Law, Policy—and IT?

In the United States, college or university is a privilege. It is not a right, it most certainly is not a legal requirement. With their admission, students are invited to join a unique community of scholars and scholarship. Academic integrity is the core component of the expectations we set for students.

Canisius College in Buffalo, New York invited me to speak on the subject of academic integrity last Friday. Below is my speech in blog-length installments. It is not the first time I have written about academic integrity -- hence the "redux," -- but it is a topic that current developments, MOOCs not least, and upon which the future of higher education rests. I hope these thoughts contribute to a conversation that puts the dynamics of academic integrity front and center of our collective efforts going forward.

I predict that this entry will generate more comments than most. I propose that we watch France closely on its plan to tax the Internet, because the United States might want to follow suit. On first reflex I could not imagine a stand more likely to unite cross sections of the political spectrum from libertarians to liberals than this one. In all my days of work in IT I have never met a single person who did anything but reject any policy except the most hands-off ones regarding data networking. Why should we change gears now?

Scanning the headlines today, I came across this article about Oxford University turning off Google Docs. Having made a friend at Oxford of a colleague in IT there, Tony Brett, I looked at my watch, recognized that it was noon for him, emailed him the link with a subject line: Tell Me More! To which Tony immediately replied with this more extended discussion of the technical security rational for the administrative decision.

That is the name of the White House's press release about an executive order that President Obama signed yesterday.

Did anyone outside of New York City happen to catch this story about Baruch College? In the scope of international Internet policy it is a proverbial drop in the bucket. But for higher education information technology policy it is an important story. And a good step that administrators there made in how they handled a challenge that in the past has stymied administrators and angered students.

Last week this document created quite a storm of controversy. Comments trended toward two themes: a growing backlash to all the attention that MOOCs are getting at the expense of so many on-going distance learning initiatives already in place and the thought that it is old wine in new bottles.

Susan Crawford's New York Times op-ed "How to Get America Online" states the case and makes a clear and convincing argument that the United States, beyond a shadow of doubt, must revisit, revise and advance its broadband policy.