Anyone who knows me will know I am not a great fan of social
media. The one time I shared something sad over facebook (our cat of 18 years
had died), my 80 year old parents were travelling in Europe. Mum happened to
check her messages and saw the first words of mine “We are really sad…”. She
read the rest, realised it was “only” the cat that had died, and laughed!! An
example of how social media can be misinterpreted, or taken in a different way
to how you feel.
Another example is when I sent a colleague a text message
about work and she completely took it the wrong way. I was accused of all sorts
of things. My response was real annoyance – how dare she assume my meaning or
tone? The situation was resolved with a heartfelt apology to me but these
things all leave their scars.
As a result, I will not become friends with present or past
students, or their families, on social networks. My life is personal to me, and
we are entitled to life away from our job responsibilities. I don’t believe a
code of ethics should be necessary for educators to stay safe – we just need to
remember that we are in the public eye 24/7 and need to think about what we say
and do outside of school. I have heard of a teacher who lost her job because of
photos put on facebook. I am sure there may have been more to this but maybe naivety
creates some of our problems.
A responsibility of ours is to teach “online etiquette” to
our students and support them in keeping safe. Networking should be about
networking, and not become an online diary that can say too much. Students need
to know that social networks are not the place to bully, threaten, criticise, but
to share with friends. As I read in someone’s blog, if you don’t like what is
happening, push the off button! This is something else that students need to
know is okay to do.
Another issue I see is parents not monitoring what their
students are up to when networking. During the last few years many issues have
surfaced – facebook pages parents didn’t know existed, facebook pages under
alias names and online arguments where parents get involved in a negative way.
Parents must have some control over what their young children are up to, and
they also need to be setting a good example. Don’t abuse a child online, this
is not teaching your child the right way to deal with issues.
I guess I haven’t really followed the guidelines this week,
and may get some interesting feedback over my thoughts, but until these social
networks offer more security, and when I put something on it isn’t there for
ever, I will stick to my stance. I am working to have contact with families of
my students through emails and phone calls. To me, this is sufficient.
NB: this is the first blog that feels like a blog!!!
Comments
Post a Comment