Monday, October 4, 2010

Educators - Be Careful What You Post Online

I follow with interest the stories of educators whose careers have been damaged or even lost because of an indiscreet post they make online. Or in some cases an indiscreet post someone else makes about them or shares from their profile. It remains to be seen how this Georgia teacher's case will pan out (unless I have missed a resolution somewhere in my research).

We can debate the ethics of teachers and social media and where the line of appropriate vs. inappropriate should be drawn, but in the end, the fact remains that for now even content posted on a private online profile can get you in trouble.

I follow these stories to stay informed myself and because in my position I am often asked about this topic. So in my most recent master's degree class when we received a group project assignment to create a public service announcement (PSA), I proposed the topic of reminding teachers to be careful what they post online. I have seen many resources for reminding kids to be careful of these things, but not as many examples for the grown-ups. My project group agreed it was a timely topic and worked to produce what I think is not a bad PSA for a group of video editing novices.

I hope this video might serve as a conversation starter for educators on this important topic. Please share it  if you think it will be useful in your sphere of influence. Also, please share in the comments if you have other resources for discussing this important topic with educators.

If you have an interest in this topic, you might also want to visit earlier posts I have made here and here.



Creative Commons License
This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Editing and/or remixing are prohibited.