[Air-l] is this ethical?

[Caroline Haythornthwaite]

In the US, ethically (and possibly legally) there is a problem if an instructor 
makes this mandatory and/or does not provide an alternative for those who do 
not want to make their work or their name public. 

This is something we have discussed at my faculty and with university 
representatives. It relates to compliance with the US Family Educational Rights 
and Privacy Act (FERPA) as it affects and interacts with new ways of having 
students contribute to class (blogs, wikis, web pages, etc.). Basically, some 
people need to keep their identity private, and the universities accommodate 
that through various means. Instructors need to bear these regulations in mind 
as well as their ethical responsibilities to students when asking for public 
postings.

/Caroline


---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:44:32 -0500
>From: Barry Wellman <wellman at chass.utoronto.ca>  
>Subject: [Air-l] is this ethical?  
>To: aoir list <air-l at aoir.org>
>
>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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----------------------------------------
Caroline Haythornthwaite
Associate Professor
Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
501 East Daniel St., Champaign IL 61820