Ready or not for a high-tech work force?

California's Silicon Valley, home base to scores of high-tech firms, is also home to one of the worst student-to-computer ratios in the nation and has the worst statistic on the number of students with Internet access. According to a state-by-state analysis released by the American Electronics Association, teachers aren't equipped to help many students make up for the gaps, either. Nearly 50 percent of high school mathematics teachers have not specialized in math.

Meanwhile, Connecticut and Minnesota have a rosier picture to report: These states had the top ranking eighth-grade achievers in math. Connecticut requires teachers who are getting recertified to have technology training.

Solid math performance, lots of exposure to computers and the Internet, and high standards in math and science are proving to be the ingredients that lead to a quality high-tech work force.

Rooting out plagiarism

A downside of the Internet is the ease with which it lets students plagiarize the work of others. In fact, plagiarism is becoming so widespread that even well-known scholars are succumbing to its lure. What's a conscientious instructor to do? Don't tolerate it, advises Phillip D. Long in the January 2002 issue of Syllabus Magazine (www.syllabus.com/). He offers this selection of anti-plagiarism sites to help the faculty sleuth:

Plagiarism.org -  Self-described "online resource for educators concerned with the growing problem of Internet plagiarism." (www.plagiarism.org and www.turnitin.com)

Plagiarized.com -  "The Instructors Guide to Internet Plagiarism." (www.plagiarized.com)

EVE (Essay Verification Engine) -  A downloadable application that performs complex searches against text, Microsoft Corp. Word files, and Corel Corp. WordPerfect files. (www.canexus.com)

PlagiServe - A free site that checks against paper mill sites to find copied text. (www.plagiserve.com)