The problems surrounding teachers using Facebook seem to be getting more and more complex. I’ve written before about how teacher’s private use of Facebook can impact their jobs, whether justly or unjustly.  The issue that was brought up recently involves teachers’ use of Facebook on private mobile devices during school hours.

This is a tricky issue.  We want teachers to be doing what they are paid to do – teach their classes and monitor their students.  But how do you keep this in check?

We have Facebook blocked in our district because of some of the discipline issues is creates with students.  It was suggested that we consider adding restrictions on Facebook usage on private mobile devices to our Acceptable Use Policy.  I flatly disagreed with that.  Our AUP regulates acceptable use of district-owned equipment and services, not private equipment.  I don’t think should or legally could use a policy written for district equipment to be applied to private equipment. (more…)

The time-lapse video above gives some indication of the frenetic pace I’ve been hitting this week. Several months ago I agree to once again do my Google Earth workshops for the SCETV Technology Conference. Had I known how hectic these past two weeks were going to be even without the conference, I might have reconsidered. However, despite PASS testing, 135th day counts, and other pressing needs in Spartanburg Five, I headed on down for the Wednesday – Friday sessions.

As I had done last year, I’m presenting two different sessions. The first is a basic introduction to Google Earth. The teachers get some time just to become familiar with the program’s controls and navigation, and I give them some suggestions for using it in their classrooms. The second session is more in-depth. I cover ways that Google Earth can be used to create highly interactive lessons buy using embedded media. I tend to get lots of oohs and ahs with that session because there is some really cool stuff you can do.

Wednesday we had a luncheon and were joined by several representatives from Discovery Education. Phillipe Cousteau, grandson of Jaques Cousteau, was our keynote speaker. In the evening the Discovery Educators Network (DEN) STAR members had a dinner at the SCETV studios, and we were again joined by Phillipe Cousteau. He spoke about some of his current environmental education endeavors.

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Yesterday there was an article in the Greenville News about development of a policy for teacher use of Facebook. The article stated that the board was holding off on approval of the policy because some members had raised “ethical, legal and technical questions.”    The new policy would put into place a procedure for dismissing teachers for improper behavior in social networking sites.

According to the policy,  teachers “should recognize that they are being continuously observed by students, other employees, parents, and community members, and that their actions and demeanor may impair their effectiveness as an employee.”  It goes on to state the following:

The personal life of an employee including the employee’s personal use of non-district issued electronic equipment outside of working hours (such as through social networking sites and personal portrayal on the Internet), will be the concern of and warrant the attention of the board if it impairs the employee’s ability to be an effective teacher, effectively perform his/her job responsibilities, or if it violates local, state, or federal law or contractual agreements.

That phrase “impairs the employee’s ability to be an effective teacher” is the bit that gets me.  It was used by one of my counterparts in another district over a lunch discussion about this same issue.  The phrase is overly broad, and open to interpretation.  If a one parent takes offense at something I’ve posted, does that meet the criteria?  I have experienced first hand some of these dangers, and I know that it’s possible to make the wrong decision and wreck someone’s career for no reason.

I’m not talking about things that are obviously wrong, such as drug use or illegal activities.  I’m talking about teachers getting in trouble for normal adult activity.  Take, for example, the case of Ashley Payne.  The Appalachee High School teacher from Winder, Georgia posted the following photo on Facebook…

The photo was taken while Payne was on vacation and posted on a supposedly private portion of Facebook.  Elsewhere on her site she mentioned “Going to Bitch BINGO,” the name of a game played at an Atlanta restaurant.  A parent complained, and this was enough to get her fired – one photo of the teacher with a beer in her hand while on vacation and one word that caused offense.

Last year my Facebook profile photo was my infamous “Santa Martini” photo…

I was told by another one of my counterparts that I would have been fired in her district.  The “effectiveness as an employee” clause would have been invoked.  I’m sure that I’ve used language just as offensive on this blog as the unfortunate teacher above used.  Fortunately, no one has said anything about this blog or the photo as to either being amiss or diminishing my ability to teach.

However, my situation is a bit different.  As a district administrator I’m less likely to have a kid who’s curious about their teacher Google me.  Children (and parents) are naturally interested in their teachers, and want to find out about them.  And sometimes it can have unfortunate consequences.

Here’s another example of leaping to conclusions – a case in which I was directly involved, and I was able to prevent some problems.  I received a complaint about that a teacher had inappropriate material on his Facebook page.  This was a well-respected, veteran teacher, and I had a hard time believing this to be true.  I checked out the page (which was NOT set to private), and there was a picture of a young lady, a student, with her skirt hiked up indecently high and showing her legs with colorful stockings.

On the face of it, this was incriminating.  However, there was more to the story.  The young lady was proud of her silly, colorful stockings and was showing them off for one of her friends.  The friend took a photo with her cell phone, then uploaded the photo to HER Facebook account.  Somewhere in the background of the show you could see the teacher’s left foot.  The student tagged the foot as with the teacher’s name, causing the photo to show up on his profile.  The teacher had nothing to do with it, and was even unaware that his name was associated with the photo.

In this case I recommended to the teacher than he not friend his students.  In fact, this is what we recommend in general for our teachers.  Unlike Greenville County, we currently have no plans to make this into policy.  Our district even allows some leeway when students are family friends, or are related to teachers.

When I do workshops on blogging and social networking I always tell teachers to be circumspect in what they post, because it may come back to haunt them.  However, in the case of our teacher, he was an innocent bystander who had unfortunately friended his students.  I can see this happening more and more, though, and I blame digital cameras.

People don’t share photos in print format anymore.   Online photos galleries are the most common way to share vacation photos, etc.  Someone may take a photo of a young teacher at the lake or beach in a bathing suit and post it online, or take a picture of a teacher with a drink in their hand, and some parent may find that offensive.  So what’s one to do?  Completely abandon any online life, or just make sure than no photos of them are ever taken?

I’m really glad that the Greenville County School Board decided to take a step back.   The line between public and private lives gets blurred with everything now being online, and there is really no going back.    Some members of the board have recognized that teachers have rights, and that they can’t/shouldn’t try to control all teacher behavior.   I’m glad our district has also come to that conclusion, and I just wished that other districts were as enlightened.

Today I got word that Aviary.com has released a new online audio editing tool called Myna.  This joins Aviary’s growing collection of online tools with bird names, including Phoenix, the image editing program, and Raven, a vector graphics program.  Myna is a loop-based editor, and has many of the same functions as Garage Band or Acid Music.

I’ve only had a few minutes to play with the program, but so far I’m impressed.  There is an extensive library of existing audio files.  These are categorized not only by style by also by keyword.  The samples are further broken down into files that would make good intros, files for loops, and ending files.  You can also record samples directly into the program with your computer’s microphone, or upload your own files. (more…)

This week we held the kick-off sessions for the Spartanburg County Instructional Technology Academy (SCITA) at USC-Upstate.  The three-day workshop was the start of a graduate course that is funded by an E2T2 grant that Spartanburg school districts 1, 2, 5, and 7 had applied for and received.  In addition to the graduate course, participants would receive and be trained in emerging technology for their classrooms.

The first day began with an overview of the program and an introduction to the course by Dr. Jimmy Pryor, who will be the instructor.  Danielle Stengle from CSI Outfitters then spoke to the group about using technology for special needs students. (more…)