The online identity of a teacher is a tricky subject. Controversies over facebook, twitter, and myspace accounts of teachers are far too frequent. The main question arises, "As a teacher should you be held accountable for what you do online?" I think to some extent yes. I think in general you should be appropriate on your facebooks and myspaces etc. Some teachers post rude comments about their students. I find that completely inappropriate. Scandolous pictures shouldn't be posted either. However, when a teacher has all of their profiels set to private, and their facebook is professional, but they have a picture of them with a glass of wine; I do not think it is fair that the teacher be fired for that, especially if they are a public school teacher. Sometimes i also feel that online identity of teachers is used as an excuse by parents to get teachers failing their children in trouble. In some cases teachers are wrong with thier online identities and in others they aren't judged fairly.
Here are some websites with articles relating to this subject:
Protecting Your Online Identity- This is a website informing people how to protect their online identities in general. A teacher with an online identity trying to keep out of trouble and professional this site would be helpful
When Young Teachers Go Wild on the Web- This is a Washington Post article about teachers who were behaving poorly on the internet and did not keep a professional identity online, and the consequences that followed
Facebook Ruin a Career?- This is an article that asks the same question of how accountable a teacher should be for their facebook.
Let's answer the, "As a teacher, should you be held accountable for what you do online?" question from four different perspectives:
1)Teacher- I think as long as no laws are being broken and things are kept professional and appropriate my job should be safe. I understand being accountable for this, and I believe teachers should get in trouble for any unprofessional things online, but I also think that my personal life should remain personal, and setting profiles to private should be taken into account, because by doing this I am trying to protect my students.
2)Student- I think teachers should absolutely be held accountable for their online identity. These are people I look up to and learn from. They should be professional online, but I won't be sneaking them out for the tiniest little mistake just to get them in trouble. Although I think they should be held accountable, I will remember that they are only human, and no one is perfect.
3)Parent- The safety of my child is most important. I am putting my child into the hands of these teachers to take care of and mold my child. I don't want someone who breaks the law or participates in severely unprofessional behavior to be working with my child. Therefore, I feel teachers should be accountable for their online identities and if they have one, it should be professional, and if necessary, I should be allowed to use their online identity against them for the rights and protection of my child.
4)Administrator-Yes, all of our teachers should be, and will be held accountable for their online identites. We will not be seeking them out, but they should know that if something comes up, a student or parent complaint, we will look into it, and inappropriate material puts their jobs at rick and gives us the right to fire them. If a teacher chooses to have an online identity, for the safety of their students, and the safety of their job, it should be a professional identity.
