Wednesday 9 May 2007

Suspending Students: Supplement

I guess I could supplement my previous comment with an actual case of student free speech:

York settles with student who was banned over protest
By ELIZABETH CHURCH [Education Reporter]
The Globe and Mail [Toronto]
Tue 8 May 2007, Page A10
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070508.SETTLEMENT08/TPStory/
National

YouTube Revenue Sharing

YouTube has started to offer revenue sharing with its prolific original content creators -- see the story here:
http://www.youtube.com/blog

Does this mean that Political Parties and Bloggers will now begin to make some money for their actions (or were they already a part of "YouTube's professional content partners")?

Geist on Facebook (in the Toronto Star)

I agree with most of Micheal Geist's Toronto Star article http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1925/135/; however, I have to quibble with the point concerning the students being suspended. I think the point of their suspension was that their "conversation" was not out of earshot, and what a better time to let them know in life that on-line documents can easily be made public, unlike conversations (unless they are recorded). Also, we do not know the full extent of these students' school files, so that leaves the reason for their suspensions open to some speculation. My point is that all K-12 schools and universities have Student Codes of Conduct, and one of the key components is that students can not make their school look bad.

When I was in high school, I certainly remember students being suspended for things they said in conversations, especially if the school administration was in earshot. I can't see how this is any different, or how it should be a protected part of free speech, especially when education, in many ways, aims to foster civilized and respectful cultural behaviour acceptable for life and success beyond the walls of the institution. In this instance, a warning and an apology might have sufficed, but really the suspension is not something out of line with previous practices given that the students were on a network with the schools name on it. In fact, I can’t think of a better way for students to learn this lesson en masse than a harsh penalty being made to ensure that they understand what the limits and boundaries are of privacy, and also how principles are used to ensure a safe, secure, open and inclusive learning environment.

A story on this issue can be found here: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=479f0b59-d37a-4797-9aff-b99bf3957fec&k=65802

Sunday 6 May 2007

New Publications / Summer Plans 2007

I’ve had some great news in the past few weeks. First off, I’ve had a few articles published:

1) Elmer, Greg, Peter Malachy Ryan, Zachary Devereaux, Ganaele Langlois, Fenwick McKelvey, and Joanna Redden. “Election Bloggers: Methods for Determining Political Influence.” First Monday (April 2007): click here.

2) Ryan, Peter Malachy. “Computer Geek Erotica: We know about the Red Pill, but was the Blue Pill Viagra?” Graduate Student Article Competition. Ryerson University, 2007: click here.

Also, my summer is shaping up to be quite full. I’ve been accepted to the following two summer institutes:

1) Oxford Internet Institute at Harvard Berkman Law School:
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/teaching/sdp/

2) Digital Humanities Summer Institute in Victoria:
http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/institute/index.php

In other words, I’m going to be quite busy until the end of July. Of course, now that my Blog is back up and running, I'll write all about it.