There’s another one. Amongst a bloated disorganized pile of large personalized campuses, QR codes that would have been easier to just give a link to, glitchy overpriced tablets, Quizlets, various other first-initial-last-initial-six-digit-birth-date logins, there is another one.

The newest website being included in Rolla High School students curriculum goes by Turnitin.com. All it is is a plagiarism checker with some added elements aimed at improving grammar and writing. Moreover, the website  is actually necessary. Previously, there has been no such software to detect plagiarized material so readily available for our teachers.

Plagiarism, otherwise known as copying and pasting from Wikipedia, is illegal. More often than not in college, expulsion is the penalty for one’s first violation of plagiarism.

So it is important to learn about plagiarism now, which is why the school has brought in this brand new shiny website.

“[Turnitin.com is] a tool that allows students to check a paper for plagiarism in a safe way before they turn it in to me. It allows them to make necessary changes in order to get a better grade, but there is more to it than that. For the teachers, it speeds up the grading process a bit,” Breanne Chenault, one of the teachers now using Turnitin.com, said.

The new software is not being used just because it makes teachers’ jobs’ easier. As always, the primary concern is with the students.

“It does make our jobs easier, but I’m mostly happy because it is really easy for students to use and is an extremely useful tool for them. It’s really good to teach kids about plagiarism, which is something they’ll use for the rest of their lives,” Chenault said.

Turnitin.com has been around for about five or more years. In fact, it’s so old that some of the teachers have used it.

“When I went to school to earn my masters degree, lots of my professors used it. It was very easy and streamlined to use. Immediate results. I really think there is nothing better for helping students learn about and combat plagiarism. I also believe just as much that it can improve their rough draft writing skills as well as their overall writing,” Samantha Kaysinger, one of the teachers who plans on using Turnitin.com, said.

But why is an internet database such a big deal? It actually offers more to students and teachers than that.

“In my experience, it definitely made me a better writer,” Kaysinger said.  I [wholeheartedly believe] that it can improve their rough draft writing skills as well as their overall writing. The main goal is to help students become more accountable, and Turnitin.com is the best thing to use for that.

Now for what the big question: will this new knight-in-shining-armor website, full of sugar, spice, and everything nice, be able to slay the rampaging fire-spewing dragon/large personal campus? Well, probably not.

“I don’t really think [Turnitin will usurp My Big Campus]. Technology is always shifting and evolving, so it is anyone’s guess how the two programs will end up in a few years. Also, the two are different from each other in key ways; My Big Campus has no plagiarism checker or anything like that, while Turnitin.com doesn’t really have anything for storing documents,” Chenault said.