Any tool that can be used to reach students is of benefit to teachers. A strong teacher is a teacher who is equipped to take anything impacting a student’s life and is able to turn that into a teachable moment. Student’s today are growing up in a community of Social Networking. The difficulty is figuring out how to effectively use this tool. It is my belief that education is less about building a knowledge base, and more about building a skill base. More specifically, education is the key element to developing community awareness. According to Ramig (2008) Social Networking is a key which helps demonstrate “what it really means to live and participate in a global community.”
Human nature is ever evolving towards heavier reliance on technology. In 2008, Ramig points out that “By sixth grade, about 40% of the students will already have experience using social networking tools at home or at a friend’s house.” We, as teachers, cannot ignore this all-consuming element of today’s students. The term “like” has a new context to today’s youth. The effective teacher can use Social Networking to connect with the students, which establishes community, and opens more doors to potential learning opportunities. If a student is going to spend time using Facebook, why not insert your footprint into their Facebook experience? It can enable your teaching to go beyond the classroom.
The only issue that Social Networking presents a teacher with is developing a time effective and quality approach to using this tool to develop their classroom community. As the internet and technology evolve, the teacher is repeatedly forced to address new ways to use technology in the classroom. Additionally, the teacher must critically examine how to use the tool appropriate. Even when using the tool appropriately, and perhaps anonymously, a teacher can fall victim to accusations of inappropriate use. In Natalie Munroe’s case, discussed in Webley’s article, Natalie came under fire for the way she behaved online. Furthermore, the “school district does not have a policy in place that dictates what teachers can and cannot do online.”
In fact, technology has evolved so quickly the courts are having trouble keeping up with interpreting the law in relation to online communications. Does a teacher have the right to free speech in the same way that a regular citizen does? Does a student? Administrators are left in a perplexing conundrum, unable to stop cyberbullying. Hoffman (2010) points out, “Schools these days are confronted with complex questions on whether and how to deal with cyberbullying, an imprecise label for online activities ranging from barrages of teasing texts to sexually harassing group sites.”
Modifying student behavior and cyberbullying is one side of a coin, the other is modifying teacher behavior. Cyberbulling and bullying in general is so rampant today because we as adults are serving as poor role models for our students. Take the Atlanta schools lying about test scores for example. What sort of precedence does this set for our students? Lying is acceptable? Or more accurately, look at Natalie Munroe, who semi-publicly vented about her students. Not only did she vent saying that she was having a hard time, but she downright insulted the students. Contained in her blog (until she took it down) is the saddest statement I can imagine hearing come out a teachers mouth: "There's no other way to say this: I hate your kid." If a teacher can get away with that sort of behavior regarding students, why can’t students do the same?
Natalie wrote this on a private blog, which was intended for a very small select audience. It, however, found its way into the public. This is rather unfortunate, but serves a purpose of letting us know how un-private private really is. We have seen some of the most secured networks fall victim to hacking, see also:
As such, the safest way to approach our online profiles, our digital footprints, is to assume that there is no such thing as private online. We should not be putting anything on our profiles unless we are accepting of the idea that it may someday be viewed by our bosses, our enemies, our friends, our parents, our future employers, and our students. Specifically teachers should be held to this standard, because the damage caused by such an unveiling is far reaching. Children have thinner skin, and their brains are not developed mentally enough to understand. Teachers are in a profession of shaping the world. Virtually no one goes through life without having a teacher, as such, teachers should be held to the highest standards to generate the best possible students.
This is not to say that I disagree with Munroe, or even Nash who states, “I don't think there is anything wrong with calling kids out — I think they need it. There's this mentality that we can't say anything to kids, that we have to baby them, but I'm one of those tough-love kind of people.” It is not a matter of silencing ourselves, it is a matter of intelligently choosing our words. When we as teachers hold ourselves accountable for the actions we take, and the words we choose, we are generating a safer atmosphere. Also, we are behaving in a manner that is more respectable, and sufficient to be ideal role models to our student.
Modeling proper behavior, online and off, is at the heart of working to decrease bullying and cyber-bullying. “Preventative” is stronger than “Punative.” Additionally, our courts need to catch up with technology. As Hoffman (2010) points out, “Judges are flummoxed, too, as they wrestle with new questions about protections on student speech and school searches.” I am, however, not naïve. No matter what measures are taken to prevent cyber-bullying (and bullying in general), it will continue to exist. To me, the threat of cyber-bullying is on the rise, and the only way to stop that is to actively attack it. The use technology in the classroom can and should be used to develop appropriate patterns of Social Networking use. If we do not allow social networking into our classrooms, we will never adequately be able to demonstrate proper use, and the problem will continue.
As a teacher, I will definitely keep my ears to the web, seeking out and nipping cyber-bullying to the best of my ability. It is something that I should have to lookout for, because my role as an educator is to provide a safe environment for my student which fosters learning. The classroom is just a formal location for direct instruction and community development. If I have the right as a teacher to send a student home with homework, then my role of teaching extends beyond the classroom. If my role of teaching extends beyond the classroom, there is little to no limit on me to help provide a safer environment for my students to learn in. Even if I wasn’t an educator, shouldn’t I work to provide a safe environment for everyone? Wouldn’t you?
Resources:
Carter, Heather L., Foulger, Teresa S., Ewbank, Ann D. (2008) Have you Googled Your Teacher Lately: Teachers’ Use of Social Networking Sites.
Hoffman, Jan. (2010) Online Bullies Pull Schools Into the Fray. retrieved July 16th, 2011 from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/style/28bully.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1310862562-xhvCPQyRkTgMt4o6UYJyWA&pagewanted=all
Ojalvo, Holly E. (2010) Resources on Bullying and Cyberbullying. retrieved July 16th, 2011 from:http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/resources-on-bullying-and-cyberbullying/
Ramig, Renee. (2009) Social Media in the Classroom-For Kindergartners (!) Through High Schoolers.
Schwartz, Harriet L. (2010). Facebook: The New Classroom Commons
Webley, Kayla. (2011) How One Teacher’s Angry Blog Sparked a Viral Classroom Debate. retrieved July 16th, 2011 from: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2052123,00.html
Zax, David. (2009) Learning in 140-character Bites
