Social Networking and Teachers

I read this article from this month's NEA Today about the need for teachers to be wary of what they put on their social networking sites. They listed several examples of teachers being fired or 'not teaching anymore' because of inappropriate content on their MySpace pages. It said that the Ohio Education Association made the recommendation to its members to remove profiles from social networking sites such as myspace and facebook to avoid any type of attention or situation from their school systems.

I get the two sides of the argument...and maybe there are more than two sides to this one. But at what point do we ask the following questions: How real are these people you hire that they aren't going to drink and do drugs in the same percentages as your average worker in the private sector? What do our first ammendment rights truly include when it comes to online communication? Where does our classroom persona end and our teaching persona begin? Where do we draw the line? Granted, I would prefer that my hypothetical childrens' teachers not post information about their partying activities in a venue where my children view them. I would probably also prefer to think of their teachers as law-abiding citizens that aren't engaging in illegal activities of any kind and/or bragging about it. Maybe my hypothetical childrens' hypothetical teachers should make their profiles private if they plan to share more than what their students (or I)might need to know about them. But like everything, isn't there room for balance? Recommending that an entire group of public employees not use social networking sites doesn't seem effective, fair or logical.

I just started using facebook. I will not put pictures up there of me that I wouldn't want my mom to see, but I'm not stupid. Maybe it should be addressed with new teachers as they come in...sort of a reminder about public profiles and persona.

I don't know. Interesting how contradictory we can be as educators-to reach out and encourage collaboration, real-time communication, learning and growing and yet so quickly have it stifled in ourselves.