There's a discussion going on on IT FORUM this week about educational uses of Twitter. If you're interested in what other folks in our field think and some examples of how they use it, you should subscribe to IT FORUM. As a subscriber, you can look up earlier messages that you've missed in the archives.
One thing I learned from the discussion was that there's a microblogging tool called edmodo that is being marketed specifically at educators. It differs from Twitter in that it is for closed communities like (potentially) classes.
That got me thinking -- once we're beyond the K-12 level with its obvious safety concerns, is it desirable to have closed educational communities or open ones? Our Blackboard is locked off to class members only and I control any additional access. Our blog is accessible to anyone on the Web, and we have one follower (hi Kem!) who is an IS student but who is not enrolled in the course. We may have other readers who are not in the course or who are not even affiliated with our department or university. These folks have not commented, but potentially they could.
In the past I've had students concerned with online communication safety. For example, I had a woman who was being stalked. We created her a dummy account in the CMS just to be on the safe side and we didn't do anything outside of our closed community.
How would all of you feel if outsiders started to participate in our open class forums (blog, wiki)? What if we were actively tweeting together? Does it matter to you based on tool? Or based on topic? Or does it not matter at all?
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You have raised the concern we all should have that once we put out something on the web it may and will follow us forever. I do have a twitter account that I've designed for past, present, and future legal studies students in the classes I teach. I have kept it very focused on tweets that concern issues of interest to students of the law. I've blocked some obvious spam types but I know that I'm being followed by people that have not taken a class. I'm okay with this since I want to use this as away to reach out to potential students. I am careful to not post anything on web 2.0 that I would not want everyone to know about me. I feel some semblance of control with web 2.0 but am very aware of the limitations of this. All I have to do is google my name and I see how little control we really have, especially with web 1.0
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ReplyDeleteIt depends on the topic for me. There are some things that are informational and that I don't mind sharing with the world.
ReplyDeleteHowever, things like pictures of my daughter -- it's password protected -- or my new gluten-free blog -- it's as anonymous as I can make it. I even created a separate e-mail account to link to that blog.
I have also been stalked, so I try to keep things to a minimum "out there". My Facebook page has limited viewing capabilities. You can't see my pictures or information unless you are my friend. To be my friend, I must know you. I don't accept requests from people I don't know, just because they live in the same area or share a similar interest.
-Yvonne
I agree with what Char and Yvonne posted about our personal information. I would like to address the idea of a closed learning community, which I prefer.
ReplyDeleteRight now I feel safe and comfortable posting my ideas and opinions because I know who will be reading it. It is akin to raising my hand in class. If other people were sitting in the classroom who I didn't know or who I wasn't comfortable with, it would limit my participation.
Creating a virtual learning community is not as easy as starting a blog and having people follow it. We are involved in shared experiences that help build trust like the discussions on Blackboard and class projects. Most of us have been in a class with at least one other person so we can draw from those experiences as well. Opening this community to outsiders could be detrimental.
I think a little common sense is in order in terms of what you put out there, but content and contact info. I actually had a doctoral student ask to see the syllabus for this class just to get a feel for what we are learning (you're his major professor, Vanessa). I wouldn't have a problem with contributions from outside the class as long as they related to the class, and not flamers or spammers. To some degree you can control that.
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