The Sydney Morning Herald, February 28, 2011 - 9:46AM
For teachers, privacy is crucial. It helps them keep some distance from their students, which is vital in earning respect and keeping control.
But today's teachers are finding it harder to keep their distance. While just spotting a teacher at the shops used to be the fodder of school-yard gossip, now, thanks to social media, teachers have to be extremely careful about their online footprints - their names will be Googled and their Facebook profile will be searched.
For each new arm of social media that opens up, so do new dilemmas for teachers, students and parents. Should teachers keep a Facebook page? Should they befriend their students? And if the answer is no, how can the positive aspects of social media be incorporated in the classroom?
Most teachers and schools have had to wise up quickly to cope with the rapid and massive uptake of Facebook and mobile technology in the past 10 years. The NSW Department of Education's code of conduct says teachers must not invite students into their personal social-network site if it contains personal information or inappropriate content.
Teachers know the overwhelming majority of their students will use Facebook and so they must understand and use the privacy settings on the social-networking site to protect themselves.
For teachers, privacy is crucial. It helps them keep some distance from their students, which is vital in earning respect and keeping control.
But today's teachers are finding it harder to keep their distance. While just spotting a teacher at the shops used to be the fodder of school-yard gossip, now, thanks to social media, teachers have to be extremely careful about their online footprints - their names will be Googled and their Facebook profile will be searched.
For each new arm of social media that opens up, so do new dilemmas for teachers, students and parents. Should teachers keep a Facebook page? Should they befriend their students? And if the answer is no, how can the positive aspects of social media be incorporated in the classroom?
Most teachers and schools have had to wise up quickly to cope with the rapid and massive uptake of Facebook and mobile technology in the past 10 years. The NSW Department of Education's code of conduct says teachers must not invite students into their personal social-network site if it contains personal information or inappropriate content.
Teachers know the overwhelming majority of their students will use Facebook and so they must understand and use the privacy settings on the social-networking site to protect themselves.
The rest of this article can be read at: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/teaching-the-facebook-generation-20110227-1ba19.html
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