Comments on: Online Spaces and Codes of Conduct

By: SDisbury

SDisbury — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:23:02 +0000

Hiya,
I absolutely agree with the point you make about teachers being responsible for what they write in the public domain and exercising caution. The internet is a different monster to the staffroom and we should act accordingly.
About banning facebook though – do you know if it is possible legally for authorities to ban teachers from having these accounts, or any other social networking accounts while we’re here? There is nothing illegal or inappropriate about such sites.

By: Kevin Mc Laughlin

Kevin Mc Laughlin — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:59:27 +0000

Blanket banning teachers from the use of social network sites by any educational authority would be at best ill conceived and at worst an outrageous denial of freedom of information and civil liberties.

However (why does there need to be one!), there are codes of conduct and as professionals we must abide by them or face the consequences. If we use such tools during school time then we are doing so for an intended teaching/learning outcome, when we use them in our own time then we should take into account that our posts, be they on blogs or Twitter, could be and have proven to be read, quoted, analysed, picked over and vilified by the media and misinformed sources.

Freedom of information runs both ways and we need to be sure that those 140 characters we are just about to tweet to the world are not going to land us in a compromising situation.

By: Danny

Danny — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:20:56 +0000

Thanks for the comments so far, some interesting views here

By: Samantha Lunn

Samantha Lunn — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:15:21 +0000

Hi – I think you write a very interesting post here, and I also agree with you about having to be careful about what we do as teachers in the virtual world. I was interviewed by the TES about a year and a half ago (http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=2434491) about teachers using Facebook and I firmly believed (and still do) that just because we are teachers does not mean that we SHOULDN’T be able to use these wonderful tools just like the rest of the world. I agree with your basic rules of privacy, and although students somehow still manage to find me, I know that my security profile settings are high. As I said in the article, when a student finds me on facebook more often that not they just come across a picture of me and my name. As far as I am concerned they already know my know, and know what I look like! If they do try to contact me I normally block their user profile and mention to them in the school day that under no circumstances are they to contact me again. I have ocassionally reported it to the Head of the relevant year, but often there is nothing more to be done than to make it clear to students that my Facebook account is for me and my FRIENDS, not my students.
Twitter on the other hand I view as a real educational eye-opener. I have a wonderful PLN that I really enjoy interacting with and I have made the aim of my twitter account purely a professional one. A quick Wordle of my tweets comes up with key words such as Thanks and Ideas (http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/823065/Untitled) showing that an overview of what I do on Twitter is very much teacher orientated. That being said, I should also become more aware of the personal (ish) things that I may talk about. Today for example, in exasperation at being on hold for 20 minutes, I tweeted about it. Nothing to do with teaching, nothing really to do with anyone, but it kept me busy (and slightly more sane) whilst waiting. Although I know that I do not regularly tweet at school (blocked on school computers) I CAN access twitter via my BlackBerry, but the honest truth is that I don’t have time to! If I did have time to, then surely it is my right to do what I want to do in my ‘free’ time at school? I don’t mean mid-lesson, mid-cover etc, but during lunch or break or even at the end of the school day, but I am still in the school building. I suppose, like you, I need to just be aware of what I am saying, and aim to not break any rules of conduct. If I imagine that my headmaster or another member of SLT is reading my tweets, then perhaps that will stop me from saying anything I shouldn’t. Does anyone have a line-manager following them on Twitter? Does it make a difference?

Sam

By: David Pott

David Pott — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:03:26 +0000

If the teacher had posted criticism of colleagues or pupils to a different form of mass media (eg. in a letter to her local paper) she would have been criticised and probaly given some form of verbal or written warning. I think that would have been an appropriate sanction. The LA wouldn’t have tried to ban the local paper. So yes, it was out of order to post comments like she did, but it was disproportionate to ban twitter for all teachers. Let’s hope it doesn’t catch on!

By: Johnmayo

Johnmayo — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:57:54 +0000

In one way it reminds me a bit of the furore of ratemyteacher in Ireland where I am from. Ratemyteacher was a site where students could rate their teachers anonymously. It got loads of media then died away.

Teachers were more annoyed by the comments rather than the anonymous remarks made. If students put their name to it, teachers and schools could discipiline that student for offering an “honest” opinion.

In the Scottish case, the teacher is identifiable and can stand over the comments. Students would problably know that what she tweeted was an honest opinion. While the students might not agree with what or why she tweeted, students do respect teachers that are honest and up front. They are also more in tune with the social media rules. Quite a few students have commented on their Bebo, Facebook etc. about their teachers and schools. So in one way, what is good for the goose is also good for the gander.

I would be interested in getting the Students POV on this. Their voice is probably the most important in this case.