Mark Glaser writes an interesting but confusing article about a journalism class at NYU where students aren’t allowed to blog or twitter about the class content:

After New York University journalism student Alana Taylor wrote her first embed report for MediaShift on September 5, it didn’t take long for her scathing criticism of NYU to spread around the web and stir conversations. . . . By Taylor’s account, [journalism professor Mary] Quigley had a one-on-one meeting with Taylor to discuss the article, and Quigley made it clear that Taylor was not to blog, Twitter or write about the class again.

Glaser then corresponds with Prof. Quigley, who emails:

I [Quigley] will confirm that I asked the class not to text, email or make cell phone calls during class. It’s distracting to both me and other students, especially in a small class seated around a conference table. This has always been my policy, and I would hazard a guess that it’s the policy of many professors no matter the discipline.

However, I did say after the class session they were free to text, Twitter, blog, email, post on Facebook or whatever outlet they wanted about the course, my teaching, the content, etc.

Seems clear enough: Keep your thumbs to yourself during the class period then write it all down later. Makes sense to me. But then Glaser reports:

When I [Glaser] followed up and asked her whether that meant students still needed to get permission before writing about class, she said: “Yes, I would certainly require a student to ask permission to use direct quotes from the class on a blog written after class.”

Huh? Didn’t she just say “they were free to text, Twitter, blog, email, . . . whatever they wanted about the course”? At this point, I wish Glaser had gone back to Quigley one more time for a clarification.

P.S. I looked up Mary Quigley on the web and found this list of articles by her students–judging from the quick summaries, apparently Quigley teaches a class on feature writing–and
this homepage, which to me was suprisingly brief, but I suppose that journalists have a tradition of not giving our their work for free.

P.P.S. Without knowing more details than what is in the links above, I’m 100% in support of Taylor, the student who was told not to blog. But I can definitely sympathize with Quigley: I can well imagine a student in one of my classes blogging something like this:

At the halfway point in the class, Quigley lets us go on a break. In the bathroom I run into an old classmate who asks me if I am going to stay in the class. I ask her if she doesn’t like it and she responds that she is worried of it being too “all-over the place” or “disorganized” or “confusing.”

Ouch!

P.P.P.S. I was amused that Taylor wrote that “I like to think that having a blog is as normal as having a car.” Where exactly does she park?