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It is hard to imagine holding a university-level class today in which students do not engage with the web or social media in one form or another, whether by using Google search, bookmarking or sharing an article, taking an online survey, posting or commenting on a blog, or using e-mail or text messaging. So, what rules should we, as instructors, follow to ensure no legal or Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) issues arise?

"For the newer researcher like me, notwithstanding the delights of Cardiff, conferences are an opportunity for my thesis to face the scrutiny of the outside world; a vital part of joining the conversation of your academic peers, finding out where your research sits and gaining genuine feedback. Despite this promise, academic conferences are essentially esoteric and definitely not easy for the uninitiated. Nonetheless, I think I've found five simple rules that might be useful:"

"The legal case of Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate that settled the claim actually rested on an interesting issue, whether a copyright claim can persist on a character even if the works depicting that character have fallen out of copyright. The defense of the Doyle estate went something like this: sure, Arthur Conan Doyle's stories are now at least 90 years old, but other stories about Sherlock Holmes are still under copyright, therefore Sherlock Holmes is still under copyright. Judge Richard Posner didn't buy the argument, and he ruled that Sherlock Holmes, the character, is now in the public domain."

"Social media is all about being in the moment, having real-time interactions, and sharing with others. If your classroom rules are too restrictive, you can't naturally and fully take advantage of what social media has to offer. Still, it is important to be initially cautious and make sure you get to know your students before you begin engaging with them on social media to any great extent."

"The internet should be either a post-capitalist good, or a public good. A public utility. Like a town square. Things like Facebook and YouTube and Twitter never should have been capitalist at all. Like all town squares, the rules of civilized speech should apply. I can't call someone a nasty name, harass them, intimidate them, bully them there - nor should I be able to here. The capitalist internet is one of history's great failures, my friends. Whether we know it now or not, our grandkids will certainly regard it that way. They'll be incredulous that we were seduced and then addicted by its garbage culture, its trash spectacles, its junk food for the human mind and spirit, all so we could get a desperate hit of feeling power and control…while our planet, democracies, future, and lives were all melting down. It's up to us to build a better internet, and do it now. And whether we do that through post-capitalism, or through public goods - or both - that challenge is very real, very urgent, and very noble."

"The important point to remember is that the fair use guidelines that are used to determine what materials can be used on the local campus do not automatically transfer to online courses offered to the consumer public. To many faculty, these rules seem bureaucratic, but librarians can help navigate the terrain that faculty are not accustomed to dealing with. And, by becoming comfortable with copyright provisions themselves, faculty can ensure that their online students access the same level of resources that on-campus students enjoy."

"Accessibility policies frame standards and expectations for how a college or university's programs, services, and facilities serve the needs of people with disabilities. Some policies are aspirational in nature and relatively short on specific mandates, while others are much more prescriptive in stating standards, rules for compliance, and sanctions for behaviors that fall short. Accessibility policies constitute a statement of values that the institutional community subscribes to, and they serve as guidelines for how the institution intends to ensure the equitable treatment of all members of the campus community."

"A better approach is positive general principles. Tell students what you want them to do. My favorite model is the four Tribes agreements that are displayed prominently in my class and discussed and practiced every day: Attentive Listening- Pay close attention to what others are saying. Check for understanding Appreciation Only- Treat each other kindly, don't use put-downs. Right to Pass- Choose when and how much you participate. It's acceptable to simply observe. Mutual Respect- Affirm the value and uniqueness of everyone."

I used TRIBES while a principal in Camden, it does change school culure. Thanks for sharing.

"For open participants in ds106, we can dispense of the entire "I dropped out of another &$*#ing MOOC" because there is nothing to drop out from. No one-pace-for-all ramming speed schedule, no weekly lectures, no multiple guess quizzes. We have a very easy to understand Getting Started Guide, itself with not one way to do this course but TWO, the Fast And Easy Way and the Blogging Way."

"All large-scale, multi-user communities and online social networks that rely on users to contribute content or build services share one property: most users don't participate very much. Often, they simply lurk in the background. In contrast, a tiny minority of users usually accounts for a disproportionately large amount of the content and other system activity. This phenomenon of participation inequality was first studied in depth by Will Hill in the early '90s, when he worked down the hall from me at Bell Communications Research"

"The fact is, irresponsible social media conduct could potentially ruin your education and negatively impact your career, not to mention hurt others in the process. (And we're not just talking kids, either.) But most of those consequences are preventable, often with just a little foresight."

"I had expected that people signing up for a course like this, a non-traditional course where we work mostly on our own or together with other students in the class, would be students who embrace that kind of learning, students who feel a sense of independence and self-determination as learners. What I've learned, though, is that this is not the case for at least some students in the class, who are very much expecting the teacher to function as the voice of absolute authority in the class."

Isn't that the nature of humans? We want freedom for creativity and original thinking, but ultimately it makes us uncomfortable when people actually do achieve it; ultimately it seems that humans instinctively cling to rules, tradition and order.

Good point Tammy. Still, the "grading" paradigm is a strong one. We should expect today's students to start being a little more autonomous in their learning process.

After working with a tool for a while, you forget all the familiarity you've built up, all the muscle memory, all the ways that the tool is useful to you. Instead, all you see are the annoyances. But on the other hand, all you see about a new tool are the shiny new features, and you can't see all the hours and days you'll spend learning and adapting, fiddling and breaking the new tool.

"On Sunday, a salacious article flew across numerous news channels. In print, it was given titles like "Teenagers can no longer tell the real world from the internet, study claims" (Daily Mail) and "Real world v online world: teens do not distinguish" (The Telegraph). This claim can't even pass the basic sniff test, but it was picked up by news programs and reproduced on blogs."

"the kit, Sagan argues, isn't merely a tool of science - rather, it contains invaluable tools of healthy skepticism that apply just as elegantly, and just as necessarily, to everyday life. By adopting the kit, we can all shield ourselves against clueless guile and deliberate manipulation."

"The Federal Communications Commission approved the policy known as net neutrality by a 3-2 vote at its Thursday meeting, with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler saying the policy will ensure "that no one - whether government or corporate - should control free open access to the Internet.""