Citizenship Online: Privacy, Safety, Bullying, Consent

Reflections

Documentation of personalized content

  • Teachers have a huge responsibility as professionals working with vulnerable groups. Teachers have important connections with students, but this connection is primarily professional and not personal. When we engage with kids, we have an obligation to put their needs, as well as their parents’ needs and concerns above our own. This means it’s better not to share an Instagram story that includes children’s faces, names, or anything that can identify them to the public, especially when there has not been any consent and especially when there’s no benefit to the child. (Also because it’s illegal.)
  • #teacherlife hashtag is prominent hashtag in the social media world, both positive and negative. Sometimes people express valid issues under this hashtag, and sometimes they cross inappropriate professional boundaries (such as using SnapChat to complain online about subbing in the 1st grade continuously throughout the day while they have a professional obligation to be teaching).
  • Search “teacher fired social media” on google and in the news. It has to be pretty serious for a teacher to be removed when they’e been in the profession for a long time, this isn’t as true for teachers who are new to the profession… something to keep in mind when using social media as a professional.

Digital literacy

  • Kids learn a lot from the internet, but they don’t necessarily know what to do with the information they find there. For example, the ALS ice bucket challenge – it started as a social media movement designed to raise awareness and funds, but at a certain point the intent behind the challenge was lost and people just started dumping water on their heads because their friends told them to. Talking with kids about what they’re seeing on the internet, or what they know about the internet, is essential to developing their awareness of what’s online and how they can interact with it in an educated, and hopefully positive matter.
  • In order to create an environment that fosters the development of digital literacy, kids need to be involved in discussions to about online topics that adults typically feel shameful about, such as using Tinder. If it’s normal, why should it be shameful?  People may be of the mindset that students aren’t mature enough to hear about “shameful” internet usage, but kids often know far more about these topics that we realize. Pretending certain forms of social media or websites don’t exist isn’t helpful because they are left to discover and interact with these online platforms without previous knowledge of the implications.

Social Media and Youth

  • Address the existing and emerging social media concerns in your environments with education and media literacy conversations.
  • Open constructive solutions-based dialogue with coworkers, stakeholders, clients, employers and public about social media trends and communications concerns

Understand the school expectations and policies of the employer

  • Are you allowed to use your phone? Are you encouraged to use your phone to stay connected and to use specific apps? If they’re expecting you to actively be connected during the day, then are you comfortable with the school

The influences and uses of mobile technology

  • Personal use entitlement: we’re possessive over our phones
  • Balancing professional expectations
  • Opening dialogue of usage
  • Understanding social media culture

Struggling with communications balance

  • Balance between being connected and being focused on what’s in front of you

SenT Inel

  • Requested students bring their devices to school daily — taking advantage of what tools students already had. This doesn’t look the same as every school or in every school district.