Activity 5 (Week 29)

Activity 5 (Week 29)

Critique and address issues of law, regulations and policy in practice;

Emailing, texting or messaging via social media to a student may seem harmless and in some cases practical. The student may need immediate help or feedback on an assignment or has a query about the class or course. However, there are dangers to this instant form of communication and it’s hard to find an appropriate balance; often, the problem with this form of communication is that it can obscure the boundaries between teacher and student (Connecticut’s Teacher Education and Mentoring Program, 2012). Social networking applications expose teachers’ out-of-school identities and their networks to a greater degree of scrutiny by their students, colleagues, and school communities (Henderson et al., 2014).

In situations where a teacher has used their own personal email or cell phone to communicate with a student, it might be easy for a student or teacher to overstep the boundary and share personal or private information with each other; A teacher-student relationship can begin very innocently but then progressively become more personal in ways that are inappropriate (Connecticut’s Teacher Education and Mentoring Program, 2012). In this case, several ethical issues could arise;

·       The messages could be taken out of context by family or friends

·       The personal nature of the email/texting conversations may produce an emotionally unsafe environment for the student

·       If the personal information revealed is about the student’s well-being, physically or emotionally, the teacher has an obligation to report it to appropriate authorities.

Creating a new facebook page, email, or watsapp seems like an obvious solution to address this ethical dilemma, one that can be kept private and separate from the workplace. However, this is not always feasible, nor is it necessarily desirable, as it reduces the authentic context to a staged pretext (Henderson et al., 2014). At our school we practice the ministry’s code of ethics when it comes to communication through digital technologies, however, it might pay to re-visit this regularly and discuss new ethical dilemmas that could potentially arise as we engage more fully in this digital world.

Guidelines for teaching practice, nor codes of conduct are wholly adequate in addressing this issue. This is partly due to the continually changing landscape of social media, and partly due to the fact that some of the issues, such as the ethics of colonizing student social spaces, are simply not directly addressed (Henderson et al., 2014). To combat this, effective communication between the school, teachers, students, parents and whānau about the role of digital technology in the life of the school and its wider community is central to an overall strategy (Ministry of Education, 2015). This is an area our school is currently undertaking. We have made a contract for BYOD students and parents to sign, stating the role of these devices at school and the expectations surrounding their use. I also believe we have a highly attuned staff to the risks posed by social media or sharing of private information. I feel I would be comfortable approaching my team leader about any concerns or problems that these new digital platforms might open up in my practice.

References;

Connecticut’s Teacher Education and Mentoring Program. (2012). Ethical and Professional Dilemmas for Educators: Facilitator’s Guide. Retrieved from http://www.ctteam.org/df/resources/Module5_Manual....

Henderson, M., Auld, G., & Johnson, N. F. (2014). Ethics of Teaching with Social Media. Paper presented at the Australian Computers in Education Conference 2014, Adelaide, SA. Retrieved from http://acec2014.acce.edu.au/sites/2014/files/attachments/HendersonAuldJohnson_EthicalDil

Ministry of Education. (2015). Digital technology - Safe and responsible use in schools. Retrieved from http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/School/Managing-and-supporting-students/DigitalTechnologySafeAndResponsibleUseInSchs.pdf