[Air-L] Ethics of a student project

Mathias Klang klang at ituniv.se
Thu Aug 21 06:23:41 PDT 2014


Hi Jill,
I have done a version of this in a class exercise where I divided the 
class into groups and each group had to find out as much as possible 
about either me or the other instructor. The rules where that they could 
not carry out any illegal acts but otherwise everything was allowed. The 
goal was not the actual information but the presentations where they had 
to interpret the information they found and to judge its reliability. At 
the time I had a large web presence while the other instructor had less 
of a web presence. Both of us had unique names, were at the same stage 
in our careers and about the same age. The project was interesting and 
most students had fun with it.

One problem that we encountered was that many groups took out credit 
reports on us. This didn't really bother me but I admit I wasn't 
expecting this move. We also realized that we would have to prevent this 
in future exercises as taking out a large number of credit reports can 
impact ones credit rating (at least in Sweden).

I think the project can be interesting and informed consent should cover 
the ethical question but as the situation above illustrates it is 
difficult to recognize the unforeseen consequences.

Mathias

On 21/08/14 08:05 am, Jill Walker Rettberg wrote:
> One of our upper-level undergrads would like to write a paper about privacy using a slightly unusual methodology: he wants to find five informants who are willing to let him google them exhaustively in order to find out everything he can about them using legal, public online methods. Then he wants to show each informant the information and interview them, asking things like "did you know this information about you was accessible?" and more in order to find out something about what information people think is available about them, what is actually available about them, and how people feel about all the information out there about them and the possible disconnect between what they think and what is in fact out there.
>
> My gut reaction is that I wouldn't want to let a researcher "stalk" me online like that, and if I wouldn't want to be an informant maybe I shouldn't allow the project, right? But I'm also guessing that the project might be approved by the ethics board so long as there is clear, informed consent. And it'd be interesting to see the results.
>
> But beyond the ethics board: what do you think about a methodology like this? Do you share my gut reaction or am I overreacting? Would you let a student do it? And what might be better ways for a student to do a small scale research project on this topic?
>
> Jill
>
>
> Jill Walker Rettberg
> Professor of Digital Culture
> Dept of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies
> University of Bergen
> Postboks 7800
> 5020 Bergen
>
> + 47 55588431
>
> Blog - http://jilltxt.net
> Twitter - http://twitter.com/jilltxt
>
> My latest book, Blogging (2nd ed), will be available from Polity from September 20: http://www.politybooks.com/book.asp?ref=0745663648
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mathias Klang,
Associate Professor, University of Göteborg
Website: http://klangable.com
US Cell: 215 882 0989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




More information about the Air-L mailing list