-use-what-is-it-why-should-i-care)

Author Rights and Publishing & Finding Author Instructions for Publishing in Scholarly Journals

    1. Plagiarism, academic honesty
  1. Writing Tips
  2. Dissemination of Research

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Plamen Miltenoff, Ph.D., MLIS
Professor
320-308-3072
pmiltenoff@stcloudstate.edu
http://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/faculty/
schedule a meeting: https://doodle.com/digitalliteracy
find my office: https://youtu.be/QAng6b_FJqs

 

CA netneutrality

California can finally enforce its landmark net neutrality law, judge rules

It survived challenges from Trump’s DOJ, and now one from telecom industry too

https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/23/22298199/california-net-neutrality-law-sb822

Here’s the full text of the California Internet Consumer Protection and Net Neutrality Act of 2018, also known as SB-822. It contains a list of things that ISPs are not going to be able to do, including paid prioritization, “zero-rating” favorable content so it doesn’t count against your data cap (think of those bundled streaming services!), and failing to tell you fast service actually is and how their network management practices and speeds actually work

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more on net neutrality in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=netneutrality

BlockParty app against SM harassment

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/23/970300911/block-party-aims-to-be-a-spam-folder-for-social-media-harassment

Chou is a Stanford-educated software engineer who worked at tech companies including Pinterest and Quora before setting out on her own. Along the way, she’s become a leading advocate for diversity, pushing Silicon Valley to open up about how few women work in tech — a field long dominated by men.

Block Party is also designed to help deal with the worst abuse, by letting people collect evidence of threats or stalking, even if they are deleted by the users who post them or by the platforms. That documentation is critical for filing police reports, getting restraining orders and pursuing legal cases.

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