Activity #5: Response to Email

Scenario 4

You set up a class wiki using students’ first names and last initial.  On the site, you monitor any outside comments by having them emailed to you first and then approved.  While researching the planets, one student copies and pastes an entire section from a website without citing the source, even though you explained to the class the appropriate way to use and cite electronic resources.  You make the student take down the information immediately and serve a lunch detention for not following rather serious directions.  The following day, you receive this email from his father, with the superintendent copied:

Dear Mr. Franklin,

It has come to my attention that my son, Nick West, served a detention for copying information from one website to your class wiki.  Although I agree that he shouldn’t have copied information without citing his source, I have looked over this wiki and I see that you have students using their real names.  Is this not a violation of my son’s privacy?  Why was I not asked permission before my minor son participated in creating a site that the whole world has access to?

Mr. West

Dear Mr. West,

            I have talked with Nick and he agrees that plagiarism is a serious offense.  He and I will be working together to cite information from the site so he can post it to his wiki.  We reviewed the internet safety and appropriate use form to make sure we understood all guidelines.  In response to his wiki, he, and all the other students, use their first name and last initial on the wiki.  I am monitoring all comments and posts through my email, and people outside the wiki cannot “find” our location.

            By signing the AUP at the beginning of the year, you did give us permission to use the internet in our classroom.  Per the AUP, “To the extent that proprietary rights in the design of a website hosted on the Board's servers would vest in student upon creation, I agree to assign those rights to the Board.”  However, if you would like us to change Nick’s name on the wiki, I am more than happy to oblige, as long as he always updates/adds information using this name, for grading purposes.

Thanks,

Mr. Franklin