In a collaborative article in the Fall 2006 issue of inventio, five instructors in First Year Writing explore general issues surrounding Turnitin's use.

Link via WPA-L.

Lots of new commentary and news regarding Turnitin and plagiarism detection in the last week or two:

• Manatee schools confront cheating's multimillion-dollar industry. The Bradenton Herald reports about local school decisions in Florida regarding purchasing plagiarism detection software.
• Thoughts on Turnitin.com. A community college dean gives his perspective on Turnitin through his anonymous blog.
• GV faculty members debate use of Web site. The Grand Valley Lanthorn covers the position statement we submitted at GVSU. (I should also mention that this story is written by one of our GVSU writing center consultants. Some of them have become active regarding Turnitin.)
• Plagiarism and Copyright. Info/Law blogger Derek Bambauer is discussing copyright issues associated with storing student papers in PDS databases.
• KU renews anti-plagiarism software subscription. Looks like Turnitin gave Kansas University a killer deal to keep them as a customer. Perhaps all of this negative press will at least force them to lower their prices. And give credit to the Writing Center at KU. They will have the ability to remove student papers from the database (link courtesy of Wired Campus Blog).
• The Politics of Plagiarism Detection Services. Andy Carvin discusses the McLean High School story. Thanks to Stephen Downes for the link.
• Turnitin Sucks. Who could resist reading Barry Dahl's post when it has a title like this? Barry has assembled various quotes and resources in his critique.
• The Plagiarist as Pokémon. And let's give credit to Mike Edwards for not only thoughtful reflection and discussion, but somehow managing to tie plagiarism detection to Pokémon.

Houghton Mifflin has been sending out a message about webcasts for WriteSpace which seems to be a customized Blackboard with additional proprietary technologies built in, including MyDropBox plagiarism detection service, SafeAssignment.

One thing in favor of MyDropBox over Turnitin. According to their brochure, while they do store student papers, they do so by institution. Each school has their own database of student papers. I'm guessing this means that each school can only access the papers from their school (if so, this is good). And an institution can request that their database be emptied:

Authorized persons from client institutions can request partial or complete removal of their institutional databases from the MyDropBox servers at any time.

Okay. I'm a former student. I've graduated. Don't I have a right to have my papers removed, or does only the insitution have control of my writing in this regard? Something not quite right here.

BTW: Does anyone else just love the name, "Safe Assignment?"