Chapter X: Electronic Monitoring in the American Academy

Brian M. O Connell
Central Connecticut State University, USA

Abstract

This chapter will examine the development and convergence of two abstract concepts: academic freedom and electronic monitoring. It will consider social, ethical, and legal elements that have contributed to disparate cultures supporting classical academic governance and modern corporate governance. The inevitable conflict between these competing paradigms will be illustrated through the consideration of legal decisions and institutional decision-making involving the use of networked technologies within the modern era.

[R]adical technologies create new definitions of old terms, and [this] process takes place without our being fully conscious of it. (Postman, 1993,p. 8)