Spring+10+SPECIAL+TOPIC

Week 5 - Course Transparency
There has been a concern raised about the transparency of this course format (on an unprotected wiki), and this week I will be using this page to get your feedback on the issue.

Some of the concerns are:
 * 1) Should your learning be available for the world to see?
 * 2) Is it fair to ask students to make their learning available (all of your work is submitted in a secure fashion through Springboard)?
 * 3) Should your thoughts be protected in any way?
 * 4) Should the course be more 'secure' with only members of the course able to see the content, making it blocked to all others?

I would like you to use this page to share your thoughts. Please do some searching on these topics and post links to any articles or websites that touch on the issue at hand.

= Discussion Summary (Instructor's Note) =

WOW! I was a bit hesitant to allow this topic to run, but I think that from an instructional standpoint, it is probably one of the best topics this course has ever introduced! A few issues came up that I wanted to bring to the forefront.

If you remember, the first assignment you completed in this course was on online etiquette. People have been speaking of their personal experiences since the hierarchy of supervisor--employee relationship was instituted, and it will continue to go on. One experience I will share that is similar to what some of you brought up regarding a superintendent or HR person finding a post in this discussion room. I was in a course and a discussion was being held about resources in our districts. One gentleman in the class went into a long explanation of how the principal in his building had no idea about what resources to provide teachers. Little did he know, another class member was the sister-in-law of his principal! This being said, should we ban classroom discussions? Obviously, the answer is no. Providing privacy for the sake of allowing individuals uncensored platforms for discussion does not seem pedagogically ethical to me as an instructor. If you not be comfortable saying something about an individual or district in a face-to-face meeting, it shouldn't be vocalized in any other forum. Operating under these rules, there will be little left for 'interpretation.'
 * 1. Informational posts for Interpretation by others**

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level. Learn more by clicking here Many of you have noticed that this law is being followed in this class and is in accordance with University of Akron Policy as any grades or individual feedback are posted in the approved LMS (Springbaord).
 * 2. FERPA**

Thank you Cynthia for the youtube post on digital footprints. Another great video to watch is the one below media type="youtube" key="79IYZVYIVLA" height="385" width="480" This is an example that this digital world we live in is something we have to adjust to.
 * 3. Digital Footprints**

Policy is a necessary evil. It protects, but in just as many instances it limits. View this video on wisdom, and you will see that a great deal of policy was created in order to remove the thinking process. Is policy what is killing creativity? media type="youtube" key="lA-zdh_bQBo" height="295" width="480"
 * 4. Policy**

We will take a vote (the link will be provided on the homepage.
 * 5. The question at hand: Private or Public?**

Again, I thank each of you for your input this week. It has been truly enlightening to hear each of your perspectives on this issue.

--

Discussion begins here....just click the edit page button above, insert your thoughts and link(s), followed by a Horizontal Rule (See the icon just to the right of the 'bullet list" icon in the "Editor" window above) to divide one another's thoughts.


 * This week will not be scored....so please be candid with your input.**

[] []

The first article is intersting and a good reminder to all who use the Internet, the dangers of what you post regardless of where you post, because of the chance of cyber stalkers and identity theft. When the topic of the danger of using Wiki first came up, then I read this, I was very nervous about posting anything to this site. However, when I did a little digging (see the second site listed) I found out that there are 3 privacy types offered by Wiki: I would think that as a class, we would be using the **Private** setting, so that we the members of this class would be the only ones capable of not only viewing this space, but editing it as well. Unless I've missed something, I think we are fine posting our thoughts and ideas to this Wikispace, without the danger of outsiders viewing what we do or say here.
 * Public** spaces can be viewed by anyone and can also be edited by anyone.
 * Protected** spaces can be viewed by anyone but can only be edited by members of the space.
 * Private** spaces can only be viewed or edited by members of the space.

Just my two cents.... Karin Collins

[]

The above link is an interesting look at privacy in the digital world of today.

I hadn't given much thought to privacy concerns for learning on the internet before this topic was introduced. I have always worked on the assumption that nothing you do on the internet is private. Someone always has the ability to access what you are doing or have done. I, like Karen above, would assume that what we post on this wiki is kept private. I would also think that we would want to operate in the same way with elementary and secondary students, when it comes to posting their thoughts or personal work. I know there are some websites like, [], that give students the opportunity to post there work for review by others. In one way this gives the student a larger audience for their work but at the same time it opens them to more critcism (which could be harsh). I think websites like this should be optional for students not a requirement. So my final thoughts on this topic are that internet learning should be kept private. If it is not then the participants, whether they are school childern or master's candidates, should be made aware of exactly who, if not the world, will have access to what they are posting.

Cynthia Marsala

[]

This is a very interesting video that discussed privacy in social networks and some of what Tim has concerned about. As for our topic, I had never thought that our learning is exposed to others. But saying that this is unprotected wiki made me little confused, in which how others can observe what we are learning in this course or even other courses? I think they need to log in to the course material in order to view students work. However, I prefer that our course would include only the members, which will make students feel more comfortable in expressing and elaborating on their thoughts instead of worrying that others can judge or even steal their ideas. This issue make us concern about copying others work instead of making more effort to generate creative thoughts or projects. Lastly, I believe that our learning is protected since we need to log in with our user name and password, at least this is what I believe in.

Amal Al-Ruwaili

Although I understand that the openness of online learning makes some students feel uncomfortable, I personally do not have a problem with it. I can't imagine anyone being that interested in my learning to follow my postings through out the course. In addition, since this is a "classroom" setting, I believe it is important to be professional at all times. This is not a Facebook account where my personal information is posted and I joke around with my friends. I believe this is a useful exercise in utilizing technology, and in practicing online etiquette.

[|http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~gambsseb/prive07-workshop/Privacy_Issues_Online_Learning.pdf] This link defines privacy within various contexts, explains privacy vs. trust, and online learning.

Elizabeth Niemeyer

It does not bother me to have my posts viewable for everyone to see. Like others have said this is a learning environment and if professionalism is used you should have nothing to worry about. Even in social networking sites like facebook if you use common sense you should be ok. When I post things online at work, school or for fun I think would I be proud to share this with my mother and yes she is on facebook and yes she reads everything I post that will keep anyone honest. I am always amazed at people who are fearful to post anything on facebook or use the web even my father says about facebook it’s on the internet FOREVER, my response is we won’t be here forever does it really matter? I have had every piece of identification and credit cards stolen from me no fault of my own, once you realize someone or everyone as seen your social security number I guess posting a few comments in a class online is not a big deal. I know people can find out so much about others for free the last thing they would want is your comments, papers or articles you posted in an online classroom.

Working in a college setting I do find it interesting that the academic record is surrounded by privacy with FEPRA but this course seems opposite of that with its openness online. I found some information about that [] statement #2. Also some colleges are having students fill out a consent form to use a wiki page during a course [] Melissa Triplett

==== I believe that every body has knowledge or could help other people by his /her knowledge, should be published. It doesn't matter if it was by online or other methods. The point is it must tell or teach people about this knowledge as possible as we can. I also believe that some knowledge could not present it online because it is very dangerous such as nuclear. The first link is a hand out talks about E-literature in E-learning. I think it is fair to see other people's work but we should keep the publishing issue under our concern because if we don't we will face many problems with stealing and plagiarism issues. We should teach students the honestly first and the respect front other people. The second link is a video where e-learning was debating in Oxford union. The audiences came up with very important question about learning such as if the e-learning is the essential or very important to have a good education system and environments or we could set other strategies. I think like one of the audience said in the video we should lean to be a quick learner rather than to be good teachers. To answer on this week's topic depends on several things such as if this learning for specific group .we should keep it under group members, but if it for public then you have to deal with e-learning issues for instance, privacy and security. ==== Links: Amr Bantan
 * []
 * []

This may be a bit off topic but these are subjects that I am familiar with at UA. Ediscovery Records Management As a university employee any electronic content that is developed is subject to these rules so it makes me wonder whether faculty are subject to the same rules and whether the content that is developed or delivered in our LMS is subject to these rules. If so, then what does UA do in cases such as this where an instructor chooses to use a format that is not formally sanctioned by the University. This course material is not being delivered in the LMS system that the university uses so are we as students more at risk? Does this put the University more at risk? And as a side note - want to know how much information is still available on the web? Just Google your name or any user name that you have ever used. You might be surprised at what you find.

Melba Fey

Cindy, your youtube link is awesome. It reminded me of the Enemy of the State movie. It is really scary to feel uncovered just because our private information is available to anyone who can “get wired to the system”. First time, I signed up for the Wiki, I thought that only us as class members can edit or add to the wiki. Now, after Tim brought this up, I signed out and discovered that I can see the course as a guest and edit anyone’s work. I am afraid that any person with or without malice can mess up the whole class work. I totally agree with Tim. Especially in investigating the policies and procedures associated with technology when it comes to the classroom. There are a gazillion of websites where we can express our thoughts and exchange perspectives with others away from the educational setting. Moreover, online student work should, by every means, be protected from disruptive hands. Although we are discussing general educational topics that are not private, they should not be available to the public to view and edit. I think only members of the course should be able to see the content. This way, our thoughts will be protected and not opened to the public. This article analyzes the pros and cons of using wikis in online courses. Although it is a lengthy article, it has various points that could answer this week questions. [] Ghada Awad

Ghada, it is true that you can edit the pages as a guest, but only the students who have the link to this course can edit as guests. I mean that this course is only for students who enroll in Planning for Technology unless students give this link to others which is something unlikely to happen. Did I miss something here? I don't believe that others can view our work or even edit unless they have the link to this course.

Amal Al-Ruwaili

Amal, I think you are missing a lot. If you go to Tim Sisson’s discussion posting and many of our other colleagues’ posting you will understand what is going on. Also read the article I have in my posting it will explain a lot of things. Ghada Awad

I am not overly concerned with my thoughts for this class being posted for anyone to see. As long as we follow the basic netiquette rules and don't include any personal information in our posts, I really don't think there is anything to worry about. I did look up the privacy of the wikispace we are using and it is a public wiki, which Karin stated above as meaning it can be viewed and edited by anyone. This did kind of weird me out at first, but then I read Ghada's link and there is a section that discusses how the publicity of a wiki is not really as bad as people think. It is a good article to read, by the way. I don't see our wiki being public as a problem, because I really don't think other people in cyberspace are too interested in what we are doing. I also completely read through the Privacy Notice of Wikispaces, which I have to admit I usually just skip through such things, and it states any personal information is protected by SSL technology. I never really thought about what the SSL technology is so I looked it up and the link is below. That is what concerns me the most, my personal information being out there for everyone to see. But it is already out there in cyberspace anyway, and this site seems to be really secure so overall I think our information is pretty safe. As far as it being fair to ask students to make their learning available, I think it is, as long as things such as netiquette and professionalism are at least briefly discussed to make sure the students are aware of them when making their posts online.

[]. http://commons.wikispaces.com/Online+Security+Guide, a wiki open for editing about online security

Jenny Marchinko

[]. In my opinion every kind of the privacy types -Public, Protected, or Private -has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, the public type privacy helps in spreading the knowledge among more people and gives the opportunity to anyone to utilize from others. However, anyone can edit or remove someone else work. This resource has a great definition and information about the Wikis. []. Also, the private learning gives the group members more comfortable in expressing their ideas without any non-member intervening in editing, removing or stealing their thoughts, but this will limit the spread of the knowledge. I found this link that someone talks about this type group of people and this website permits them to control in the degree of the privacy either between the teacher and the student or among a group of the students. []. For me I don't mind that the public view my thoughts if they can't edit or remove anything, so I think the protected type is more suitable that the public can see my ideas and utilize from them but can't remove or edit anything. I know that the protected type doesn't permit the public to add their ideas or prevent them from stealing our thoughts, but it is the best thing of the two: public and private types if we think about how to utilize from each other as group members and at the same time allow public to benefit. Latifah Alnaim.

Well, I think I'm not missing a lot and as Jenny has said "I really don't think other people in cyberspace are too interested in what we are doing".

Amal Al-Ruwaili

First I want to thank our instructor for taking the time to address this concern and incorporate it into the class. The issue for me is not one of just myself but the policies regarding technology and education. As technology advances according to Moore's Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law) are our policies advancing? Are we using technology in a manner that is safe for learning? Or are we so concerned about the failure of our kids to keep up with the rest of the world we are forgoing the policies?

Think about asking a student, does not matter the age or level of the student, to create an e-portfolio or keep a blog about a class. Now think about the students in your current class or a past class. Think about those students who rarely raised their hands to contribute. Do you know why? It could be they were uninterested, did not know the answer, were not paying attention or possibly they were too anxious, too afraid to step out and take a chance in being right. If a classroom conducted by a trained educated professional with four walls and a door does not provide a safe learning environment for this student, does a wiki/blog/e-portfolio? Are we asking students when we ask them to contribute to online discussions to go beyond what they feel as safe? And should we ask them to step beyond this personal boundary? An entire divison of technology has been developed for just this reason, audience response systems (clickers). With these all students can have a voice but still maintain their personal safety boundary. So does a wiki or blog do this? These tools are powerful but so is an atomic bomb. OK so there is no real comparison here other than to over exaggerate, and to create a moment for us to think about the consequences in years to come. Did the inventors of the atomic bomb think about the Cold War developing or did they just want to solve a problem at that moment in time? (Yes I know not the greatest example but bare with me.)

Yes, I doubt there are many following this wiki in their free time. But what about the superintendent/HR Department going to write a performance review or hire someone? What do our posts say about us? They communicate what we believe, we think, we know at this particular point in time. But what about 5,10,15-years from now? Should this record of our learning be public record for future judgments/decisions? (Oh, I am not one of these people afraid to post online, contribute to a blog/wiki or create content for the web. None of which I do frequently right now but am working to increase so to increase my positive digital footprint and my overall drive for lifelong learning.) Should what we say here be used by our supervisors, our principals, our superintendents or any one to pass a decision about us? Think about your posts. Could they be misinterpreted by your boss? When the present becomes the past it takes on new meaning in the future.

Just to clarify about this wiki... it is not private. Anyone can find it without a link. I did a simple search for it on my phone (my phone was never used to access this page or any page relating to this course before) and easily was able to read the posts by each of us. Even if protected, what is to stop someone from copying and pasting our thought elsewhere? When we contribute to a public wiki/blog we make a choice to post our thoughts. But a class... do we have a choice? This was an interesting thought when I saw the consent form to waive one's FERPA rights. Waiver of one's rights is always to be voluntary. To require one to waive these rights strips one of one's free choice. And what are our rights? In a discrimination or harassment case the law uses the //Reasonable Person// (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_person) terminology to define what is and is not appropriate. A subjective definition yes, but a definition nonetheless. Do students have a standard for comparison? Should they?

My intention was to continue this discussion, and contribute to the posts thus far this week. One more thing to think about, every time you mentioned my name you made it more likely some one will find these discussions, especially my full name. Thank you to those who read this entire post and to all for your time and effort towards this subject.

I would like to know more about the UA policies regarding this subject. Melba you seem to have some firsthand knowledge. Can you elaborate more?

Tim Sisson

Here is a link that talks about using the wiki as a successful means for creating faculty learning in order to obtain better performance at their jobs. []

[] That is an interesting link which talks about students who experienced using wiki for their online tutorial. While some students had a positive attitude toward the wiki related to presenting ideas and communicating with others, other students had a negative view of the wiki, this was mainly because of usability issues or lack of functionalit y. I strongly advocate having our learning available to others that makes people benefit from other’s thoughts and opinions in order to solve their problems. Moreover, by using wiki in our course we experience increased opportunities for cooperative learning as we work online in groups or interact in the weekly discussion, and that is the ultimate goal of online learning. However, one thing that scares me about using wiki is the editable attribute, which makes me, as a user feel uncomfortable while using the wiki space when I think about the possibility of any one around the world accessing my page and sabotaging my work. In other words, when I think about copy writing or destruction, I think about a lot of issues that are easy to steal such as literary works, any one can claim them easily, but issues like that have not happened on a wide range because law and ethics and the harsh punishments deter people from committing crimes like that. Therefore, I think we need more security with our online learning and not privacy, as I want to benefit from other’s work and I want others to read my ideas to get benefits. I agree with Amr that we should teach students honesty first and respect for other people.

Marwah Alhamam

I think that we as teachers need to be prepared with privacy as well as ethical issues as we use the internet with our students. Students spend a lot of time on the internet obtaining information and because of this predators and viruses emerge. The internet is designed to make information easily obtainable and some of this information can be accessed too easily and by accident. School systems should have security safeguards in place to hep keep unwanted uses from gaining access to these materials. My school system does not put full names of students on class webpages, but yet at the University of Akron, it's easy to search for an individual student in a matter of seconds. All the teachers in my building are reminded to not use last names of students or other personal information. I found a blog post [] that discusses posting pictures of students and their accomplishments. One person blogged that if we post a picture in a newspaper it's fine- but if we post it on the internet, there's a stronger action. Now teachers are integrating facbook and twitter into the curriculum.Teachers need to become well trained in these technology applications. I wonder with how quickly technology changes, will teachers ever be able to keep up the pace with professional development and keep our students safe? Lauren Walter

When I signed up for this course I did not give much thought as to whether other people besides those in this class could read what we have posted. Now that it has been brought up in discussion I began to think about it some. The world we live in today if full of technology and it is only going to increase over time. Many schools are using more and more technology in the classroom. My daughter's teacher was very excited to tell us at the beginning of the year that she was going to have the students in her Enriched English class work on a project using a wiki. My dad is involved in the new Stem school in Akron and told me how all the students are given time to check their Facebook and Myspace accounts. I am not sure how we can keep our student's and our information private from the world. I believe one thing we can do is stress to our student's that they need to be mindful of what they post on-line. We need to teach our students how to stay safe when using technology and not place anything on-line that they would not like anyone else to read. Andrea Huntsman

I am in full agreement with Andrea's above post. We will need to deal with this with our students in the future and teach them how to appropriately express themselves online. I've started this process several times throughout the week and then after previewing my post and reading it, I wasn't happy with how my my ideas were coming across. I believe the wiki is a great format for this course. While I understand the thoughts that have been expressed by some, I don't share them. Identity theft and cyber bullying are huge issues facing us a society in our technology age. Unfortunately, those who would choose to do harm always seem to be one or two steps ahead of those trying to protect. However, I am personally of the mindset that there is nothing in this course format that can harm any one of us as an individual. As some have stated, this is not a facebook or MySpace area where there are many personal details about any of us. This is much more of a professional blog type environment. I fear what can happen with information over the internet just as much as anyone else, however as long as I'm not putting in my personal information such as social security number, credit card information, etc, I have no issues with posted my professional thoughts and opinion as both an educator and a graduate student in this or any other organized, online format.

Jeff Link

I personally am not concerned about it at all. I don't care how many protections you put up and how safe you try to make your information. If somebody out there really wants it they most likely can get to it. I just try and make a habit of not saying or doing things online that are going to offend someone or cause me trouble down the road. Our grades are being posted on springboard which is not part of this wiki. I agree with Andrea and Jeff that we need to educate our students about being more careful of what they post. Jeff said it best when he said "those who would choose to do harm always seem to be one or two steps ahead of those trying to protect." Jeremy Gribble

This discussion brings up many points that I have not thought about. First, I do think it would be okay for others to view our learning, but only with our permission. We are here to learn and not entertain. Not many people would want to be viewing our work, unless they were really interested in learning about this course. I think it would be fair to ask students to make their learning available, but with the option to do so. The fact that I am paying over a thousand dollars for this course gives me mixed feelings about this so I am not sure it should be available to general public. Your thoughts should be protected, but really this makes me think of facebook and other social networks that people put their personal thoughts and information on. On one hand I think the course should be secure so that only members could see it, however if one wants to share their work with others they should have the liberty to do so. Margaret Stretar

I believe that student work product at this level should be available in a course like this for anyone who is interested to see. I believe that a class like this involves the sharing of ideas. Some of the greatest inventions we enjoy today came about as result of open research into a problem. For example, the very popular iphone (which I carry myself) was very good when it first came out. However, did develop into the practically indispensible device most users enjoy today until Apple opened its source code so that anyone with a good idea could develop an app for it. I feel that people could learn from exchanges such as those conducted in this class. That’s my 2 cents.

Darrius Alati

I agree the use of a wiki is a strong tool for learning, especially when you are in a educational technology course. I also agree that collaboration and sharing of ideas is the best means to advance learning. Where I disagree is that my learning or anyone's learning pertaining to a course which you are paying for or in the case of P-12 are mandated to complete, that your learning should be public.

I read these posts and the majority say, who would care what we are saying here, but in an age of information searches everything is available. And the more one's name is out there the more likely one is to be found.

I have had many discussions with people about this topic and one was very enlightening. Basically, I found it interesting that if an instructor wants to use an open format such as a wiki they are welcome to, and there is no issue of FERPA. I might have this misunderstood this explanation, but they way I understood it was that it is not until a grade/material is made a record with the institution does FERPA apply. So now I think we have a greater problem with the whole idea of FERPA and its application.

But back to our discussion. My issue was not that we were using a wiki. I love the idea of using a tool so directly related to what we are learning. Where my issue lies is who has access to our thoughts in a learning environment. I tend to lean to the side of being a conservative in these matters. We may say now:
 * 1) Who cares what we write
 * 2) What is here will benefit others
 * 3) What is written here is professional and would not be here otherwise

But I ask, do we know who will read this, how they will interpret it, and more importantly how it will be used? Tim Sisson