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Professor's use of MySpace draws ire from the administration

According to the Independent Weekly, there is a controversy surrounding a university professor that is using MySpace as his course website for his students. N.C. State professor, Tom Hoban, is offering Sociology 395-M, "Social Movements for Social Change" on the popular social networking website. Administrators claim that this practice is wrong, but Professor Hoban cites that the university website does not provide adequate means of social interaction that is required for the course. The professor is also citing academic freedom as he faced much criticism from conservative groups for his liberal-bias in teaching.

This is quite interesting as many universities are paying a lot of money contracting their information technology services to outside firms. If professors are allowed to use MySpace as their course website instead of the university system, imagine how the adminstration will feel if all of their professors stopped using the university system as means of storing and sharing course material among its students. There is also legal issue as well. Can course material be availabe to the public? Although students could technically adjust their security settings, could the professor be allowed to post course material in plain view?

From my experience (and many of my other friends' experiences), our course website is called "chalk". Professors can post syllabi, course materials, and announcements. They are also discussion boards, built-in email client, gradebook, etc. It is not a bad site by any means, but organization can be a huge problem as the site is prone to crashes. There are no chat room clients so interaction is quite slow.

It would be nice if the course website allowed students to exchange notes or talk about problems without having to email everyone individually. My friends always thought it would be cool to having a "pictionary"-like drawing board on the site so people can collaborate over economics problem sets or discuss the pros/cons of certain international relations theory. I always thought it would be natural to allow the site to send us reminders over email or SMS about any changes to the class whether it be room changes or assignment changes.

I don't know if the university would ever attempt to do those things as it may cost a significant amount of money. Some of my professors have personal websites on the university network and direct their students to those sites for course assignments and materials. These professors also pass on announcements via the listhost or their websites. The Chicago GSB has its own internal network where students log in to gain access to course materials. Email is the communication of choice for many students regarding coursework, but it would be nice to know if my TA emailed me back a reply for one of my questions on the homework through my phone if I'm away from the computer.

What do you guys think?

posted by Koh @ 1:35 PM