Threats, Lies, and Videotaping

I received a cryptic e-mail last week from a TA wondering whether it was illegal for a student to video record an instructor without consent. My first thought was, “Ugh Oh.” My second thought? Something probably unmentionable here, but akin to how I feel when someone is being treated unfairly. My third: was there a legitimate reason to surreptitiously video this TA? And how should I handle that? A follow up with the individual concerned exposed several deep rooted issues he held about classroom interaction, student preparedness, departmental leadership, and what constitutes effective pedagogy. My conversation with him also poignantly touched on his notions of himself as a teacher, as a mentor, and as “one” with the population he teaches.


Video (and audio) recording others without their knowledge has been in the news lately, and certainly YouTube is full of unknowing subjects caught on tape. Many states have restrictions against various types of recording without consent. Resembling language used to describe illegal wire tapping, most are as confusing as Virginia’s statute. This summer’s case involving video recording of an arrest prompted nationwide discussion about what state or civil entities could legally refuse witnesses’ requests to tape certain actions. One could, in the case of a Maryland motorcyclist, even be arrested for taping surreptitiously. In Michigan, there are laws governing rights to use recordings made without consent; most claim that one cannot use them for commercial purposes. A 2007 case at Central Michigan University, limiting the rights of a student to videotape a visiting politician without consent, spurred the ACLU into action, protesting that University restrictions of the CMU junior’s right to record in a public space were unconstitutional. There are no policies at my university for recording secretly for purposes other than commercial distribution.

Of course, several appropriate reasons exist for video or audio-recording (or both) in a classroom setting, which if not a legally defined private space, is considered private by most instructors. Faculty increasingly record lectures for podcasts and “shoot” themselves using software like Camtasia to record classes and make them available to students for later perusal. Many faculty and TAs allow audio recording of classes for students needing extra exposure to a class. Of course, all of these situations rest on consent of the parties involved. Things get tricky when someone feels like they need (?) or desire to record surreptitiously. In truth, a student could be recording simply for the fun of sharing a good lecture with friends and family. So why wouldn’t one ask if it was okay?

Well, because recording occurs for other reasons, as my colleague painfully discovered.

Apparently students in the course video-taped secretly to record what they construed as poor teaching. They took what they recorded to the department head, meetings ensued with all parties concerned, and the department head visited the class and pronounced my colleague’s teaching better than acceptable.  (Suffice it to say that the chair's willingness to look at the video breaks cardinal rules about proper administrative/supervisor behavior.)

Of course, none of this made things any easier on my friend, and in a conversation that nearly broke my heart, he exclaimed that “These are my people, Kevin. Why would they do this?”

This situation has brought into powerful collision several ideas I have about what constitutes appropriate classroom behavior, what’s ethical, what’s fair, and what students occasionally think is necessary. Addressing the latter, I have heard descriptions of teaching so poor as to make me wonder why this doesn’t happen more often. As to the former, I am reminded how important it is to set clearly defined expectations and to make sure your students understand them. I do encourage faculty and TAs to record themselves if they are comfortable doing so. I use video recording as a key element of my classroom consultation program, but the videos are nearly confidential (The exception being that tapes can be subpoenaed if something illegal occurs in class.).

Hmm, imagine me taping a student secretly taping the instructor I’m taping? Whew! What would I do with that?