[Air-l] is this ethical?

[Douglas Eyman]

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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