[Air-l] is this ethical?

[Jill Walker]

I also make my students blog in public - although like Doug, I've  
come to the conclusion that blogging doesn't work well with  
unmotivated students. Having said that I *have* had very successful  
blogging semesters with students, so I don't think that "it doesn't  
work" is the whole answer - perhaps I did a better job of showing  
them the point and thus helping them become internally motivated in  
the successful semester.

Anyway, I do strongly believe that if you're going to do blogging in  
class, it should be public because that's the only way they're going  
to learn network literacy - you don't learn how society works by  
staying locked up in a room.

It's really astounding how UN-public traditional academic studies  
(liberal arts, sciences) are compared to other disciplines. If you  
study music you give public concerts - even as a child just taking  
lessons once a week you have to deal with performing in public at  
regular intervals. If you study art you can't really dodge the public  
exhibitions. If you study dance or theatre, you perform in public.  
School children put on plays and so on for parents and often other  
people in the community several times a year. My friend who's  
studying to be a priest had to "perform" a funeral service the other  
day - in public, obviously.

Really it's quite bizarre that liberal arts and social sciences  
students are supposed to write for NO AUDIENCE - term papers just for  
the teacher? Why?

If it's not unethical that a ten-year-old who takes violin lessons is  
expected to perform at public concerts, why would it be unethical  
that a twenty-year-old student is expected to write a public blog?

There are some caveats. Because of the searchability of the internet,  
I tell my students to use pseudonyms or just first names, and I make  
sure they know how public their words can be. I also tell them that  
they need to learn to deal with this public world and the ways people  
use it.

I wrote a paper about my experience with blogging and teaching and  
how important I think the public aspects of it are with more examples:

Walker, Jill. 2005. "Weblogs: Learning in Public." On the Horizon 13 
(2). 112-118.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do? 
contentType=Article&hdAction=lnkpdf&contentId=1509888&dType=SUB

or you can read a pre-print in my university's open access archive:
https://bora.uib.no/handle/1956/1841

Jill

----
Jill Walker
Associate Professor, Dept of Humanistic Informatics, University of  
Bergen, Norway
http://jilltxt.net


> I can't speak to this particular use, but I will say that when I've  
> had my
> students use blogs to record and discuss the issues raised in our  
> classes, I've
> made sure that they understand that their words are public (part of  
> the point of
> class-based blogging) and that the authors they are responding to  
> may in fact
> read their responses.
>
> Having said that, though, I did find that blogging as a practice is  
> really not
> successful unless internally motivated (so I've stopped doing it  
> for my classes,
> although we do read and discuss blog writing).
>
> But in terms of ethics -- in what sense would this be unethical? If  
> the
> instructor asked students to blog without making sure they  
> understood their
> activities as public, I could see this as problematic (and  
> pedagogically
> unsound). If the instructor did explain that this is the case and  
> asked students
> to be cognizant of the relationship of their expression to the  
> world outside the
> classroom, then I would not see an ethical infringement here.
>
> Plus, you could comment on their posts. ;)
>
> Doug
>
> Barry Wellman wrote:
>> I have Google Alert set to identify anything online that mentions  
>> my name.
>> (I want to know who is talking about me and perhaps learn from their
>> comments.)
>>
>> Recently, I have been disturbed because Google Alert keeps popping up
>> Blogspot entries that clearly come from class blog entries.
>>
>> While I am happy that folks are reading my stuff, I am aghast that  
>> their
>> entries are on the web for all to read.  (Altho I smile that they  
>> say nice
>> things.)
>>
>> I know that I don't post my students' term papers on the web [I  
>> only give
>> 'em to Turnitin;-)], but this strikes me as an even greater  
>> invasion of
>> the students' privacy. Shouldn't such within-class stuff be password
>> protected?
>>
>> I'm putting one innocuous example up below my .sig, but I've  
>> encountered
>> at least four others.
>>
>>  Barry Wellman
>>   
>> _____________________________________________________________________
>>
>>   Barry Wellman   S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology   NetLab Director
>>   Centre for Urban & Community Studies          University of Toronto
>>   455 Spadina Avenue    Toronto Canada M5S 2G8    fax:+1-416-978-7162
>>   wellman at chass.utoronto.ca  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
>>         for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
>>   
>> _____________________________________________________________________
>>
>> 3) What was "Netville" in the suburbs of Toronto? Why's it  
>> important in
>> relation to the paradox argument?
>>
>> This was written buy our good friend Barry wellman again  
>> ( jokes) . The
>> Netville in the suburbs was looking at the internet as a part of  
>> how it
>> structures the community life if it hinders and brings people closer
>> together within the community environment.
>>
>> http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/neighboring/ 
>> neighboring_netville.pdf
>>
>> It looks at how the internet is effecting community life whereby  
>> it is
>> leading people away from the enclosures of the community social  
>> life by
>> now engaging on the internet for their social activity or on the  
>> other
>> hand is this use of the internet bringing the community closer  
>> together as
>> a whole.
>>
>> With relation to the paradox this is where the argument fell that the
>> influence of the internet has decreased the social interaction  
>> within the
>> community. This study looks at how the internet supports weaker ties
>> within the community helps mend bridges and bring the community  
>> closer
>> together but still looking it as a context rather than the paradox by
>> stating the negative side.
>>
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