Academic Freedom and Use of Social Technologies for Teaching and Learning

The nature of academic freedom in the digital age now shifts and transforms as rapidly as the tools used to call it to question. This paper explores examples of U.S. institutions of higher education attempting to address the reach and implications of social media within the rights of academic expression, often with results antithetical to the notion of academic inquiry and rights held so dear in its production. We are entering a time when knowledge is increasingly socially and openly constructed. The creation of intellectual thought reaches (often resides) far outside the walls of the academy. If higher education is to continue serving as a respected creation center and collaborator in knowledge that serves society, one cannot discount the need to adapt to the tools and habits of shared and social knowledge. This paper explores the intersection of conflict for academic freedom and digital footprints. It puts forward a framework for the use of collaboration software in defining teaching and learning that is open, social and without wal