Fearing the Facebook study group

Tracking the Facebook study group expulsion story (which I blogged here), I was struck by the amount of fear appearing in media accounts. 
Listen to this passage from the Toronto Star:

The incident has sent shock waves through student ranks, says Kim Neale, 26, the student union's advocacy co-ordinator, who will represent Avenir at the hearing.

"All these students are scared s---less now about using Facebook to talk about schoolwork, when actually it's no different than any study group working together on homework in a library," said Neale.

"That's the worst part; it's creating this culture of fear, where if I post a question about physics homework on my friend's wall (a Facebook bulletin board) and ask if anyone has any ideas how to approach this – and my prof sees this, am I cheating?" said Neale, who has used Facebook study groups herself.

The National Post points to their other stories about fear and Facebook, including a Facebook-posted bomb threat aimed at a children's aid society, and the inevitable specter of al-Qaeda - surveilling Facebook!

Comments

[peter naegele]

There are two important points which are glossed over in the article. First, the description / title of the group implies that the posting of answers to class assignments was encouraged, which violates the Professor's academic code for the course. Avenir (the student being charged) claims that no answers were actually posted, so there were no violations.

Second, stemming from the first point, there is no evidence in the article indicating whether or not anyone from Ryerson actually monitored the ongoings within the group. However, the Professor did not know about the group until the completion of the class, which suggests that no monitoring took place.

Both of these issues highlight the ever increasing need of academics to become more involved with, and to heighten their awareness of, online social networks that exist beyond institutional CMS's.

[Bryan Alexander]

I agree, peter, about the need for increasing awareness. I hope, too, that more facts emerge from this story, trapped as it is behind several cloaks.