A freshman biology student at Ryerson University in Toronto faces expulsion for his use of Facebook to form an online study group. He is charged with academic misconduct.
ScienceBlogger Coturnix summarizes the scandal as “100% administrative fear of the Internet”, raising the issue of pedagogy and study in an age of rapidly changing information technology.
When my oldest son was in the fifth grade, few households had computers and even fewer children used them for schoolwork. His teacher accused him of cheating because his assignment was typed on a computer instead of handwritten. She couldn’t verify it was his work, so of course it wasn’t. Important lesson there: you are cheating if you cannot prove that you are not.
Only a few years ago classrooms were equipped with chalkboards, which is a perfectly fine presentation technology. Like anything it can be sloppily used but the staccato tap of chalk on board coupled with the excellent contrast of chalk and slate were a versatile tool. Professors who worked on sharpening their board skills became excellent communicators. Somehow clicking to the next PowerPoint slide just doesn’t have the same cache.
And yet, like it or not PowerPoint is here so it makes sense to sharpen our PowerPoint skills. (As a support-staff member I give a tiny fraction as many presentations as professors do – just enough to appreciate the amount of work involved) It doesn’t do any good to pine away for the days when people with asthma could not enter a classroom because of the chalk dust; those days are gone. Which leads back to the Great Facebook Scandal.
Facebook is a social networking website with both synchronous and asynchronous features. Like it or not, online social networking is here so it makes sense to adapt to that reality. It doesn’t do any good to pine away for the days when students could only form study groups that met synchronously in libraries and coffee houses.
In his post Coturnix and commenters examine what Facebook means for the concept of “cheating”, for grades, for the interface between academia and employers, and for the concept of enterprise collaboration. The thing that makes a roller-coaster ride so much fun – or so terrifying – is the pace of change. But the information technology roller-coaster isn’t on rails; nobody’s exactly sure where it will go next. Which suggests we need to keep our eyes open lest we wake up in an unfamiliar reality with no idea how we got there.
Notes and links:
- Edward Tufte presentation seminars are invaluable for PowerPoint users, or anyone who presents information in any form. Universities should consider taking advantage of the opportunity to send faculty and staff while these seminars are still available because Mr. Tufte is not getting any younger.
- Some people are working on giving the roller-coaster a steering wheel. My friend Peter Juvinall is experimenting with using Facebook for teaching and gave a poster session at Educause last year on the convergence of Facebook and podcasting.
I am a fan of Ryerson. Among other things, Ryerson built the best jazz radio station in the world, CJRT/jazz.fm.
But the administration is way out of line on this. Since this was a big story in the Toronto Star, I suspect Ryerson will find a face-saving resolution.
I’d think they’d be happy enough to have the students engaging with the material outside of class. I’d be thrilled if my students set up an online study group.
Also, concern about cheating is overblown. It shows an emphasis on testing over teaching and learning, and it’s mostly a needless fear if the tests are written well. I have given tests where the answer to one problem was in the statement of the next, and the grades still followed a bell curve.
This was a major piece on The Current on CBC Radio One this morning. Michael Grabowski of NYU was a guest, and talked about how the academic community is going to have to change the way they test. Testing for facts is becoming far less useful. He suggest more essay and oral exams.
It’s also important to note in this case that Avenir did not establish this group, and was an aministrator by default. The group founder could not be traced, hence the Student Union president Nora Loreto has intimated that Avenir is a scapegoat.
The hearing was this afternoon and Avenir is feeling hopeful. Here’s to Mr. Avenir’s future.