The new EDUCAUSE Review is out and I carry three articles in today's newsletter beginning with this one, a look into one of those odd problems caused by technology: non-students inhabiting the class online workspace. These people may be students staffing the help desk, courseware company employees, or other teachers. In any case, they pose concerns about privacy and security. I agree with the bulk of the author's sentiment, but not this bit: "students might be fearful about who could be 'listening in' by reading student posts." Here I know I hold a minority view, as "In the 1970s, explicit attention was directed to the requirement that professors protect the confidentiality of any conversation taking place within the classroom." My own belief is that a classroom is a public space, and therefore, what was said in a classroom has been said in public. When people are afraid of who might be "listening" then their freedom of speech, though it may be enshrined in law, does not exist in fact. I know, people want closed classrooms to protect the students. But I don't think it does protect the students; it merely offers them a false sense of security while at the same time tolerating the abridgement of their rights.
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