Are Social Networking Sites a Career Ender for Educators? (Part 1)

tight control of the friends list is a must

very very true. I will talk about some of the pitfalls here in this week's part two.

Dear ShakespeareTheEngineer, Thanks for working to explain some of this to us. My cousin invited me to join Facebook, and so I did. My daughter apparently uses it as her preferred way of communicating with anybody, about anything.

I myself find it disturbing.

Like many things, they are not in themselves "bad", if you know what you are doing, and how to use them, but I really don't know all of the ins and outs of Facebook, or LinkedIn either.

So I appreciate the education this Blog may provide.

Transcendian,

I am glad that you enjoyed it. I am still learning the ropes myself. Hopefully Parts 2 & 3 will be equally satisfying. And sorry for the delay in response. I was out last week on vacation.

So the modern mirror is not electronic me 1, but it's electronic me 2! #blog tip gained by reading this: Gain privacy by checking what my electronic clothes are, and make sure I find people draping my electronic self around in an overly deranged way! :)

Question; If I run into an electronic version of myself what should I do?

Shakespeare, great blog. I feel like this must be an increasingly tough judgment call for many educators. I was early in my college career when facebook was introduced, and the amount that it has changed in that time, a mere 6 years (ew, that sounds weird), is baffeling sometimes.

When they took away the "you must be in college to use FB" requirement, the flood gates opened, but it wasn't until this year or so that I've started seeing former teachers, professors, and parents in my friend request box.

Although I'm long out of high school, I still struggle with the thought of adding former teachers, because I'm not sure I want them to know what I'm up to. Like many situations, it depends on the person. Some former teachers that I've had seem to seek out students, which doesn't seem like a good thing. I don't want to know that Mrs. XYZTeacher is drinking downtown on a Tuesday - I just don't, even if I live far away now!

I think that the approach you're taking, by properly figuring out the privacy settings and restricting access to how and who can contact you, is the right one. I personally think that it's tough for kids to find good role models anymore, and sometimes they need that mystery that the role of "teacher" represents.

For anybody here who is on facebook, why not "be a fan" of CR4? Click here for CR4_News on facebook.

I think that it is a good idea to keep your friends list small and not include students. As an alternative, however, you could set up another account or even a group so that perhaps healthy discussions can take place about a particular class. Reading a book in class? Your class group can be a hosting place for a discussion about opinions of the book (was it a good pick? what are some underlying themes?...etc...). You can have the group and not be seen as accessible 24/7.

Recently my sister has started using the 'events' function of facebook to set up specific community events to spread awareness, monitor how many people intend on helping/volunteering/participating, keep track of member attendance, etc. This is all pending that you would be willing to become a moderator and make sure that the group doesn't get out of control.

...a former student snapped a picture of me making my way up the theater stairs on crutches and sent it to members of his class.

Training for paparazzi classes I see. How does it feel to be a celebrity?

Or,another alternative is to not do anything that would be perceived as substantially wrong. Cut back on your kiddie porn and nude exhibitionism online. Don't discuss how hot the new sophomore girl in your class was with a friend online. don't discuss you affir with the new english teacher online, etc.. You really just need to consider FB like yelling everything in public, you can have no expectation of privacy. It seems like true educators should buy into a media for mass communication of thoughts and ideas without severe restrictions, unless they have some severe socially unacceptable behaviors. Plus there is a potential to communicate your own ideas to a mass of people. You could have a long line of people from years of classes discussing topics of interest, this type of open discussion tends to lead to better understanding of subject matter in many cases. This could be helpful, as long as you actually understand the subject matter, otherwise it could hurt as the students in open forums soon learn you really may not understand the subject.

I think that the problem is more like, if you are friends with students, it may be like there is no privacy. I mean, students took pictures of STE going to watch a movie. While it is not necessarily a private thing to be doing, I am sure STE didn't necessarily appreciate everyone knowing that he went to see Harry Potter. When STE signed up for a teacher position, I doubted that he expected to be snickered at by people with camera phones.

I am sure if teachers were friends with students, the students would be scrutinizing his facebook page even more than their friends or maybe even their crush.

No one wants to live in a fish tank, Big Brother IS watching.

It really depends on your ability to control the environment in your fish tank. As far as student invading your privacy. You can have no real expectation of privacy when you go out in public, movie stars and politicians figured this out a long time ago and many have learn to manipulate this publicity to their benefit. Use the publicity and you can benefit greatly, it can be a strong teaching tool if used properly by knowledgeable intelligent people who can find a way to take advantage of the communication. Try to avoid it and well, not having your own FB doesn't exclude those pictures you mentioned and blogs from students from showing up on theirs or their friends sites, which is actually where they would put most of that information anyways. Plus you can use the account as a monitoring tool, as students tend to blog immediate thought with out consideration for the statements. You can be aware of their activities and use this when they say try to convince you they worked really hard on their paper, and you see on FB they went to a party and the beach then to the lake all weekend, etc.. the problem is the teachers aren't technically competant enough to take control of the situation and use it to their advantage, or have barely hidden secrets that could pose a huge risk to them. If everyone knows what you are doing, it also means you can know what everyone else is doing, and if you really have teaching skills you can redirect others efforts towards something more productive and teach them something. Use the publicity.

If I was a movie star I'd go all '300' and have a moving flank of blacked out police shields to hold down requested gateways at all my private outings.

Thanks, everyone for the comments. I was bummed that I didn't have internet last week on vacation to weigh in and respond. I think all of you make good points and I liked some of the suggestions, too. Jaxy, the idea of a class group is one that I am now kicking around. I might try it out with my homeroom, which is much less intense and more low key until I get the hang of it.

And as for maintaining privacy, it doesn't have anything to do with kiddie porn and online exhibitionism. It has to do with the fact that I (as do many educators) don't feel that it is right to feel like you can't go out in public without it being digitally chronicled and put online. Why should one of my colleagues have to worry about students posting pictures of him the found online holding a beer at a class reunion (he is 38).

I suppose it gives the opportunity to have the discussion about the responsible use of alcohol, but do doctors or lawyers, or other professionals (besides actors, athletes, and politicians) have the same amount of web space dedicated to such issues?

That being said, I take my job as a role model seriously and conduct my life accordingly, but knowing everywhere you go, who you are with, and what you are doing, even if legal and acceptable by society, can be put on the internet and called into question years after you have participated in the activity, in unsettling.

And we haven't even talked about what kids can do with Photoshop. The pic of Obama is an example. This took me three minutes and I am NOT good at using PhotoShop (as it is easy to spot as a fake), but if I had time and the inclination to make this look legit, even as a novice, I bet I could make a real enough looking one. Mello could blow this out of the water.

PC World Emagazine has some excellent advice on employing cautious methods on social networks. As is always the case, common sense prevails.