The phenomenal growth in the use of social media in the past 10 years has dramatically and irreversibly changed the way individuals communicate and interact with one another. While there are undoubtedly many positives arising out of the use of social media, irresponsible or inappropriate use can have significant negative consequences. In the…

A clear, well defined policy can help empower school personnel to make informed decisions on how to handle cases of suspected child abuse. This article presents an analysis of (N = 64) school board child abuse reporting policies and procedures in Ontario and explored what training, resources, and support school boards state they will provide to…

Social web services catalog users' activities across the Internet, aggregating, analyzing, and selling a vast array of user data to be used largely for consumer profiling and target marketing. This article interrogates the tacit agreements and terms-of-use policies that govern who owns user data, how it circulates, and how it can be used. Relying…

Public libraries are heavily affected by political and policy-making processes that shape the funding, activities, and roles of libraries in society, with the explosion of information policy decisions in the past two decades significantly increasing the responsibilities of libraries while also increasing limitations on their activities. Research…

Every U.S. state and the District of Columbia has a law on the books that protects a library borrower's privacy, both an ethical and legal obligation of the library. In addition, FERPA further restricts access to users' records. Getting the message across to staff can be a challenge, especially if you employ students or volunteers who may not…

Young people in modern societies consciously (e.g. Facebook) or unconsciously (e.g. some Google services) produce a vast amount of geodata. Using relational databases, private companies are capable of creating very precise profiles of the individual user and his/her spatial practices from this data. This almost inevitably prompts questions…

This paper investigates the use of new media technologies, in particular wikis, for the compiling and grading of group assessment tasks. Wikis are open web pages that can be viewed and modified by anyone with internet access and are well known for their collaborative nature. Wikis are also transparent, which means that any edit/modification is…

In the very near future, students are likely to expect their universities to provide seamless access to e-books through online library catalogues and virtual learning environments. A paradigm change in terms of the format of books, and especially textbooks, which could have far-reaching impact, is on the horizon. Based on interviews with a number…

Cyberbullying has been identified by school leaders and researchers as one of the most serious adverse consequences of incorporating information technology into the classroom. This article examines the legal status of cyberbullying by conducting an analysis of selected federal appellate court opinions. This analysis identifies a set of legal…

Why is Information Privacy the focus of the January-February 2013 issue of "EDUCAUSE Review" and "EDUCAUSE Review Online"? Results from the 2012 annual survey of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) indicate that "meeting regulatory compliance requirements continues to be the top perceived driver…

Today's youth must deal with friend management 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through smartphones and such social networking sites as Facebook. Technology in the classroom can be valuable, but not without challenges. The key is well-thought-out policies. While school districts can't completely control how students use their…

In 2013, compliance issues march, unceasingly, through every aspect of higher education. Yet the intricacies of privacy, information security, data governance, and IT policy as compliance and risk areas within the IT organization can reverberate and impact every other department within the higher education institution. The primary focus is always…

There is a civil war simmering in classrooms nationwide. Arrayed on one side are students who would sooner cut off an arm than sacrifice their mobile devices. On the other stand faculty members who expect to be the focal point of their classes and will not abide distractions. Caught in the crossfire are instructional technology professionals.…

It's a dangerous world out there, with IT shops hard pressed to protect their institutions and users. "Campus Technology" looks at the 4 biggest security worries--and how IT can fight back. In 2012, 61 educational institutions reported data breaches, involving more than 2 million records, according to the nonprofit Identity Theft…

Plagiarism is rife on campus, with students lifting material from a host of online sources. While technology has made cheating much easier, can it also provide a solution? Internet access allows students to hit cheat sites and paper mills, copy off websites, and "collaborate" with fellow students. However taking an optimistic view of the…