Art Lader

They also point to a recent report in The New York Times, which said the Liverpool, N.Y., school system is joining a handful of districts in other states that are abandoning laptop programs because of misuse by students, technical problems, and a lack of educational value.

• http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PA_HIGH_SCHOOL_LAPTOPS_PAOL-?SITE=PAPPA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

> not that I would care if I got a bad rating

Hmmm... Yes, a veteran teacher will have a thick skin. Has to. But when a potential promotion or a new job is in the picture, do you want to have to explain negative, unfair comments to anyone who googles your name?

We have already had a case at my school where two students posted a bogus Myspace web page in the name of history teacher. On that page, the teacher made lewd comments about teenage girls. Myspace took the page down after being contacted by a lawyer, but the boys said the page was satire and there was no way to legally punish them. At least, that's what the victim told me.

I wonder if that page made its way into archive.org. I hope not.

This sort of thing is more than anyone should have to tolerate, is it not?

-- Art

I have to say that I do not like the fact that it is all so public. Sure, my ratings are high right now, but it would take only one determined student to trash them. And fair or not, the whole thing would be available to everyone in the world -- including prospective employers.

Now, if anonymous ratings were e-mailed directly to me and there were some private way for me to respond to them, I might take them much more seriously and then I might be more supportive.

But anonymous ratings done in a very public forum with virtually no accountability? No way. That's just wrong.

-- Art

Voted for it at http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-3156

To keep it alive, maybe some others could do the same. (Although it looks like it is going to be in 2.0 anyway.)

-- Art

Worked for me, Chardelle! Very cool...

-- Art