The TLT Group

 Anonymity, Intimacy, & Identity
Resources for/from/about OLI Workshop
This Web page offers a starting place and resources for an online event about the role of anonymity, intimacy, and identity in online and hybrid activities in higher education, with the dual goal of implementing practical results and developing useful policies.

Workshop Leader/Presenter

Picture of Deirdre Cobb-Roberts
Deirdre Cobb-Roberts
Assistant Professor, Psychological and Social Foundations of Education
University of South Florida

Moderator/Host

Steven W. Gilbert
President, The TLT Group

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Resources for Session 12/1/2005

From Anonymity to Intimacy

  • Click here to listen to archive/recording of sound from this session.

    Caring, Identity

    “Why Don’t You Speak For Yourself, John?”
     "From The Courtship of Miles Standish by Longfellow. Miles Standish, lacking words of love, asks his friend John Alden to speak on his (Standish's) behalf to the maid Priscilla.  John is anguished, for he too is secretly in love with Priscilla, but has been too shy to reveal his feelings. John cannot refuse his friend's request – but all ends happily for Priscilla and John."
    <http://wordcraft.infopop.cc/writings/from The Courtship of Miles Standish>

    <http://www.alden.org/our_family/aldenbiography.htm#courtship>

    Cyrano de Bergerac (in English)
    <http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=1254>by Edmond Rostand
    translated by Gladys Thomas and Mary F. Guillemard
    Project Gutenberg Release #1254 (March 1998)

    Roxanne (1987), Directed by Fred Schepisi;  Writing credits Edmond Rostand (play), Steve Martin
    <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093886/>
    "Based on the play 'Cyrano de Bergerac', large nosed C.D. Bales falls for the beautiful Roxanne while she falls for his personality but another man's looks."

    Case - St. Lawrence University:
    A group of students set up a blog called "Take Back Our Campus" (meaning, taking back our campus from what they perceived as a takeover by right-wing, conservative types). The anonymous posters to this blog wrote a mixture of pieces criticizing what they perceived as troublesome trends on campus. But some of their blog entries targeted specific, named individuals (students, faculty, administrators). It was hard to tell whether all that the anonymous posters were saying about these individuals was true or not. But the students who were targeted felt very traumatized by these attacks. The presence of the blog was creating a hostile atmosphere on campus for those students who were targeted.

    And so, in consultation with the university lawyer, the President of the university decided finally to treat this just like any other case of harassment. If harassing posters were placed around campus, targeting individuals or groups, those posters would be immediately removed. So the President decided to similarly remove campus access to the website.

    This was (not surprisingly) a controversial move. Furthermore, his decision to do this entailed (also controversial) changes to the "Acceptable Use of Computing Resources" policy.

    For more, see:

    Article, "Cloaked in Cyberspace," Inside Higher Ed, May, 2005
     http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/05/13/lawrence

    Archive from blog "Take Back Our Campus"
    http://tboclives.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_tboclives_archive.html

    Article, "University drops Internet lawsuit," Updated: 9/16/2005 10:33 AM
    By: Heather Ly, News 10 Now Web Staff
    http://news10now.com/content/all_news/?ArID=49542&SecID=83

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    		•

    Trust, Dangerous Discussions
    NOTE:   In preparation for this section, you may want to review some of the activities and resources that were available to you an earlier module section about college and university honor codes.

    Introduction:
    Trust among the participants is essential for almost any definition of community.  Deirdre Cobb-Roberts from University of South Florida works with her students in courses and with colleagues in workshops about “Dangerous Discussions”.  She has been unusually successful at enabling her students to use online communication options – including anonymous ones – to exchange ideas and personal feelings, and to respond meaningfully and respectfully to each other.  As you listen, note both the essential elements Cobb-Roberts uses in her hybrid courses and which of them could translate into an online course.
    Resource:     Interview  (5 Questions - including students' use of anonymous online discussion - 13 minutes) with Deirdre Cobb-Roberts Assistant Professor, Psychological and Social Foundations of Education University of South Florida;  Brief Sample (2 minutes)
    Activity 2
    Describe essential elements of Deirdre Cobb-Roberts' approach in her course.  Describe ways in which those elements could be translated into online activities – or not.

    Other related resources - including sample topics and questions for "dangerous discussions" within courses and between faculty and administrators, etc., see:
     http://www.tltgroup.org/dangerdisclinks.htm

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