Comments on: Free Cyberlaw Syllabi http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/16/free-cyberlaw-syllabi/ Information, Law, and the Law of Information Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:08:14 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Info/Law » Open Access Law, or: Should Law Professors Write for Wikipedia? http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/16/free-cyberlaw-syllabi/comment-page-1/#comment-3241 Info/Law » Open Access Law, or: Should Law Professors Write for Wikipedia? Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:48:01 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/16/free-cyberlaw-syllabi/#comment-3241 [...] This is unfortunate. One of the things I liked about the class Derek and I co-taught last spring is that we were able to dispense entirely with a textbook and rely entirely on online readings, some of which were updated mere days before the class in which they would be taught. It lent an air of immediacy to the course content that I think was particularly appropriate in view of the au courant subject matter. The day of doing that routinely and easily in a law school setting may still be a ways off (although some bold cyberprofs have taken the plunge), but it’s still an ambition of mine. [...] [...] This is unfortunate. One of the things I liked about the class Derek and I co-taught last spring is that we were able to dispense entirely with a textbook and rely entirely on online readings, some of which were updated mere days before the class in which they would be taught. It lent an air of immediacy to the course content that I think was particularly appropriate in view of the au courant subject matter. The day of doing that routinely and easily in a law school setting may still be a ways off (although some bold cyberprofs have taken the plunge), but it’s still an ambition of mine. [...]

]]> By: book and sword : gratitude and revenge » a course on participatory media and collective action http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/16/free-cyberlaw-syllabi/comment-page-1/#comment-733 book and sword : gratitude and revenge » a course on participatory media and collective action Thu, 17 Aug 2006 01:52:39 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/16/free-cyberlaw-syllabi/#comment-733 [...] I think it is great how they used a wiki to publish their syllabus online. It is sad to notice a trend where syllabi increasingly are hidden and not made public, and there is really very little reason to hide them, right? So this class syllabus is a great exception. In addition, Tim Armstrong of Info/Law found this great collection by Jessica Litman of online syllabi on the topics of internet law. Whereas these are bottom-up examples of what I see as attempts to free up education, Wikiversity is a more top-down driven example that just started and which I hope will be an aggregator of these online syllabi. [...] [...] I think it is great how they used a wiki to publish their syllabus online. It is sad to notice a trend where syllabi increasingly are hidden and not made public, and there is really very little reason to hide them, right? So this class syllabus is a great exception. In addition, Tim Armstrong of Info/Law found this great collection by Jessica Litman of online syllabi on the topics of internet law. Whereas these are bottom-up examples of what I see as attempts to free up education, Wikiversity is a more top-down driven example that just started and which I hope will be an aggregator of these online syllabi. [...]

]]> By: William McGeveran http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/16/free-cyberlaw-syllabi/comment-page-1/#comment-732 William McGeveran Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:59:55 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/16/free-cyberlaw-syllabi/#comment-732 Hear, hear, Tim! Hopefully as professors get more comfortable with the technology they will be more inclined to alter the default option of locked-up content. Hear, hear, Tim!

Hopefully as professors get more comfortable with the technology they will be more inclined to alter the default option of locked-up content.

]]> By: Tim Armstrong http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/16/free-cyberlaw-syllabi/comment-page-1/#comment-731 Tim Armstrong Wed, 16 Aug 2006 19:10:23 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/16/free-cyberlaw-syllabi/#comment-731 Yes, I've heard variations on those same themes from some of my colleagues. Certainly the point about preserving the confidentiality of student information is a good one, and I wouldn't suggest the contrary. But there are plenty of ways to achieve that. At last spring's <a rel="nofollow" href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/bloggership">bloggership conference</a>, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.discourse.net/">Michael Froomkin</a> suggested maintaining a password-protected class blog where students could participate without fear that something they said might come back to bite them down the road. You can achieve the same thing with <a rel="nofollow" href="http://h2o.law.harvard.edu/">H2O</a>, I believe, by marking the rotisserie boards and discussion forums as visible only to members of the group, then restricting group membership to students who are registered for your class. Maintaining this sort of confidentiality isn't just a good idea (because it fosters freer discussion), it's the law, and clearly worthwhile. Using an integrated CMS suite yields advantages in ease of use (undeniably important, particularly for less tech-savvy faculty), but as you suggest, seems to impose costs in the form of reduced granularity of control. When deployed in the fashion that seems most common, CMS overprotects; it makes hiding information that doesn't need to be confidential part of the price of hiding information that does. Litman thinks that's an unfortunate and unnecessary result, and I'm inclined to agree. Which is not to deny the institutional pressures that foster the use of closed systems, only to suggest that we remain mindful of their limitations and keep the university's broader missions in mind when determining whether and how to use them. Yes, I’ve heard variations on those same themes from some of my colleagues. Certainly the point about preserving the confidentiality of student information is a good one, and I wouldn’t suggest the contrary. But there are plenty of ways to achieve that. At last spring’s bloggership conference, Michael Froomkin suggested maintaining a password-protected class blog where students could participate without fear that something they said might come back to bite them down the road. You can achieve the same thing with H2O, I believe, by marking the rotisserie boards and discussion forums as visible only to members of the group, then restricting group membership to students who are registered for your class. Maintaining this sort of confidentiality isn’t just a good idea (because it fosters freer discussion), it’s the law, and clearly worthwhile.

Using an integrated CMS suite yields advantages in ease of use (undeniably important, particularly for less tech-savvy faculty), but as you suggest, seems to impose costs in the form of reduced granularity of control. When deployed in the fashion that seems most common, CMS overprotects; it makes hiding information that doesn’t need to be confidential part of the price of hiding information that does. Litman thinks that’s an unfortunate and unnecessary result, and I’m inclined to agree. Which is not to deny the institutional pressures that foster the use of closed systems, only to suggest that we remain mindful of their limitations and keep the university’s broader missions in mind when determining whether and how to use them.

]]> By: William McGeveran http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/16/free-cyberlaw-syllabi/comment-page-1/#comment-730 William McGeveran Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:32:46 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/08/16/free-cyberlaw-syllabi/#comment-730 Tim: In the <a target="_blank" href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/media/files/copyrightandeducation.html">Digital Learning paper</a> (shameless plug once again!) <a target="_blank" href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/media/files/copyrightandeducation.html#4_2_5">we found</a> that a lot of universities encourage the use of integrated course management systems (CMS). As a result, there are pressures and intertia that lead to firewalls surrounding <strong>everything </strong>within the CMS. It is deemed undesirable to make certain kinds of content public. Often this makes sense.  Many CMS include personal data about students (the system here at Minnesota has student pictures, addresses, e-mail); discussion forums where the desired student openness requires keeping it within the confines of the class; and, of course, copyrighted material (whether used illicitly or under a license). Once you have an integrated system with any of those kinds of presumptively private items, then the path of least resistance is to plop it all behind the wall rather than picking and choosing among different types of content. Tim:

In the Digital Learning paper (shameless plug once again!) we found that a lot of universities encourage the use of integrated course management systems (CMS). As a result, there are pressures and intertia that lead to firewalls surrounding everything within the CMS.

It is deemed undesirable to make certain kinds of content public. Often this makes sense.  Many CMS include personal data about students (the system here at Minnesota has student pictures, addresses, e-mail); discussion forums where the desired student openness requires keeping it within the confines of the class; and, of course, copyrighted material (whether used illicitly or under a license).

Once you have an integrated system with any of those kinds of presumptively private items, then the path of least resistance is to plop it all behind the wall rather than picking and choosing among different types of content.

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