Teachers & Social Networking

I have a pretty common name, so I didn’t expect many results when I put my name in Google. When I first did a google search of my name I was shocked that my husband’s and my travel blog (http://dandkmexico.blogspot.com) was the second result. I told him about it and he kindly asked if I was signed into our gmail account at the time because that would probably make a difference. So I signed out and searched again and our blog came up as the 45th result. I then google searched my “handle” which is just my email address and the 8th result was my MySpace, which I have been meaning to delete for about a year. My Pipl search of both my name and handle came up with nothing, which was a little relieving.

There isn’t really anything scandalous about me on the internet. I wouldn’t really care if someone found our blog and read it. There may be some things I said that people would disagree with or I might be a little embarrassed about some venting I did on the blog, but there isn’t anything that could get me into trouble with my teaching job. I do want to delete my MySpace just because I don’t ever use it and it is really outdated.

The whole free speech issue is interesting and complex. Teachers have such a unique role in their communities. Most of the stories I read in the article seemed pretty unfair, but then again, when someone posts something online they should realize that it is no longer private. For example, the teacher in Maryland who complained about the parents on her MySpace has the right to free speech. On the other hand, if she chooses to be friends with her students instead of setting her page to private, she has then chosen to let her students into her private life and needs to be careful about what she posts online.

The story of the art teacher being fired because of nude pictures seemed completely unfair to me. Unlike the Maryland teacher, these pictures were not posted on her MySpace where she was friends with her students, but rather, this was professional artwork on her partner’s website. She is an art teacher and they hired her because of her artistic abilities. They should not then punish her for actually being an artist in her private life.

I am not an obsessive blogger and I occasionally use Facebook. It will not be hard for me to simply set my Facebook to private in order to protect myself and my job. I want to be the type of teacher that is a mentor to my students and go to their games, plays, etc. However, I think it is a bad idea to be “friends” with your students online. There needs to be a line somewhere and you are just asking for trouble if you don’t draw a line. I do like the idea of creating pages for clubs and events, but that does not require allowing students to look at your personal facebook page.