[TIPS] Study groups vs Facebook

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/03/06/facebook-study.html?ref=rss

Thanks to Jimbo Lamb for sharing this with me - however indirectly. :-)

This is a story about an engineering major who took over the admin for a Facebook account that was used by a group of engineering students to ask questions about homework, etc. Now, to be fair, I don't know what else was on the site, and if it crossed the boundaries of help vs posting answers to tests. I don't know. But, let's assume that it WAS just an online study group. The professors are failing the student,and he's at risk to be expelled. If it truly is just a study group, does this make sense to anyone?

Maybe since it doesn't make sense, then there is more to it than just a site used for collaboration for study. But, does having a permanent record of your study group's discussions make it different than a face-to-face group?

This may be playing out at a college, but what will you do when you find out that it's happening at your school, too? You'd better have given it some thought.