Fuel For the Media Fire
January 28, 2008 by bicej
This article was shocking and quite disturbing for me to read. I find myself in a conundrum because I want to promote social networking sites for educational uses, but it seems that like most things, the few are going to wreck it for the many. The article talks about a group of teachers, none are named, that used social networking sites to contact students in inappropriate ways. I’m going to point out the flaws in the article and ideology of the school district, but by no means do I want anyone to misconstrue this as me advocating inappropriate teacher-student relationships.
As the article states: “Hundreds of teachers throughout local suburban school districts have profiles on popular online social networks including MySpace and Facebook. While not in and of itself an issue, the question of what is proper and professional contact between students and teachers outside the classroom is. And some of the teachers’ personal sites have raised significant issues concerning the propriety of that extracurricular relationship and the privacy of minors” (Calandriello).
This article starts with an unbiased “voice”, yet as it goes on further and further I can see that this article does have the media based hatred for these social networking sites that I often see. I think the question raised by Calandriello is a valid question. What is proper and professional behavior after 3:00 o’clock for a student/teacher relationship? Now for most people this is not a question that needs to be asked because your conscience and ideology makes sure that you follow the correct set of scruples, but for others it’s not that easy. It is because of the “others” category that this needs to be addressed in literature (i.e. contract, school policies, etc…). If school districts are going to punish and reprimand teachers for these sites, they need to address up front what is and is not acceptable. The article points to three separate cases of teachers using social network sites. The first teacher is a male high school teacher/coach who has a MySpace site that has questionable friends.
“One high school male teacher and athletic coach’s open MySpace profile has photos of predominantly young female and male “friends” along with sex-related sayings, pictures, and videos. His MySpace “friends,” which have to be accepted by the creator of the profile, were predominantly between the ages of 14 and 18 and lived anywhere from Bartlett to Hawaii. Their headlines ranged from “Mr. Horny” to “I’m too depressed to go on. You’ll be sorry when I’m gone” to “Rock my socks off.” His friends’ posted photos ranged from a naked girl’s body under a see-through sheet to a boy posing in boxer shorts who appears to be an athlete the teacher coaches. This same teacher had a Rascal Flatts music video entitled Take Me There in which two young boys stare at a young girl strip slowly and seductively down to her white bikini” (Calandriello).
Though I don’t agree that he exercised good judgment by befriending so many young friends, he hasn’t done anything wrong. How can a school district punish a teacher for having a “MySpace friend” who has less than appropriate things on THEIR sites? Does that mean school districts shouldn’t hire people who have accused murderers in their extended family? Because by the logic being used above “your friend’s faults can be used against you.” The article goes on to describe a female teacher was not as innocent. I was able to defend the male teacher because I truly didn’t think he did anything wrong. The female teacher acted inexcusably and I will have no defense of her. I think she stepped over moral and professional lines.
The first teacher: “On a 25-year-old high school teachers open Facebook profile, she displays alcohol-related pictures along with sex-related connotations. Nearly 150 pictures are posted, several containing images of alcohol and behavior including the teacher bending over with a wet spot on the back of her pants and a girl pointing to it. This same teacher is holding a can of Miller Lite while placing a “V” over her mouth while sticking her tongue out and licking another girl’s tongue. She also had an assortment of “Happy Hour Drinks,” a picture of a sex toy and a pseudo-stripper name of “Chesty Sunnytower” on her profile. She labels one of her photo albums as “Since we have to supervise middle schoolers that are pretty much doing soft core porn … we like to entertain ourselves” (Calandriello).
This teacher must have forgotten to think when she did this. It is cases like this that make it hard to defend the use of social networking sites. I will take these cases with a grain of salt and keep looking for the cases when social networking sites offer educational benefit. Sort of like right now. Thanks for reading.
A Tangled Web? by Erin Caladriello
The Courier News Online.
28 January 2008.
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I’m surprised no one has commented on your article yet, so I’ll be the first one. I agree with you about the female teacher. She definitely crossed the line on her Facebook page. She had to have known that students and administrators alike would eventually find her profile, whether it be on purpose or by accident.
I’m not sure if I’m in the same boat with the male teacher. Yes it’s true that you can’t control what other people put on their MySpace or Facebook pages, but you also have the ability to see what’s on their page. I’m afraid the way our world works is that people get negative stigma attached to them by association. If by adding these people as your friends you are going to have questionable images, words or what not on your page, you might want to rethink it. For some school districts, MySpace accounts have caused some teachers to get fired or resign.
I agree that all we hear is the negative about social networking. I want to believe that not all kids will meet in person people they have only talked to online and then get hurt. I’m definitely looking forward to reading some articles about the postives connected with social networking in schools.
Let’s make some money. I have an idea for a new video line, we’ll call it TEACHERS GONE WILD. This is appalling to think that someone who has been hired to be a mentor to children would try to justify her actions by stating: Hey the kids did it first. Grow up. I totally agree with you on that one Jack. Let’s face it, if you want to act like a jack-ass in public that’s your business, but to make it a specticle for anyone to see, that’s just plain bad form.
In the case of the athletic teacher I’m not going to say what he allowed is right, but hey, you can’t regulate your friends and what they chose to make available. I think in the future he should be mindful of who might see what he has posted. I put a lot of emphasis here when I say, you have the right to post what ever you want, but you have to remember ANYONE can look at what you post.
As a future teacher I can tell you from experience teachers are people too. We all have things we enjoy. So this 25 year old enjoys the dumb party favor lifestyle. I’ve known many great teachers who loved to socialize, drink far too much, but also show up to class and be the best darned teacher they could be. Let’s keep our private lives private and our privates far from the public eye.
This post caught my attention because of the applicability to our generation today. Earlier this week, I had a conversation with some of my friends about where to draw the line with social networking in schools. One of my friends just graduated, and is teaching at a local high school. His students (mostly females) were starting to add him on Facebook, and he was torn between accepting them or just deleting his Facebook account altogether. Because I have known him for a few years, I know he is a great guy and would never use social networking for anything like what was mentioned in that article… but it is still a dilemma that we will all face when we become teachers. I think accounts like Facebook and MySpace are okay to have, as long as we’re careful about how much information we give out and how we portray our image. I know for me, working with high schoolers throughout the year and during the summer is a lot of pressure, because they look up to me so much. Knowing that they can see every picture tagged of me and each comment I leave helps to keep me living a life for them to desire for themselves…if that makes sense. I think social networking can have a positive outcome in schools sometimes, too, but we never hear about stories like that.
Well I knew that a lot of people would probably respond to this post simply because we already read most of it during class and it would save them the time it would take to read another one. However, I am interested in your topic. Have you read Desi’s post on social networking? It is very interesting and definately relates to your topic. She has a very different approach to social networks, however, in her post she explained how a newer social network called Bebo is a network where gangs discuss their doings and members and connect in mostly negative, but occasionally positive ways to other gangs. I was just curious how you would go about handling the difficult situation that Desi described in her post. It is not an easy subject and I’m sure you will be fighting an uphill battle, but I am anxious and optimistic that you will find evidence to support your stance and help to raise other people’s awareness of the benefits of social networking with regards to teaching.
I realize that I might be in the minority for having this opinion, but here goes: Teachers shouldn’t have myspace or facebook accounts. Whew. I said it. I know it will be hard for most of us to give up our pages, probably for the same reason that, statistically speaking, everyone’s favorite word is their own first name. The reason is this; there simply is no way for there to be any educational use for having a profile as a teacher. If you do, you’re inviting trouble. Sorry folks, but that’s the way it is. Even if you have the most clean-cut, good-intentioned page in the history of myface (I know, it’s just easier than saying both), someone somewhere will still find something about it to vilify you with. It might be that Darwin is listed in your favorite quotes section. It might be that you’re not anti-liberal enough. Whatever.
I’m on a tangent. The thing is really this: kids don’t sign up for myface intending to further their education. That’s probably the furthest thing from their minds. If education or educators try to infiltrate it . . . it will be like one of those religious board games that your grandmother tried to get you play when you were young. Lame!
Truly, there are plenty of other resources out there for teachers who want to integrate the web into their curriculum somehow. They don’t need to jeopardize their career. And they don’t need to kill myface for a generation of kids who are actually finding meaningful ways to connect with their peers in a safe, creative, and unsupervised environment.
I agree with … everyone. Which is hard to do since there are several different opinions going on here. First of all, I know that MyFace, as Brad has nicely name them, is a generational thing. Many young teachers do have these accounts, and for the most part, are not intending on creating any problems with them. The problem with MyFace for teachers is this: Students. Responsible teachers, that want to maintain communication with friends and family are not doing anything wrong. For the most part, this is one of the only reasons to have a MyFace account. When students, friends, and family begin to post comments and tag pictures, the line of uncertainty is usually crossed. As Brad stated, there are numerous different ways in which teachers can get in trouble through these pages… pictures, comments, quotes, interests, friends, music, etc. When I think about being a teacher in the near future, I think that, for my own good, as well as creating a separation between myself and my students, I will choose to not have these accounts. I also think that, from a student’s perspective, communicating with a teacher in this manner is much less professional than through an e-mail or during class time. I think that with something like this, MyFace, it only takes one person to ruin “it” for everyone… and that’s a big risk to take.
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