Facebook - burden of proof

[shelagh stafford]

In our Primary Morning Messages we had an article about facebook, the burden of truth and a student who was expelled from his school.
I have a question for us all - should comments found/made on facebook affect a child's access to education? Should comments written outside of the school environment affect the school's behaviour towards an individual?
I think this is a very scary issue, and at present do not feel that activities completed outside of the school environment should directly affect what happens within the school. However, there may be issues I am not aware of or have just not considered. What do other people think?

[Cushla Hounsell]

I agree Shelagh, this is a scary issue and one which we should handle with care. Who is to say what is acceptable and what is not on Facebook and what role does the school play in this? It may depend on which school/country one is living in as well. How about teachers? Are we in a position to lose our job if something is posted on our Facebook page which is inappropriate? Apparently Recruiters are looking at teachers Facebook pages to give them an insight into the 'whole person' when they are interviewing.

[Julie Lindsay]

Shelagh
Everybody, students and teachers, parents and administrators, need to realise that it is the individual who is responsible for their own digital footprint. This is part of being an aware digital citizen. Therefore, yes I believe anything you put online can and possibly will affect your life in more ways than we have fully realised yet. It is not good enough to post inappropriate material anywhere in the Internet and expect to 'get away with it'. Why should school life and private life be any different? Why should people try to keep their spaces distinct when essentially ALL digital content adds up to a personal digital footprint?
It is our job and responsibility as educators to raise awareness about this and encourage better online practice. I do not advocate abandoning the tools or the online spaces, I am however in favour of learning more about what it means to be a responsible digital citizen and getting the message across about what is acceptable and what is not at all levels - professional and personal, as the 2 areas do overlap, like it or not.
Can you share the article with us here? Why was the student expelled? If it was due to posting something online that affected someone else within the school then maybe we do need to treat this as a bullying incident, even if it was not directly related to school work.

[shelagh stafford]

Hi!
I think I have a lot to learn about being a digital citizen - for me both as a teacher and as a parent. However, I am not fully convinced that something posted on the internet should affect a student's access to his or her education. I am not sure behaviour outside of the school environment should ever interfere with a student's access to education.
I agree with the notion that educators have a responsibility to raise awareness about this, and I think that we all need to encourage and then expect responsible beahviour from students/parents/teachers in all social situations. Abandoning the tools or the online spaces would not help, as our children are growing up in this digital age. They need guidance. We need guidelines that will help us help them.
The part of the article I saw was in the Primary Morning Messages. The news item was posted on facebook by Shaun McElroy Sunday, Feb 15


[BonnieJean Avilez]

This is a really tough issue. You've all brought up some very important points. It does make one ponder about ones personal, professional, public life... While there are varying policies and laws on what is appropriate and inappropriate -depending on which school, state or country one lives or works in- I do agree with Julie. [As educators] We must conduct ourselves as responsible citizens and raise awareness about and promote and teach responsbile citizenship-digital or otherwise. I'd like to read the article too...