[Air-l] private/public

[Andrea Forte]

Barry,

I agree that there is a critical privacy issue here. There are many kinds
of communication in schools that should be kept from public view.
There is also a very real opportunity to use the Internet as a venue
for encouraging public writing. In my work I see students responding with
enthusiasm and a sense of responsibility to their readership when they
write in public venues online.

The critical issue here to me is whether or not we require students to
publish under their real names. I would argue that coerced publication
would be ethically objectionable *if* done in an identifiable fashion.

When I speak to teachers about using wikis in schools, I implore them
*never* to require their students to publish under their real names, or
any identifiable pseudonym. Think back, I ask them, to things you wrote
when you were 16 years old. How much of that would you like to see
archived publicly today?

In my research I have high school students publicly editing wiki entries
on science--they work on some of the most innocuous topics imaginable. The
carbon cycle, endangered plants, etc. They also write on topics like
federal policies that affect human reproduction. Their views today are not
something I want their 30-year-old selves to be held accountable for.

Andrea


On Fri, 16 Mar 2007, Barry Wellman wrote:

> I've read with interest your comments on whether it is ok for a class to
> blog publicly. I was surprised at such unanimity in favor of public
> blogging. Maybe it is because I am Canadian (of New York extraction,
> albeit) who only watched Jennicam once and will never, ever Twitter.
>
> I've been thinking about what folks have been saying, and I still think
> that course blogs should be private.
>
> I distill the arguments for public blogs to saying that students should be
> getting used to writing in public. Agreed. Indeed, I am now writing a book
> on how social scientists should write.
>
> But a classroom (and e-extensions of it) are different. Indeed, I start
> off each year by saying that this classroom is safe space and within broad
> limits (abuse, libel, etc.), people should be free to express any ideas --
> as long as they keep it within the class. (I don't allow recording either,
> except for those with disabilities.) With a password protected blog,
> students talk to each other, to the TA, and to me. That's enough. I don't
> want anyone worried about being humiliated, or in any other feeling
> constrained in their discussion. Nor do I want those not in the class
> barging into the discussion -- for one thing, they have not been privy to
> all the discussions that went on beforehand nor do they know the
> personalities involved.
>
> But perhaps I am an old fuddy-duddy. Let me give you another
> private/public example that aroused debate among my students yesterday. I
> was interviewed by the Toronto Star earlier this week on a story that
> dealt with whether people would rather say unpleasant things online rather
> than F2F. (I have no data on this, btw.) Also interviewed was a young
> woman who said (and I paraphrase), "Well I ditched him by email, but no
> matter, as we had only slept together once."
>
> There was the obvious debate about what is the etiquette was for ditching
> someone who had been slept with "only once": 5 said a F2F goodbye was
> called for; 1 said email was ok these days because it was such a common
> experience.
>
> But what shocked everyone one of us is that the woman interviewed used her
> own name. We wonder if anyone has contacted her; two radio stations have
> already contacted me about the story -- and my part of the interview was
> much less sensationalistic than her's. (I introduced the reporter to the
> concept of "flaming").
>
>  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
>  _____________________________________________________________________
>
>
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