Autosummarize
Tuesday, May 13th by carlaThis from the Talkies listserv:
A social studies teacher in my building approached me yesterday about a plagiarism concern. This one caught me by surprise, and I’m wondering if any of you have ever encountered this situation.
When the teacher read a student’s assignment, she noticed different font styles and sizes in his printed document and that it was not written in the student’s typical writing style. The student explained that he copied facts from websites and then used autosummarize in Word to write his paper, a stategy he learned in technology class. When asked to explain this strategy, the tech teacher replied:
“In tech, I teach students how to go to three different websites to get facts and put the major concepts in a word document. Then they can go to “Tools”, “Autosummarize”. This tool simply takes a 500 word document and reduces it by 75% by stating just the major facts. The students then can grasp the meaning and restate the ideas that relate to their topic.”
I never knew of the the existence of the “Autosummarize” feature in Word, and I haven’t yet played around with the feature enough to fully understand it. However, if students can simply copy-paste facts from websites into a document and use “Autosummarize” to summarize information for them instead of taking the time to put information in their own words, I’m concerned. If students restate the facts in their own words, it might be okay, but it seems way too tempting a shortcut for kids who copy-paste their way through life!
Are any of you familiar with how this “Autosummarize” tool works? Have any of you had problems with this issue? Have you addressed this issue in your plagiarism policies? What are your thoughts on this?
You can’t put toothpaste back in the tube: our best bet is to model appropriate use in the classroom, because kids are obviously already using this feature. It might be a good exercise, though, to show the tool’s weaknesses. Spellcheck isn’t perfect, and students can see that easily by analyzing the famous spellcheck poem, understanding the co-operation/Cupertino issue, or looking at other examples that demonstrate limitations.
If we could create a document whose meaning is completely distorted by the Autosummarize feature, I think we could drive home the essential point that no technology can replace the student’s own well educated judgment.
(No, I don’t have that document yet, but it would be fun to write.)
(Attribution withheld by request.)
May 13th, 2008 at 5:45 am
How does a computer program know what “the major facts” of a text are??? This is a horrible development!
As an experiment, I ran autosummarize on “A Rose for Emily,” which is frequently discussed here on eNotes. The program compressed the story to two pages. I’ve cut and pasted the final paragraph below. Major facts, indeed!!
The Negro man went in and out with the market basket, but the front door remained closed. When we next saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray.
The front door closed upon the last one and remained closed for good. When the town got free postal delivery, Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it. Fell ill in the house filled with dust and shadows, with only a doddering Negro man to wait on her. The violence of breaking down the door seemed to fill this room with pervading dust. The man himself lay in the bed.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Linda, have you tried it with a nonfiction text? I gave it a C+, and I am looking for info on how the tool works. I have noticed that it can only identify key sentences; it can’t put anything into “its own words.” I’d love to know the thinking behind it.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:37 am
It does a pretty good job. I’m impressed. Not sure how I am going to catch this from now on, but impressed. A twist for teachers - you are needing to do some research. You find a large web site that you’ll have to hack through but you have limited time. Copy - Paste - Autosummarize - now you have a document that you can study quickly and go back later to the real thing.
Here is your blog entry autosummarized:
When the teacher read a student’s assignment, she noticed different font styles and sizes in his printed document and that it was not written in the student’s typical writing style. The student explained that he copied facts from websites and then used autosummarize in Word to write his paper, a stategy he learned in technology class. This tool simply takes a 500 word document and reduces it by 75% by stating just the major facts. If we could create a document whose meaning is completely distorted by the Autosummarize feature, I think we could drive home the essential point that no technology can replace the student’s own well educated judgment.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Wow, Mark, great example, and thank you!