Out on the weekend with my reading group, mainly teachers, connected by our crime fiction reading.
The conversation somehow got around to Facebook and it’s potential for connecting family and friends. One of the group said she had decided not to go onto Facebook because she didn’t want to run the risk of either being harassed by students, current or former, or by them knowing about what she did outside school.
Hot on the heels of that discussion comes a headline this morning from the TESconnect newsletter. (TESconnect is a UK community for teachers)
Facebook pupil disciplined “For making “appalling comments” about staff on the networking site. What would your school do?”
Predictably the comments that have been made about this issue are divided about what should have been done.
So far I haven’t been able to find a UK article relating to the issue, so perhaps it is one of those urban myth things. However I have found an article in the Brisbane Times in December 2008 about a US student who “is suing [the] principal … for suspending her after she posted negative comments about her English teacher.” The situation happened in 2007.
Whatever happened, the central issue for me is whether teachers are consciously avoiding creating a footprint on Facebook.
In my next couple of blog postings I’ll look at Facebook as an educational tool, but for now you might like to comment on your own feeling about Facebook.
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As the world moves more rapidly into the digital age the management of our digital footprint is somethings people in all walks of life and professions are going to need to come to grips with, with some haste. We need to learn how to manage our footprint to work to our advantage. Rather than immediately identifying the negatives we should be considering the education of users. I find Facebook and other social networking tools such as Twitter very powerful and useful tools. They have provided a rich resource access and links to others globally with similar interests.
At the end of the day you need to approve ‘friends’ on Facebook and can block followers on Twitter. I monitor before I accept. By taking the time to do that you can use the services to mold the tools to how you want them to be.
Part of the problem is the importance that some people (inc the media) attach to any popular medium.
If you walk around any school you’ll find things written on desks, walls, etc and the same exists on city streets. Nobody pays them much attention as its a low-cred medium. Much like smalltown gossip it only impresses on those who see low-level information as important.
Once the traditional media (who are obsessed with their own importance, and believe that anything that runs them out of business must be VERY important) get over this we might see some sanity.
If you are afraid of the fire stay out of the kitchen. You have to ask yourself are you afraid of what your students may think of you and post on your page? Are you afraid of free speech? Does your organization have a code of conduct that covers social media? I am not afraid of what my students might say about me. I think the first six months I would have said “Yes, I am afraid”, but not after.
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