Facebook collaboration is it cheating ???

Thanks to Merv Stapleton for sending this story my way .My view is that collaboration online is not so different to classmates discussing their homework face to face ?? What do you think!!

Student faces Facebook consequences

Freshman hit with 147 academic charges for online study network at Ryerson University.Ryerson student Chris Avenir is facing expulsion for taking part in a Facebook study group for one of his engineering courses.

Study groups may be a virtual trademark of the Ivory Tower - but a virtual study group has been slammed as cheating by Ryerson University.

First-year student Chris Avenir is fighting charges of academic misconduct for helping run an online chemistry study group via Facebook last term, where 146 classmates swapped tips on homework questions that counted for 10 per cent of their mark.

The computer engineering student has been charged with one count of academic misconduct for helping run the group - called Dungeons/Mastering Chemistry Solutions after the popular Ryerson basement study room engineering students dub The Dungeon - and another
146 counts, one for each classmate who used the site.

The incident has sent shock waves through student ranks, says Kim Neale, 26, the student union's advocacy co-ordinator, who will represent Avenir at the hearing.

"All these students are scared s---less now about using Facebook to talk about schoolwork, when actually it's no different than any study group working together on homework in a library," said Neale.

"That's the worst part; it's creating this culture of fear, where if I post a question about physics homework on my friend's wall (a Facebook bulletin board) and ask if anyone has any ideas how to approach this - and my prof sees this, am I cheating?" said Neale, who has used Facebook study groups herself.

Ryerson's academic misconduct policy, which is being updated, defines it as "any deliberate activity to gain academic advantage, including actions that have a negative effect on the integrity of the learning environment."

Yet students argue Facebook groups are simply the new study hall for the wired generation.

Avenir said he joined the Facebook group last fall to get help with some of the questions the professor would give students
http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/2008/03/facebook-new-study-hall-for-wired.html