Mathew's comments - Latest Comments in Ryerson fails, not Facebook student

Re: Ryerson fails, not Facebook student

Tonsil — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:52:40 -0000

I'm not part of the nerd community so I don't even know what you are planning to do, but I wanted to point you to the petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/chrisdidntch...

Re: Ryerson fails, not Facebook student

Davin — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:05:06 -0000

Hey Guys...this is horrible. As a soon-to-be grad (hopefully) from San Diego State...this is more of the old thinking that the ivory tower shoves down our throat.

 Is it OUR fault that schools are so antiquated they don't understand that Facebook is like a virtual study hall or dorm room or any other place we would all normally study?
 
Don't let Chris take the fall on his own.

 Go to www.ChrisDidntCheat.com and buy something from the CafePress store.

The money will be donated to Chris. He can either use it for legal expenses or for a round of beers (which I think we can all agree he'll need during/after this debacle).

 Spread the world.

 www.ChrisDidntCheat.com

Re: Ryerson fails, not Facebook student

mathewi — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 13:55:02 -0000

approve

On Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 1:47 PM, Disqus

Re: Ryerson fails, not Facebook student

benjaminwright — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 13:46:05 -0000

If people like this Ryerson student want privacy on their social networking sites, they should consider posting legal terms of service to that effect. See http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2007/11/privacy-advocates-such-as-nyu-professor.html The idea is not legal advice for anyone, just something to think about. --Ben

Re: Ryerson fails, not Facebook student

Johnny Daelucian — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 03:06:34 -0000

Someone should advise the accused student to start a petition against the school to drop its unwarranted threat of expulsion and to offer him an official apology for their misappropriation and duly bias negligence in the assessment of the matter.

Re: Ryerson fails, not Facebook student

Kim Champion — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:38:10 -0000

If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that everything you say and do online can and will be indexed by Google on the world wide web. The overriding sentiment is that the Facebook study group is no different than students hanging out at school or the library helping each other with homework. Over at my blog, I argue that actually, it is.
Whatever you do in private is your business. When you do it on the Internet, it becomes everybody else’s business. Govern yourselves accordingly.

Re: Ryerson fails, not Facebook student

Tish Grier — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:30:29 -0000

oh, academia's *definitely* struggling when it comes to understanding social networking--not to mention most of what's happening online. When I read this story this a.m., I wasn't just horrified--I thought about a prof I met last week at We Media Miami, who is from Ryerson, who was talking about how she teaches media literacy in her class. ...and what I've discovered is that there are pockets of professors in many universities who are teaching about the ups and downs of Facebook in their classes. But that the universities, overall, have no understanding of life online. So, we get really bad stuff like this happening. I sure hope Ryerson sees their way to not expelling this kid.

Re: Ryerson fails, not Facebook student

tonyhung — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:56:00 -0000

I totally agree. Sad thing is that kids like Chris Avenir get caught in the middle (did I just call him a kid? Wow, I feel old) with real ugly consequences -- that is, not just consequences that are severely ugly, but are actually real. If he gets expelled that is, I think, a Big Deal.

Re: Ryerson fails, not Facebook student

mathewi — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:52:02 -0000

I agree, Tony. It's not like copying or sharing answers didn't exist
before Facebook came along -- before that it was IM, and before that
it was plain old hard copy. Facebook may make it easier or faster, but
that's about it. I think academia is struggling with many of the same
information-control issues that media and content companies are.

Re: Ryerson fails, not Facebook student

tonyhung — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:30:14 -0000

Not just "fail" -- I believe the appropriate phrase is "EPIC Fail".

Secondly, the bigger academic question is how appropriate is it to have homework assignments that hinge upon anyone "not copying" the answer in this day and age?

It seems ludicrous, because while Facebook was the easiest way to form a study group around this issue, all it does is drive it into the social "underground" into more obscure sites, or simply private online groups, where it can still proliferate.

Cheers
t @ dji