Paula’s E-Musings

The Chronicle of Higher Education’s latest episode of Tech Therapy, which spotlights technology and legal issues, was well-timed for me. Last Thursday and Friday I had the pleasure of hosting the attorney that SUNY Administration has assigned to SUNY Cortland. We are fortunate that two of his three areas of specialization are privacy and information sharing of electronic records such as FERPA and HIPAA, and issues related to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).  His third area of expertise involves legalities related to University Police, including First Amendment rights of students and employees.

We spent some time reflecting — and chuckling about –how IT so often takes the lead on developing policies about the sharing and protecting of institutional records, even though IT is rarely, if ever, the creator or custodian. Similarly, it is typically the IT group that shepherds through policies on security and the use of e-mail, the Web and other communications tools. Why? Because these records and communications tools, along with so many learning modes, are electronic and the need to protect institutional data has become paramount. 

In reality the focus of the policies should not be on the format, but nevertheless in this digital era that is usually the case. At Cortland, I typically coordinate the development of such policies, of course relying on the resources and expertise all of the appropriate offices such as the Registrar, Student Accounts, and Student Affairs, etc. Most recently I have been organizing efforts to develop a comprehensive College FERPA policy that protects student privacy, yet allows the campus to share information as necessary to conduct the business of the institution and adhere to Federal law requirements.

During the two days our Legal Counsel was on campus we met with a number of different campus groups including the President’s Cabinet, which ultimately approves most of the important campus policies. We spent a lot of our time discussing FERPA and the implications for the many offices who are custodians of records. We talked about illegal file sharing and proceedures for handling DMCA complaints. We also talked about HEA reauthorization, and what instituions will need to do be be in compliance.

Getting back to the Tech Therapy Webcast, it was the first of two Webcasts to examine how legal issues impact IT and vice-versa. In these days of eLearning and creation of online intellectual property, and with so  many records and communications in electronic format, IT’s integral part in the educational enterprise has many legal implications. In addition to regulars Scott Carlson and Warren Arbogast, three attorneys participated in a lively conversation about legal issues that are impacting all of us.  Tune in for a thought-provoking discussion on a timely topic.

Everyone seems to be tweeting on Twitter. Last month Talk of the Nation devoted a segment to Twitter, explaining its purpose and inviting listeners to tweet with them. EDUCAUSE describes Twitter as “part blog, part social networking site, and part IM tool.” The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative has a Twitter primer in its  “7 Things You Should Know” series.

Twitter was created in March 2006 with the purpose of answering the question “What are you doing?” “Followers”  track and communicate with those they follow. Twitter is unique in limiting each tweet (aka post) to 140 characters so “conversations” are typically frequent and short.  I follow and am followed by about a dozen folks, both friends and colleagues. I have to admit that my tweets are pretty prosaic as are most of my followers’ tweets, if they tweet at all. There are some exceptions  — mostly the faculty I follow who use Twitter with students and colleagues. As more formal groups, such as Talk of the Nation, use Twitter as a venue to engage listeners/readers in conversations I expect the general level of discourse will be elevated.

I participate in several social networking sites, and I mostly post and read posts about the ordinary. The network I find most engaging is Goodreads where participants share reviews of books they’ve read. I’ve got a couple dozen Goodread friends; I look forward to their updates and I enjoy posting my own reviews.

Social Networking is becoming prevalent and there are more sites than ever before — both general and interest-specific. There are so many new opportunities to connect with others, share interests, and participate in online communities. Their role in higher education remains to be seen, so stay connected. Meanwhile, I’m off to tweet about this latest blog posting.

This is the fourth week of the fall semester and to say it’s been hectic is an understatement. The new campus portal myRedDragon with its single sign-on capability coupled with the new format for student netid’s has created a flurry of activity at the Technology Help Center. Information Resources has debuted its new Webpage with TechInfo to dynamically provide information about where to find support. It is still in a development stage but seems to be used with some regularity. Site visitors aren’t always sure what to do with the tag clouds but they are catching on quickly and the echat feature seems to be getting some activity.

The challenge as always is getting the word out to campus about the many services and resources that we offer. Faculty and students alike are interested in Web 2.0 technologies and the interest in their use is growing, as evidenced by the size of those tag clouds on the Tech Info blog. Many of IR’s instructional services are located in Memorial Library and next week they are hosting an Information Fair to showcase instructional technologies for faculty and students. The IR annual Information and Technology Planning Document has been updated and is a good barometer for progress and priorities.