Tech Dirt has great post on blogging in class: What to do Quantum AI Scam tips

It’s quite common these days for people to “live blog” or “live Twitter” different conferences or events they’re attending, filling in others what’s happening in near real time. However, what happens when someone does that in a college class? Already, there are some professors struggling with the fact that students use the internet during class, but they’re not at all happy about the idea that they might not just be using the internet to surf around — but to report to others what’s happening inside the classroom. The issue is discussed in detail by Mark Glaser in his latest MediaShift column after an NYU professor told her students to stop blogging or Twittering things about her class.

The controversy apparently began when a student in the class actually wrote a guest “embedded” column for MediaShift a few weeks ago, complaining that NYU’s journalism school wasn’t up-to-date on teaching students about social media and the new tools of journalism. Read more at Techdirt

The teacher further argued that she should not be quoted without her permission…. Ironically the name of the class is”Reporting Gen Y.”

Here is my take:

I pay more than 30k a year for law school, I sure as hell am going to share what I learn.  Sharing what you learn or don’t learn is an important part of being a global citizen and helping free culture.  I often contribute my notes directly to Wikipedia during class or live blog academic lectures.  If I am going to take notes I might as well share them in real time.

Quoting with attribution to criticize is definitely legal.  If the quote is copyrighted it is often fair use.  Furthermore if the quote is not fixed by the professor it is not even copyrighted, fixation is a requirement to get copyright protection.