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May 21, 2003
Student Publishing and Privacy
Amazing. If I'd had a laptop with wifi this morning I might have blogged from the coffee shop that I was thinking about privacy issues related to Will Richardson's post last week of the online peer review his students are conducting in public on weblogs. But, no wifi, so you'll just have to take my word that I was ruminating on this over latte an hour ago.
So what's in my news aggregator this morning? Will ruminating over legal issues of student publishing!
I'm glad he's thinking about it. Frankly, as a former writing instructor, I was mortified to see the student's peer reviews publicly available. First, from a writing pedagogy perspective, I think you risk significantly increasing the pressure on the students, many of whom are already intimidated by sharing their work with a small group. Second, I would be concerned that it is treading dangerously close to a FERPA violation, since this is making a students work and, more importantly, the teacher's evaluation of their work publicly availably. Thin ice!
Posted May 21, 2003 10:24 AM
Comments
Good point!
Were you more mortified cos of possible legal consequences or the pressure on students? I don't quite get your main concern.
Not sure I'd agree if you're talking about pressure. I (personally) have had english language learners blogging away happy-as-larry and more often than not I'd say the community this can form (with audience included) provides for great class dynamics... and all the benefits that includes. There are also plenty of teachers out there using weblogs very effectively like this... for example Anne Davis:
http://www.schoolblogs.com/ITCInsights/discuss/msgReader$55?mode=day
Granted, we're on tricky ethical ground here and this has to be addressed! But I'm not sure what "writing pedagogy perspective" you're referring to.
Would like to though as your concerns mirror many of my peers!
Thanks for the thoughts.
Cheers, James
Comments by James . Posted May 21, 2003 07:34 PM