Steve I like this approach whether using Google or Facebook. Both are known for targeting and profiling! I actually did something similar once for a class project. -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Steve Cavrak Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 11:53 AM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] question about use of Facebook in classroom On Aug 20, 2008, at 7:18 PM, Stephanie Tuszynski wrote:
But still, I wanted to run this concept by the people who deal with these kinds of exercises and have spent more time thinking about the ethics of this kind of thing than I or any of my colleagues. Does this
sound acceptable, from an ethical standpoint?
I like the concept, but the comments have suggested that maybe modifying live facebook pages isn't reliable or a good idea ... so I began wondering about different ways of exploring this phenomenon. - using just google, have students do some standard searches and record which ads appear. do they seem targeted? to the student? to the geographic area? to the search? to different types of google users (e.g. people who use gmail and or igoogle might be different than the people who surf "anonymously." - turn it into a mini-ethnographic survey. Each student would ask 2 or 3 of their friends to describe their experiences and perceptions with targeted ads, etc. Do they feel they are being targeted ? Do they feel that the "net knows" something about them? Is facebook different than myspace, etc ? In both of these, there would have to be some discussion about how to do this type of research, and what can reasonably be expected from it. Moreover, we're studying a moving beast. "Targeting" and "profiling" algorithms are changing rapidly - this fall's facebook will be different than next spring's, etc. Steve _______________________________________________ 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/