As technology advances in the last couple of
years so have rules for students and teachers. The new policies come as
educators deal with a wide range of new problems due to teachers blurring the
teacher-student boundary with electronic communication. The guidelines are
being challenged from some teachers because of the increasing importance of
technology as a teaching tool and of using social media to engage with
students. Some teachers have used free
speech to persuade a judge that the law enforcing a statewide ban on electronic
communication between teachers and students is unconstitutional. Lawmakers revamped
the bill this fall, dropping the ban but directing school boards to develop
their own social media policies by March 1. Just like everything else theirs a
flipside where there are teachers use social media appropriately, but more
reasons to limit teacher-student cases come up.
The concern on some school districts to allow
electronic communication is how far do you let the students know the teachers
private life? What is the barrier?
Another worry to some educators is that overly restrictive policies will remove
an effective way of engaging students who regularly use social media platforms
to communicate. Its up to the School Districts to decided whats best for their own school.
Reflection
in my classroom
There are many things to say about this article,
but the easiest is to start with the advantage
and disadvantages. An advantage is keeping in touch with your
students to ensure they have a proper learning experience. Offering extra help
and a way to contact a teacher can also be an advantage especially when the student
needs extra help or if you want to post a helpful website that can help with a
current lesson. A disadvantage is that teachers will have to be very
professional and careful about what they say online. Another is teachers may
find that online accounts may take too much of their time to mess with it. The
final one is where does the student-teacher boundary end? The disadvantages
outweigh the advantages. I am against interacting through social media and by
phone with my students. If the students need help I would rather them email me
though my school provided email account. The
biggest thing that I hate about electronic
communication is the privacy the teacher’s privacy and the student’s privacy
are compromised when they become Facebook friends. A student may learn things
about their teacher that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. This could be
detrimental in the class setting. As much as teachers try not to allow outside knowledge
affect their treatment of their students, it still can have a effect. A
Facebook friendship may cause a teacher to see the student in a whole different
light than they did in the classroom previously. Another
issue is I see a problem with is Favoritism. Since teachers have many different students each day, if
they were Facebook friends with some of their students and not others, they
would likely be accused of showing favoritism to those students they had
befriended on Facebook. The
best thing is stay away from it and only use email because its best to stop the temptation, from both sides, before it even occurs.
Very wise!
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