I was reading Kevin’s post (http://dogtrax.edublogs.org/2014/09/30/when-trust-gets-breached-repairs-may-be-impossible/) this morning and it really pinpointed one of my concerns in bringing an open online component into the Freshman course I teach. I do worry about creating an open space that could have the potential to impact the students later. If I require them to participate how do I ensure that what they create only reflects positively on them later without rendering the experience meaningless? It may be that I worry to much about it and that the students are more capable of protecting and projecting their own online identities than I think but I’d rather not have an experience where I lost the student’s trust in me.
I left a comment on Kevin’s post but it hasn’t appeared yet, so I put it here also:
Knowledge is Better than FUD (not just in the online world). I’ve been teaching online for over 10 years and have never had occasion to regret asking the students to publish their projects online… while I have had many, many, MANY occasions to rejoice about it! 🙂
I have the same qualms about first year grad students. What they share on Blackboard is sometimes so self revealing. I worry about the loss of the depth.