Searching for "freedom"
The attacks are coming from both the right and the left.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/academic-freedom-is-on-the-ropes
Stanley Fish, the literary theorist and veteran administrator, and a visiting professor of law at Yeshiva University, in New York City, thinks that most if not all academic-freedom controversies are simply unnecessary. His argument boils down to academic freedom as “the freedom to do the academic job” — no more, no less.
The assumption antagonists make, says Tiede, is that if a professor expresses a view in a public forum, she or he must be indoctrinating students. But to take punitive action, he says, a college should have to prove that there is inappropriate indoctrination in the pedagogical setting.
academic freedom diminishes not so much as a result of oppression but as stable academic jobs simply disappear. To balance their books, colleges are increasingly culling tenure lines and consolidating or eliminating departments. To fill the gap, in remote or hybrid programs, they share courses or even entire academic majors from other institutions.
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more on academic freedom in trhis iMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=academic+freedom
What is academic freedom?
there is too little understanding of what academic freedom means. It is not absolute and it is not the simple equivalent of “freedom of speech.” All citizens have, or should have, the latter, but only individuals who have specified educational and professional qualifications are entitled to academic freedom within universities. In
the words of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), they are granted the “freedom to teach and discuss; freedom to carry out research and disseminate and publish the results thereof; freedom to produce and perform creative works; freedom to engage in service to the institution and the community; freedom to express one’s opinion about the institution, its administration, and the system in which one works.”
two articles of interest regarding freedom of speech on the Internet
New heights in digital activism
As governments around the world impose new restrictions on internet freedom, it is worth remembering what is at stake. The present crackdown comes as digital platforms are being used in new and creative ways to advocate for change and, in many cases, save lives. Internet advocacy had real-world results in both democracies and authoritarian settings over the past year, and its impact was often most pronounced in countries where the information environment was more open online than off. In over two-thirds of the countries examined in this study, there was at least one significant example of individuals producing a tangible outcome by using online tools to fight for internet freedom, demand political accountability, advance women’s rights, support victims of unjust prosecution, or provide relief to those affected by natural disasters.
Fighting for internet freedom and digital rights
Social media were used effectively to fight for internet freedom in a variety of countries over the past year. In Thailand, over 150,000 people signed a Change.org petition against a government plan to centralize the country’s internet gateways, which would strengthen the authorities’ ability to monitor and censor online activity. As a result, the government announced that it had scrapped the plan, though skeptical internet users remain vigilant.
Using the hashtag #NoToSocialMediaBill, Nigerian digital rights organizations launched a multifaceted campaign to defeat a “Frivolous Petitions Prohibition Bill” that threatened to constrain speech on social media. Alongside significant digital media activism, civil society groups organized a march on the National Assembly, gathered signatures for a petition presented during a public hearing on the bill, and filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Lagos, all of which contributed to the bill’s withdrawal in May 2016. India’s telecommunications regulator banned differential pricing schemes in February after more than a million comments were submitted online to protest companies that charge consumers different prices for select content or applications.
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more on Internet freedom in this IMS blog:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=freedom
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=civil
Save
the use of social media, personal versus institutional, or personal in the context of an institutional repercussions, is a complex and thorny issue. How much can one criticize the institution in their personal social media? And if the institution responds, when does it become silencing the social media as expression of free speech?
Is the article below touching only a specific [political] issue, or academia, as an institution, goes beyond this issue in imposing on freedom of speech?
Why I Was Fired
http://chronicle.com/article/Why-I-Was-Fired/233640
My tweets might appear uncivil, but such a judgment can’t be made in an ideological or rhetorical vacuum. Insofar as “civil” is profoundly racialized and has a long history of demanding conformity, I frequently choose incivility as a form of communication. This choice is both moral and rhetorical.
Academics are usually eager to contest censorship and deconstruct vague charges of vulgarity. When it comes to defending Israel, though, anything goes.
Students are capable of serious discussion, of formulating responses, of thinking through discomfort. They like my teaching because I refuse to infantilize them; I treat them as thinking adults. My philosophy is simple: Teach them the modes and practices of critical thought and let them figure out things on their own.
Professors are often punished for disrupting convention in informal ways, however. My case is interesting because administrators ignored the de facto standards that regulate our behavior and exercised their power directly. This should be worrisome to any scholar who isn’t a sycophant.
The coming of “academic capitalism” has been anticipated and praised for years; today it is here.
Benjamin Ginsberg points out that in the past 30 years, the administrator-to-student ratio has increased while the instructor-to-student ratio has stagnated. The rise of untenured, or non-tenure-track, faculty exacerbates the problem; a significant demographic in academe lacks job security or the working conditions that allow them to maximize their pedagogical talent. Over a recent 10-year period, spending on administration outpaced spending on instruction. At American universities, there are now more administrators and their staffers than full-time faculty. In the past 10 years, administrative salaries have steadily risen while custodians and groundskeepers suffer the inevitable budget cuts — as do the students whose tuition and fees supplement this largess.
When so much money is at stake, those who raid the budget have a deep interest in maintaining the reputation of the institution. Their privilege and the condition of the brand are causally related. The brand thus predominates. Its predominance often arrives at the expense of student well-being.
critical thinking is a terribly undesirable quality in the corporate world, much more damning than selfishness or sycophancy. Let us then be honest about critical thinking: On the tongues of cunning bureaucrats, it is little more than an additive to brand equity, the vainglorious pomp of smug, uptight automatons who like to use buzzwords in their PowerPoint presentations.
Critical thinking by faculty is even more undesirable. In research institutions, we are paid to generate prestige and to amass grant money; in teaching-centered colleges, we enjoy excess enrollments according to fine-tuned equations that maximize the student-teacher ratio. (In elite liberal-arts colleges, we pamper the kids with simulations of parental affection.) Critical thinking is especially harmful to adjuncts, reliant as they are for income on the munificence of well-paid bosses who cultivate a distended assemblage of expendable employees.
more on social media in this IMS blog:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/?s=social+media&submit=Search
What is 3DoF (Three Degrees of Freedom)? Less Than 100 Words
Critical news literacy session for social policy analysis course
Katie Querna, Thursday, 11AM, Stewart Hall
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/21/dumb-and-lazy-the-flawed-films-of-ukrainian-attacks-made-by-russias-fake-factory
https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-02-24/the-war-in-ukraine-via-tiktok-how-ordinary-citizens-are-recording-russian-troops.html
+++ please cover this information at home and bring your ideas and questions to class +++++
Most students can’t tell fake news from real news, study shows
Read more: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/03/28/fake-news-3/
Module 1 (video to introduce students to the readings and expected tasks)
- Fake News / Misinformation / Disinformation
- Definitions
- Fake news, alternative facts
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=fake+news
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=alternative+facts
- Misinformation vs disinformation
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2018/02/18/fake-news-disinformation-propaganda/
- Propaganda
- Conspiracy theories
- Bots, trolls
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/11/22/bots-trolls-and-fake-news/
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2020/04/30/fake-social-media-accounts-and-politicians/
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2020/01/20/bots-and-disinformation/
- Clickbait
Filter bubbles, echo chambers
(8 min) video explains filter bubbles
https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter
+++++ thank you for covering this information at home. Pls don’t forget to bring your q/s and ideas to class +++++
Why we are here today?
We need to look deeper in the current 21stcentury state of information and disinformation and determine how such awareness can help policy analysis.
How do we make up our mind about news and information; where from we get our info; who do we believe, who do we mistrust.
What do you understand under the following three items and their place in our efforts to analyze policies?
“critical thinking,” https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2014/05/11/the-5-step-model-to-teach-students-critical-thinking-skills/
“media literacy,” “Media Literacy now considers digital citizenship as part of media literacy — not the other way around”
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2020/01/07/k12-media-literacy/
“critical [news] literacy”
https://youtu.be/i2WyIkK9IOg
how do these three items assist a better analysis of policies?
Class assignment:
Share a topic which is very much to your heart.
Please feel welcome to use the following resources and/or contribute with your own resources to determine the sources and potential bias
library spot fake news
fake news resources
fake news and video
Feel free also to use the following guidelines when establishing the veracity of information:
Here is a short (4 min) video introducing you to the well-known basics for evaluation of academic literature:
https://youtu.be/qUd_gf2ypk4
- ACCURACY
- Does the author cite reliable sources?
- How does the information compare with that in other works on the topic?
- Can you determine if the information has gone through peer-review?
- Are there factual, spelling, typographical, or grammatical errors?
- AUDIENCE
- Who do you think the authors are trying to reach?
- Is the language, vocabulary, style and tone appropriate for intended audience?
- What are the audience demographics? (age, educational level, etc.)
- Are the authors targeting a particular group or segment of society?
- AUTHORITY
- Who wrote the information found in the article or on the site?
- What are the author’s credentials/qualifications for this particular topic?
- Is the author affiliated with a particular organization or institution?
- What does that affiliation suggest about the author?
- CURRENCY
- Is the content current?
- Does the date of the information directly affect the accuracy or usefulness of the information?
- OBJECTIVITY/BIAS
- What is the author’s or website’s point of view?
- Is the point of view subtle or explicit?
- Is the information presented as fact or opinion?
- If opinion, is the opinion supported by credible data or informed argument?
- Is the information one-sided?
- Are alternate views represented?
- Does the point of view affect how you view the information?
- PURPOSE
- What is the author’s purpose or objective, to explain, provide new information or news, entertain, persuade or sell?
- Does the purpose affect how you view the information presented?
In 2021, however, all suggestions above may not be sufficient to distinguish a reliable source of information, even if the article made it through the peer-reviewed process. In time, you should learn to evaluate the research methods of the authors and decide if they are reliable. Same applies for the research findings and conclusions.
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Aditional topics and ideas for exploring at home:
civil disobedience
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2014/09/30/disruptive-technologies-from-swarming-to-mesh-networking/
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2019/08/30/tik-tok-students-and-teachers/
https://news.softpedia.com/news/Venezuela-Blocks-Walkie-Talkie-App-Zello-Amid-Protests-428583.shtml
http://www.businessinsider.com/yo-updates-on-israel-missile-attacks-2014-7
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/11/14/internet-freedom/
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/08/31/police-to-block-social-media/
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/04/04/technology-and-activism/
literature:
https://www.ifla.org/g/faife/professional-codes-of-ethics-for-librarians/ и наред с IFLA е добре да се има пред вид ЮНЕСКО https://en.unesco.org/themes/ethics-science-and-technology/ethics-education
https://www.essaysauce.com/education-essays/ethics-library-information-science-lis-professionals/
https://www.uniassignment.com/essay-samples/information-technology/ethics-and-professionalism-in-library-information-technology-essay.php
https://www.springer.com/journal/10676 (за мен би било интересно да видя/чуя студентите ти как се „разграничават” от ИТ специалистите). Статиите в това списание интересни ли са им? Ако не са, защо? Как те виждат бъдещата си професия и т.н.). Ако се окаже, че повечето се разграничават, тогава да обсъдят тази статия: https://utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/jelis-62-4-2020-0106?journalCode=jelis
https://www.i-c-i-e.org/
https://www.academia.edu/4896164/Information_Ethics_II_Towards_a_Unified_Taxonomy
https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fileDownloadForInstitutionalItem.action?itemId=8334&itemFileId=17570
https://www.amazon.com/Studies-Library-Information-Science-Ethics/dp/0786433671
five categories: intellectual freedom, privacy, intellectual property, professional ethics, and intercultural information ethics
https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Library_and_Information_Science/Ethics_and_Values_in_the_Information_Professions (syllabus, как твоя клас се различава от този? Прилича на този?)
https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-3363 (това видео, повече от час, сравнено с предния учебен план, интересно)
https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/105520/fallislibraryhitech.pdf?sequence=1 (преглед на теориите, методологията)
http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.library.20180701.01.html и https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228428173_Where_is_Information_Ethics_in_Iranian_Library_and_Information_Science_Publications_and_Services
(тези две са интересни, защото са case study и по манталитет, ресурси и т.н., ние сме по близо до Нигерия и Иран, отколкото САЩ). Ето, да се противопостави на тази статия: https://divine-noise-attack.info/Case-Studies-In-Library-And-Information-Science-Ethics%7CKathrine-A.-Henderson.cgi и тази също https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/masters_papers/g732dd51k
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Ethical-Aspects-of-Library-and-Information-Science-Rubin-Froehlich/e251e778686c9c9e6f9ce6440cf5c99191563874
collection development, censorship, privacy, reference services, copyright, administrative concerns, information access, technology-related issues, and problems with conflicting loyalties
https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fileDownloadForInstitutionalItem.action?itemId=8334&itemFileId=17570
https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/106536/Contribution_368_final.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/case-studies-in-library-and-information-science-ethics-elizabeth-a-buchanan/1101364048 това е книга, мога да се опитам
https://uni-mysore.ac.in/assets/downloads2011/PHD-syllabus/Library-Information-Science.pdf В Индия, разглеждат етиката като част от изследователските методи. Това може да е полезно, ако наистина мислите за магистърска програма.
https://simmonslis.libguides.com/AppliedEthics_and_LAMs/applied_ethics libguide (споменах ви за платформата)
hooks, bell. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge.
https://sites.utexas.edu/lsjcs/files/2018/02/Teaching-to-Transcend.pdf
p. 5 critical thinking as a thread to authority
Nreal (Finally) Expanding to the US This Spring
https://arpost.co/2021/02/22/nreal-finally-expanding-to-the-us-this-spring/amp/
The China-based company announced the Nreal Light smart glasses in May of 2019. The surprisingly sleek and powerful consumer glasses with a $500 price tag
They’ve had huge success in China, but China is a pretty unique market. In late 2019, they expanded to Korea
the company is partnered with Deutsche Telekom and LG Uplus in Germany and Korea respectively, so it’s not too far a stretch to wager that the US branches of those carriers (T-Mobile and LG Electronics) will form at least part of their US distribution channels.
Finch Technologies makes body-tracking wearable devices to serve as controllers for XR applications and experiences including the recently announced FinchRing (this is the promised cherry on top).
The finger-worn hand tracker is designed to enable convenient and discreet 6-degree-of-freedom controls.
- Tagesschau 2025 – an application based on a German news program that will present, among other features, holographic weather forecasts;
- A virtual basketball game called DunkaAR;
- An MR mode for the in-browser MMORPG Dragon Awaken;
- An augmented reality football streaming application from Magenta Sport.
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more on immersive in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=immersive
more on Nreal in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=nreal+smartglass
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7wxvd/students-are-rebelling-against-eye-tracking-exam-surveillance-tools
Algorithmic proctoring software has been around for several years, but its use exploded as the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to quickly transition to remote learning. Proctoring companies cite studies estimating that between 50 and 70 percent of college students will attempt some form of cheating, and warn that cheating will be rampant if students are left unmonitored in their own homes.
Like many other tech companies, they also balk at the suggestion that they are responsible for how their software is used. While their algorithms flag behavior that the designers have deemed suspicious, these companies argue that the ultimate determination of whether cheating occurred rests in the hands of the class instructor.
As more evidence emerges about how the programs work, and fail to work, critics say the tools are bound to hurt low-income students, students with disabilities, students with children or other dependents, and other groups who already face barriers in higher education.
“Each academic department has almost complete agency to design their curriculum as far as I know, and each professor has the freedom to design their own exams and use whatever monitoring they see fit,” Rohan Singh, a computer engineering student at Michigan State University, told Motherboard.
after students approached faculty members at the University of California Santa Barbara, the faculty association sent a letter to the school’s administration raising concerns about whether ProctorU would share student data with third parties.
In response, a ProctorU attorney threatened to sue the faculty association for defamation and violating copyright law (because the association had used the company’s name and linked to its website). He also accused the faculty association of “directly impacting efforts to mitigate civil disruption across the United States” by interfering with education during a national emergency, and said he was sending his complaint to the state’s Attorney General.
here is a link to a community discussion regarding this and similar software use:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/RemakingtheUniversity/permalink/1430416163818409/
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more on Proctorio in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=proctorio
“Some of the more prominent companies offering these services include Proctorio, Respondus, ProctorU, HonorLock, Kryterion Global Testing Solutions, and Examity.”
