Social media can be a great tool to develop/collaborate/communicate as a professional. I really think it is more important than ever to keep your personal and professional life separate. I think you should have both professional and personal accounts and not mix them. Even this can’t keep everything private. As he said in the article the quick name search and you can be found. Another concern I have is the unintentional social media post. I personally do not have any social media accounts but friends do and I’ve been in pictures on their social media sites. This also has to be kept in mind. I even mentioned to my kids when they do their Flipgrid at home to pay attention to what’s in the background.
I am not sure how I would address the student. If it was outside of school, in both the physical and digital world, I’m not sure there is much you can do. If it was a personal account and not on something we use in class or at school I really don’t have authority. Depending on the nature of the post, if they posed a risk to them or another student I may get my principal for wellness center involved and the parents involved. If I sent a letter to my principal about a kid posting the F word about the Patriots I would get a major eye roll. I would remind them about their digital footprint and the image of themselves they’re putting out there but it does reiterate the importance of setting expectations and all the kids to them even on the digital platforms.
5 Comments
Benjamin Scinto
3/12/2018 08:20:02 pm
Notion of keeping personal and professional separate: As you duly noted, this still does not protect the individual. The blurring of social boundaries is a scary thing to me - nothing is sacred, private, or taboo anymore. I feel for our student population as they must constantly straddle their online persona with their lived persona as if both were lived honestly. You know as a scientist, the adolescent brain is not developed enough to make the distinction, hell, I am 42 and still struggle with juvenile highjinks.
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An Truong
3/12/2018 11:07:34 pm
I was a little wary about setting up a social media account at first. Friends have encouraged me to set up an account and I went along with it because of the peer pressure. :) I knew that (personal)information will be share to the world and that made me feel a little sketchy. It never dawn on me to set up a personal and a professional account. One I can use to communicate with parents and colleagues. In the article I read by George Couros, "Do you see distraction or opportunity", he mentioned in a story how a student told a guest speaker who disapproved about social media, the student responded back by saying, "social media is like water, it is everywhere". I know my students' parents are millennials. Social media could be another way to communicate with them to help the student.
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Maria Dowling
3/13/2018 05:06:28 pm
You bring up a very good point about the unintentional posts...I do have social media accounts, but I only have personal accounts. I just set up a separate Twitter and Pinterest account not to long ago because of this program. I'm not really interested in using a separate social media account to communicate with parents though. Our school already has one and I could use the school one to communicate with them if needed.
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Scott Marsden
3/13/2018 06:49:08 pm
Jeff,
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Heather
3/13/2018 07:48:22 pm
It amazes me how fast we can find someone on social media and that line between personal and professional is hard for some to keep separate. I've only had to deal with social media and my students twice in my 16+ years in this district :)
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November 2018
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