[Air-l] turnitin issue [and privacy+security of students]

Richard Stevens stevensr at smu.edu
Fri Mar 9 09:08:31 PST 2007


Why would the gov't be interested in electronic forms of student 
papers? Well, considering that Homeland Security has in the past 
stated a focus on incoming exchange student programs (thereby 
granting student visas) as a high-level security threat for allowing 
potential terrorists to enter the country, I'd say this desired 
access is not beyond the realm of interest to our government.

The relative ease of student visas granted to young men and women 
from abroad has been one fo the chief arguments for increasing the 
surveillance of library use, allowing government access to school 
records, etc.

What a student writes in a university classroom should (in my humble 
opinion) be seen as a product of an experimental period in one's 
life. Probably never before are afterwards will a student be exposed 
to the opportunity for intellectual exchange and informational 
resources.

And I'd hate to think that one of my middle east students would be 
impugned by our government because a paper on nontraditional 
approaches to the problem of terrorism (for example) violated the 
contemporary political sensitivities of whomever happened to in power.

Not taking up this branch of the argument, just acknowledging that it 
does exist.

-Rick

>I am as concerned about electronic privacy as anyone -- and far more
>concerned than most -- but I am having a difficult time seeing why the
>government would want to access a hash of a student paper, or what might be
>the privacy interests that would be violated if they did.
>
>There is plenty of other stored student data (health records, library
>usage, brower logs) to spend time worrying about.
>
>DLB
>
>On Mar 9 2007, Miraj Khaled wrote:
>
>>--- air-l-request at listserv.aoir.org wrote:
>>
>>even if we keep aside the ethical and moral
>>implications, there are other serious issues to
>>consider. namely privacy of the students' and
>>surveillance of their works. as turnitin.com is a US
>>company, the FBI and other federal agencies can access
>>the database under the Patriot act. if that ever
>>happens, how can you assure your students that their
>>rights aren't being trampled by an orwellian big
>>brother agency. shouldn't the students' security be of
>>the utmost importance to any faculty member and the
>>university?
>>
>>I am a grad student myself and I fully agree with
>>rosanna. fortunately in our university i haven't faced
>>to submit anything to turitin, otherwise i might have
>>considered suing myself! anyway, there's an insightful
>>article in the recent issue of University Affairs
>>magazine that looks into similar issue:
>>
>> 
>> 
>>http://www.universityaffairs.ca/issues/2007/january/academic_libraries_01.html
>>
>>
>>miraj khaled
>>============
>>Graduate Student
>>Simon Fraser University
>>
>>
>>>  Message: 6
>>>  Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2007 00:57:30 +0100
>>>  From: "Rosanna Tarsiero" <rosanna at gionnethics.com>
>>>  Subject: Re: [Air-l] turnitin issue
>>>  To: <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
>>>
>>>  As a student myself (and online instructor), I never
>>>  plagiarized a paper,
>>>  and I do know that there are persons that do.
>>>
>>>  However, the assumption that students need to prove
>>>  innocent (rather than
>>>  innocence unless otherwise proven) bothers me a
>>>  great deal.
>>>
>>>  I would refuse both submitting a paper to turnitin
>>>  AND doing supplemental
>>>  work. In all honesty, I do hope that some student
>>>  sooner or later ends up
>>>  suing colleges. Assuming people to be guilty unless
>>>  otherwise proven
>>>  violates quite a number of human rights.
>>>
>>>  Rosanna Tarsiero
>>> 
>>>  "Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him."
>>>
>>>  --James Allen
>>>
>>>  -----Original Message-----
>>>  From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
>>>  [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf
>>>  Of Mark Warschauer
>>>  Sent: venerd? 9 marzo 2007 0.50
>>>  To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>>>  Subject: Re: [Air-l] turnitin issue
>>>
>>>  I know of no precedent or case law, but this is an
>>>  issue that is
>>>  taken seriously here at UC Irvine. Students are
>  >> usually given the
>>>  permission to opt out of submitting their papers
>>>  through
>>>  Turnitin.com, but professors then require any
>>>  students who opt out to
>>>  complete one or more alternate assignments to
>>>  demonstrate their
>>>  papers were not plagiarized (and those alternatives
>>>  can be quite
>>>  onerous).  See examples at
>>>
>>http://eee.uci.edu/faculty/ccopenha/39b-student/turnitin.students.htm
>>>
>>>  Mark Warschauer
>>>
>>>  >Dear AOIRers,
>>>  >
>>>  >A colleague teaching another course has come across
>>>  an issue with an
>>>  >undergrad who refuses to hand in her term paper
>>>  because the faculty
>>>  >member's course requires that all papers also be
>>>  submitted to
>>>  >Turnitin.com.
>>>  >
>>>  >The student claims that this violates her own
>>>  intellectual property
>>>  >because Turnitin reportedly keeps copies for future
>>>  plagiarism searches.
>>>  >
>>>  >As a supposed ICT & society "expert," my colleague
>>>  came to me for advice.
>>>  >My first thought was horsefeathers.
>>>  >
>>>  >However, I am wondering if there is any precedent
>>>  or case law on this in
>>>  >Canada or the US. (EU would be too different, I
>>>  think.)
>>>  >
>>>  >I am not interested in the ethics or the morality
>>>  of Turnitin, but in how
>>>  >other situations have been resolved.
>>>  >
>>>  >Thanks,
>>>  >  Barry Wellman
>>>  >
>>>  _____________________________________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>> 
>> 
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>
>--
>Dan L. Burk
>Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly Professor
>University of Minnesota Law School
>229 19th Avenue South
>Minneapolis, MN  55455
>**********************************
>voice: 612-626-8726
>fax: 612-625-2011
>bits: burkx006 at umn.edu
>
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-- 

-----------------------------

J. Richard Stevens, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Journalism
Southern Methodist University
P.O. Box 750113
Dallas, TX 75275

stevensr at smu.edu
http://jrichardstevens.com

"A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension."
  --Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or 
for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is 
contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds 
contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; 
it invites anarchy."
  -Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. United States 277 U.S. 438, 485 (1928).

  "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a 
thought without accepting it."
  --Aristotle

"The highest form of morality is not to feel at home in one's own 
home."  - Theodor Adorno



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