The Ohio Education Association (OEA) put out a memo this fall strongly advising teachers to completely and totally avoid social networking sites. The OEA's memo states:
"OEA advises members not to join MySpace or Facebook, and for existing users to complete the steps involved in removing their profiles. While this advice might seem extreme, the dangers of participating in these two sites outweigh the benefits."
What exactly are the "dangers" you ask? There are two main threats the OEA is concerned about, according to the article in eSchoolNews.Threat #1: “The fact that a student can attempt to contact an OEA member who has a profile on these sites lends itself to the possible interpretation of an improper relationship."Threat #2: "The union is worried students will create 'imposter' sites, pose as adults and engage in conversation with teachers, or use online communication to make allegations later against educators." The union pointed to an investigative report printed in the Columbus Dispatch which found at least three MySpace profiles by people claiming to be Ohio educators that had inappropriate content, and some had students listed as their "friends" within the MySpace community.My thoughts on the "threats:"
- I wholeheartedly agree that inappropriate relationships between students and educators is despicable, and educators who engage in such relationships should be relieved of their jobs.
- The OEA doesn't seem to have much confidence in its members. I am confident that the vast majority of teachers understand the difference between an appropriate and inappropriate relationship despite the medium through which the relationship occurs. However, the OEA seems to assume that as soon as someone goes online their moral compass simply disappears.
- In a somewhat related strain, MySpace & Facebook get blamed for inappropriate behavior by their users. In fact, the social networking sites may have helped school officials find teachers having inappropriate relationships before any felonious misconduct occurred. If these teachers didn't have MySpace profiles, how long would the inappropriate relationships continued before they were found out?
- Threat #2 states students may pose as adults lure teachers into having inappropriate conversations. I'd recommend that when you're talking to someone you don't really know online (or even someone you do), don't have inappropriate conversations. I don't feel this is a threat unique to educators. Again, MySpace and Facebook get blamed for poor decision on the part of their users.
- Threat #2 comes close to making a good point, but it seems to get sidetracked. It is possible for anyone to create a profile pretending to be you. If the creators of the profile then use the profile in an unbecoming manner it could seriously tarnish your image and cause plenty of negative attention to come your way. While law enforcement would more than likely be able to determine that you didn't create or use the profile, you'd have to have law enforcement involved, which means you're probably already in trouble. Possibly the best way to avoid this would be for educators to create their own profiles and utilize tools such as ClaimID so others would have more difficulty hijacking their (hopefully) good name (see this post by Wes Fryer for more on ClaimID).
The biggest problem I have with OEA's memo is it suggests sticking our heads in the sand rather than dealing with the real problem. There are safety issues when using online communication, but the decision to entirely shun social networking sites is moving in the wrong direction. Schools could be a place were students and teachers can learn together how to utilize these tools safely, instead of a place where they're told how scary and awful they are and that they should never be used. Too many school officials, teachers, and parents are frightened of technology in the classroom because all they hear is negative press about all the horrible things that can happen. What ends up happening is students miss out on powerful tools (other than simply MySpace and Facebook) that could enrich their learning both in and out of school.I'm not suggesting that MySpace and Facebook should be used to teach classes. I simply believe there is too much fear mongering about the horrible dangers of online environments. Will Richardson makes the point much better in his post, "Social Networks (No) vs. Social Tools (Yes) in Schools":
"Often in my presentations I ask how many folks are teaching MySpace or Facebook in their schools. Not teaching with MySpace, but teaching the literacies of networking through the lens of a [social networking site]. Rarely do more than a few hands go up. I wonder what would happen if we contextualized our approach not in the fears that our kids will get themselves in trouble by using these sites but, instead, in the spirit of encouraging them to experience the socialization that [has otherwise been taken away]. Not that we invade their spaces or friend them, but that we acknowledge the importance of Facebook in their lives, stop pretending like it doesn’t exist, and include it in the discussion of what’s important in life."
Too right, Will. It's time for school officials to realize that social networking sites and other online collaboration tools (wikis, blogs, etc.) aren't a fad that will soon fade away. Schools often seem so afraid of change; whenever something new comes along it's banned or blocked before its merits can be determined. Wouldn't it be wonderful if schools were led by digitally literate teachers, principals, and officials who strove to introduce technology to students instead of the other way around?I wasn't planning writing this long post, but obviously it struck a nerve. I'd love to hear some of your critiques and extensions on the topic.
Ben: Thanks very much for bringing this to my attention via your link which trackbacked to my blog... The main thing I would add is that in addition to getting familiar with social networks by joining them and using them, educators and our schools have an obligation to provide opportunities for students to engage in appropriate, courteous, and safe social networking AT SCHOOL. We need systems of accountability much more than we need to ban or block people from using an entire class of tools. This is something Karen Montgomery and I talked about with the founders of VoiceThread today, and the accountability which is being built in to their new ed.voicethread.com environment.
I'd also point everyone again to the NSBA's summer 2007 report on social networking which concludes just the REVERSE of this OEA group: Schools need to leverage the opportunities available with social networking technologies, rather than just ban or block them.
This response is a typical, fear-driven response. Sad but not really surprising.
[...] Wildeboer has written a thorough post (“Social networking sites pose “dangers” for educators”) about The Ohio Education Association (OEA) sending out: a memo this fall strongly advising [...]
Amen to that. What I run into is the attitude of "We don't understand it, and we don't want to, so let's pretend it doesn't exist." Earlier this year--and I'm not kidding--we had a teacher send a student to the office for wearing a MySpace t-shirt. He'd heard "all kinds of bad things about that MySpace thing" and wondered if her shirt my be inappropriate.
This block it, ban it, avoid it mentality is not new. As communications technologies continue to evolve with teens and tweens taking the lead on finding appropriate uses, we'll continue to find ourselves seeing only the negative aspects of a given tool.
Taking the lead on leveraging these new tools for education is a challenge... especially if you don't know much about 'yesterday's tools' (text messaging, blogging, MSN...). I'm still trying to get my head around my school board's attempts to regulate 'personal digital devices' (including iPods and cell phones) and to block access to networking websites (for educators and students alike!).
http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2008/01/ban-cell-phones-until-we-can-figure-out.html
[...] Here is the full article from Ben: » Social networking sites pose “dangers” for educators? Sustainably Digital [...]
Thanks for the comments & notices. As a new educational blogger, it's pretty heartening to have my 3rd post get the response that it has.
@Wes: I (obviously) agree with your position. It makes me wonder what type of research the OEA based their decision upon. The NSBA report is dated earlier than the OEA memo, and I know if they had performed even a half-hearted search for potential uses of the technologies in school they would've found many examples. I get the feeling they went out looking for reasons to ban the sites- and found what they were looking for (& nothing else).
@Rick: That's a great example of ignorance guiding actions. It seems the educators really need to be educated on the realities of the new online tools- both the potential misuses and potential great uses. Thanks for doing a post on your blog on it as well. I received a tweet from a professor I'm taking a class with this fall that he read your posting on leadertalk.org. Who says there isn't online community?
@Rodd: I agree that it's definitely a challenge to support the use of these tools. I certainly don't push hard enough in my situation. Perhaps that's another "resolution" I can make for the coming year...
Great in-depth post on this topic. I indirectly linked to you through Wesley Fryer's post linking to you - my post is at http://googtweetblog.edublogs.org/2008/01/20/hiding-under-my-blog/. I discuss myspace/facebook with my students, but am not really able to use it in my classroom because although many of the students I teach have accounts, they're not supposed to because they aren't old enough. Many of my 6th graders are on myspace with ages listed as 18, 25, etc. We had a short discussion about it, but I don't think it's appropriate for me to teach how to use the tool if they're not supposed to even legally be ON the sites. I have really begun digging into the social networking area and plan to come back here for more resources in the future.
Kate
http://googtweetblogs.edublogs.org
[...] Wildeboer at Sustainably Digital writes in part: It’s time for school officials to realize that social networking sites and other [...]
@mrsolsen You bring up a very intriguing point. MySpace has a lower age-limit of 14, and I believe Facebook's is 13. Clearly many children under this age misreport their ages to gain access to the sites. Do we just ignore this fact because technicall it's illegal? Or do we educate them how to properly utilize and protect themselves while online? That's a tricky question with lots of gray areas.
Ideally, the parents would prevent underage children from signing up for these sites, but in all reality that's not going to work in all situations (either from indifference or ignorance). This sounds like a whole new tricky line to walk. It makes me somewhat glad the kids I teach are at least "of age" for the sites.
[...] relevant article discusses the dangers of social networks like facebook or twitter for teachers: http://sustainablydigital.edublogs.org/2008/01/18/social-networking-sites-pose-dangers-for-educator... Although I don’t think that teachers should not have a blog or something similar of their [...]