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From: doner@henri.ucsb.edu (John Doner)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: The ethics of dribble files
Message-ID: <3876@hub.UUCP>
Date: 8 Feb 90 01:37:52 GMT
References: <1691@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Sender: news@hub.UUCP
Reply-To: doner@henri.UUCP (John Doner)
Organization: University of California, Santa Barbara
Lines: 33

In article <1691@skye.ed.ac.uk== ken@aiai.UUCP (Ken Johnson) writes:
==This is an attempt to get peoples' opinions on `dribble files'.  I don't
...
==I think I first felt there was an ethical issue when I heard at a
==conference a speaker say that the computer could keep a record of
==everything typed and display the record in response to some ``coded
==password'' [sic].  So the first issue is whether teachers should have
==privileges (like inspecting dribble files) reasons other than the
==protection of the integrity of a system. 
==
==Secondly, I feel a bit dubious of the ethics of letting the teacher
==overhear conversations like this.  When I last implemented a dribble
==file, it was possible to set up the system so that it started up without
==the user's (a school child typically 7-12 years old) knowledge.  I now
==feel that it would have been more nearly ethical to give a message along
==the lines of ``This session is being recorded.''

I'm a teacher, and I think the use of dribble files in the manner
described by you and some others is highly unethical.  I would not
consider it.  (I might have once, long ago, before I really thought
about such things.)  If a teacher wants a dribble file, he/she should
simply request the student to make it; it certainly should not be
accomplished automatically without the student's immediate knowledge.
The message idea is more acceptable.  But it would not be acceptable
to provide the message only at the beginning of the term, or even only
at the beginning of a session.  It should be issued repeatedly during
the session, rather the same way that people recording telephone
conversations are required to broadcast a tell-tale beep periodically.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
John E. Doner         |"The beginner...should not be discouraged if...
Math. Dept., UCSB     |he finds that he does not have the prerequisites
Santa Barbara, CA     |for reading the prerequisites."