Social media map infographic:
My teaching career has been enhanced with the use of digital technology and social media. I am constantly amazed at how quickly the use of innovative digital technology, online websites with resources, lessons, youtube videos, Ted talks etc has rapidly changed how and what we teach. We are no longer isolated by the classroom walls. We collaborate with our colleagues to plan, share, document and reflect on our programmes to enhance teaching and learning. I can see what each of my colleagues intentions are, notes they make about specific students which I can add comments too. I love how this has all changed for the better. Resourcing has also been enhanced and shared, it is not necessary to stock or keep many resources anymore. The first thing I do when I am searching for inspiration or resources is go to my online community.
Understanding Professional Ethics:
Teachers are constantly reminded about their professional responsibilities. We are responsible to:
- the children we teach;
- their whanau, parents/caregivers
- other local community members; Board of Trustee; often on PTA’s;
- our colleagues, senior management;
- cluster colleagues;
These communities are referred to on the New Zealand Education Council website - guidelines on social media. These are a reminder about our online and social media responsibilities.
- Learners:Teachers have a professional obligation to develop and maintain professional relationships with learners based on the best interests of those learners.
- Parents/Guardians/and Family/Whānau:Social media provides a great opportunity to collaborate and communicate with parents and whānau.
- Society:Teachers who model good social media use will grow learners who apply positive, respectful values in their interactions on social media platforms.
- The Profession:As a member of the profession you should seek and respond to opportunities to share knowledge and discuss concerns.
The advantages far out way any disadvantages. In my school environment we use class and individual blogs to share and celebrate student learning. The school has a Facebook page on the school website which is google sites. The facebook page is administered by senior management. Fortunately individually owned mobile devices by students is not a problem for us. The advantages for using digital devices and social media are many as long as we adhere to the Code Of Ethics for Certified Teachers which govern our practice at our particular school - we should be okey dokey? Right! This leads into me ….
Identifying my personal ethics
Personally I don’t have too much trouble with this area. I use mainly Facebook for both professional and personal sharing. Although recently my Facebook feed tends to be teacher resources, pedagogy etc. I use Twitter mainly for professional resources and sharing. Photos I share these days are mainly family gathering photos with family living overseas. I do not share any school photos on my personal Facebook page. I am very aware of my professional / personal boundaries. I do not friend ex students and usually not parents, unless they were a friend prior to me teaching in that community.
“The two most obvious ethical concerns of social media co-habitation are (a) teachers sharing their private (out-of-school) identities and practices in their profiles with their students that might not be congruent with the expectations placed on them as professionals, and (b) students actively seeking contact with teachers on the networks and, in doing so, building a profile of the teachers that may be incongruent with expectations, or even place the teacher in a compromising position.”
(Henderson, Auld & Johnson.2014, page 4).
I am conscious of friends who may tag me into their photos and have only had to once ask someone to take down a photo, not because it was inappropriate but because I just didn’t like it and they didn’t ask permission. It is extremely important for me to be very aware of security settings with all the applications that I often use, particularly with icloud settings.
Ethical dilemma
Any ethical dilemmas that I have encountered were at another school where often there were inconsistencies with regards to personal mobile devices. It is amazing how many year 7 & 8 children have flash smart phones. Because we were a large school, some classrooms had to hand their phones in and others often didn’t. It is always the few who spoil it for most of the others. There were a few texting and social media issues that did arise in school time, which were dealt with quickly once we were aware of them. However, the more serious bullying social media issues often occurred outside of school hours, this of course reared its ugly head for us the next day at school. It is not uncommon these days for Community and Education Police Officers to be spending much of their time dealing with social media bullying in many primary and secondary schools. This is extremely time consuming and unproductive.
It is important for schools to teach and sustain safe online practices for children, parents/guardians and whānau and for all teachers.
References:
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