Terrell: Trust me I know all about those terms which most students routinely work around by giving parts of their names. That is part of the reason that I use Ning because you can set up a company name or an individual name. Those terms of use are primarily there to protect Facebook and advertisers from spamming,cyber-bulling, porn and more. I am not suggesting that no one break their conditions I am suggesting that students protect their identities by not providing their entire identities online for large companies that data mine and will sell, rent, lease or strategically ally )with others to get around this) your identity aware. If Facebook could get rid of all of the pseudo accounts their herd would look significantly thinner which is why there is selective enforcement for the real bad actors. Chris -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Terrell Russell Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 12:06 PM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] question about use of Facebook in classroom Heidelberg, Chris wrote:
My big question is why don't you have students create pseudo accounts to protect their identities. I use Facebook as a communications tool as well as content distribution tool.
Chris
Large unanswered social issues aside, I'd be wary of requiring/compelling students to knowingly break the Terms of Service of any company. Creating an account with fake information, pooled passwords, or a group account is directly addressed in the TOS at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/terms.php " Registration Data; Account Security In consideration of your use of the Site, you agree to (a) provide accurate, current and complete information about you as may be prompted by any registration forms on the Site ("Registration Data"); (b) maintain the security of your password and identification; (c) maintain and promptly update the Registration Data, and any other information you provide to Company, to keep it accurate, current and complete; and (d) be fully responsible for all use of your account and for any actions that take place using your account. ... User Conduct In addition, you agree not to use the Service or the Site to: - register for more than one User account, register for a User account on behalf of an individual other than yourself, or register for a User account on behalf of any group or entity; ... - use or attempt to use another's account, service or system without authorization from the Company, or create a false identity on the Service or the Site. " These TOS's have largely been unchallenged in court in this regard as far as I know (they're practically unenforceable in my opinion). I'd suggest considering whether you're willing to be the legal canary in the coal mine (yourself, and on behalf of your students). Terrell PhD Student SILS at UNC-CH _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/