Legal and Ethical Contexts

Ethics in Teaching with Digital Technologies

Many students live in a social media world. It is their connection to friends and the main way they communicate with one another when it comes to gatherings. A student without access to social media can feel very isolated. As teachers, we need to be aware that our social media profile can be accessed by anyone at any time and it is this ethical issue that this blog will discuss. 

Henderson, Auld and Johnson presented a paper at a conference regarding social media and the teacher's responsibilities around teaching with social media.

(Henderson M., Auld G., Johnson N. 2014)

In this paper, the authors raise four valid issues when using social media as a teaching resource, consent, confidentiality, boundaries and dealing with illicit activity.

For this blog, the area of boundaries will be discussed. Henderson, Auld and Johnson describe the implications of a teacher's social media profile being accessed by students. The sharing of private profiles with students would be problematic, especially if the teacher engages in posting grey areas that question their professional integrity. It also opens up the teacher to students requesting access and, once gained, introduces ethical issues if the student posts unacceptable material.

Over two years I was involved in both teaching and assisting a church youth group. As part of the youth group, we had a Facebook page and some of the youth requested friendship status with me personally. At first, I thought it would not be an issue and that I could post on their pages when they perhaps crossed a moral or ethical line. I post very little on social media so keeping youth out of my private life was not difficult. I can see, though, how it could be for those younger than myself who have grown up sharing their life story on social media.

What to post?

As professionals, teachers must decide whether it is appropriate to share personal information on social media sites that can be accessed by students, or what boundaries they should develop to protect their own personal identity. One of the issues with sites like Facebook is that the user can never be sure their photos and posts are not visible to other users, including those who are not Facebook friends. Students have access to these pages, so teachers need to use caution when posting events, photos and comments that could be accessed by students.

Using Social Media with Classes

Is it really appropriate and necessary to use social media in the classroom environment? 
One positive of using social media with classes is teachers can teach students how social media can be used responsibly and in a way that is productive. Social media tools have developed a negative image and have been the means by which individuals have bullied others. It is not so much the tool, but rather the way it is used that causes the problems with cyber bullying.

When social media is used with a class, boundaries regarding how the media is used can be set and the teacher can track student interactions to ensure the boundaries are met.

One solution to teachers separating private and public profiles would be to set up a second profile to be used by students to contact the teacher. A second solution would be to only have a public profile that the teacher would be happy to share with anyone else. The difficulty can come about when others post objectionable material that the teacher has no control over. This material can then end up on the teacher's feed, especially if they comment or like it.

Impact of Student Actions

Recently, the school had an incident involving a student attending another school who wanted to return to the school I teach at. While at the other school, the boy made a music video that contained objectionable content around rape 'culture'. When his position at the school was considered, it was decided his actions would preclude him from the school, given that his actions were not in line with the school culture. This was a difficult decision, but one that was strongly supported by teachers. People, especially young people, do not always consider the impact their online profile might have on their own future.

A Teacher's Dilemma

For some teachers, there is a dilemma between the professional face of the teacher and their own personal desire to participate in activities that might be considered socially acceptable, but may produce an undesirable image for students to admire. For example, drinking alcohol to reach and intoxicates state and smoking may be socially acceptable among their peers, but most secondary education facilities would discourage such activity amongst their students.

Not wanting to sound morally superior in any way, I have chosen a life style that aligns itself with the morals and ethics of the professional teacher working in a Catholic school. By adhering to this standard, I do not have a 'secret side' that must be hidden from students. Rather, my life choices tend to agree with the choices we would hope young people would make in life. Young people need ethical role models, whether they are teachers, parents, extended family or neighbours. Our responsibility is to provide that 'moral compass' for students to look up to.


References:

Henderson, M., Auld, G. and Johnson, N. (2014) Ethics of teaching with Social Media. ACEC2014. Retrieved from: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.719.2437&rep=rep1&type=pdf






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Contemporary Trends

Image
Structure of the Nuclear Family In the last two decades, there have been significant changes to what is referred to as the nuclear family. The Dad, Mum and 2.4 child family structure has morphed into a plethora of structures. The nuclear family has many variations: single parent two parents living at different addresses married or unmarried parents civil union same gender parents The list goes on.  The basic education of teaching Mathematics, English and Science may not be affected significantly, but discussions between teachers and students and the language around gender and 'acceptable' relationships' require re-thinking. This is an issue for a Catholic-based school where the church upholds the sanctity of marriage between one woman and one man.   By virtue of its very definition, marriage can only be between a man and a woman, Pope Francis has said in a new book-length interview. (Glatz, 2017) How does a state-integrated school, with a Catholic...
Read more

Climate and Culture

Image
Socioeconomic status (SES) encompasses not just income but also educational attainment, financial security, and subjective perceptions of social status and social class. Socioeconomic status can encompass quality of life attributes as well as the opportunities and privileges afforded to people within society. Poverty, specifically, is not a single factor but rather is characterized by multiple physical and psychosocial stressors. American Association of Psychology (2016) Decile ratings have been used in New Zealand to determine the funding a school requires. Those with a lower financial base are given greater funding. These ratings have been used to indicate the "type" of student that attends. Often, greater behavioural needs are found in lower decile schools. The socioeconomic status of my community is skewed towards the higher end compared to other schools in the district, according to the decile rating. The decile rating of 8, compared to the average for New Plymo...
Read more

Reflective Practice and Changes in Practice

Image
The thirty-two week journey Anticipation, nervousness, excitement, trepidation. These were some of the initial feelings as I entered the school library where I would spend the next 16 weeks, 1 evening a week, with fellow teachers. We would discuss, interact, collaborate and touch on many concepts, skills and IT tools, some of which I had previous exposure to and some that were new to me. I grew in confidence over the 16 weeks, as I attempted to implement some of the tools and thinking into my teaching, with varied results. The main thing was that I was trying out new ideas and spending time thinking about how the tools and skills could be best utilised in the classroom to improve student engagement. Engagement has become a key word in the modern classroom, but it is difficult to define fully. We recognise when a student is or is not engaged, but can we measure engagement? Often, there are other features we can measure, like achievement and behaviour. These are easier to put a nu...
Read more