Digital Citzenship

As you may know, I am the vice-principal of a Regina high school.  I want to share two stories of technology and how it impacted my life this week.  One story is unfortunate and the other is great - both were an eye-opener for the power of technology and how technology can be used and abused.
The unfortunate story - I receive a call from a concerned citizen in Saskatoon indicating that she has viewed a Facebook page that shows an incredibly ugly video.  This Facebook page, she indicates, belongs to one of our students (which, indeed, it did).  There is also a picture of a colleague who appears to be videoing/capturing something from her classroom window pointing outside.  In the caption, the author states something to the effect that "my cool teacher is videoing two guys fighting" - followed by comments indicating what school and what subject the teacher taught.  In this conversation with the citizen of Saskatoon, she questions the integrity of the school and integrity of the teacher.  After all, if a teacher is videoing a fight, are they not part of the problem as well?  So, my investigation starts. First off, I do find out who the Facebook page belongs to (albeit under a different name).  Secondly, the awful video is not even a video from our school (although clearly, the author was there).  Thirdly, after talking to the teacher (which is obviously a completely different situation), she indicates she saw a couple of guys horsing around, didn't know who they were, took a picture, went out to address the situation, and it turns out that the two boys are buddies and there was no animosity at all.  This is why nothing was brought to our attention.  Nevertheless, the caption above the picture is a false statement (or a partial truth at best).  This gets me thinking about the negative implications technology can have.  On a side note, this awful video was posted three hours prior to me viewing the page and there was already 185 likes and 154 comments.  This video had gone viral(ish).  When I spoke to my colleague the following day, he had received phone calls from the United States indicating this video was on Facebook.  I guess another point of conversation had to be privacy settings of this user and why she allowed anyone to see her posts.
My second story of the week was more uplifting.  I happened to be standing in front of my school this afternoon and looked back at my school.  It is such an incredible building with so much history and tradition captured in its walls.   Just the way the light was hitting it made for an incredible picture (although I might be a bit biased).  So, I took a picture on my phone.  Luckily, someone had showed me how to Tweet the picture right from my phone (I'm' still learning.....).  By the time I made it back inside, I had already received an email indicating someone had retweeted my picture.  Upon further investigation, there were two retweets almost immediately and these two people had a combined 424 followers who were seeing my picture.  This got me thinking about the positive impacts that technology can have.
This leads me to my thought on digital citizenship.  With such tremendous potential, we ought to be teaching our students about digital citizenship.  The social media world can have such positive or negative impacts on so many people in such a short time, we must help our students realize the power they have at their finger tips.  But with power comes responsibility.  These kids have tremendous power but unfortunately, they have not been taught about their role in properly using this tool.  I believe we must go down this path of helping students use this tool effectively or we may end up with a great deal more unfortunate stories.  And not only do we need to teach students about properly producing digital media but we also must teach students to be good consumers of digital media as well.  Not everything we see on the internet (teacher picture) must be taken as gospel.  We must teach kids how to critically analyze what they see online and be able to formulate an accurate opinion based on what they have observed.

How much personal information, in general, should you exchange with your students?

This is one aspect that I have struggled with over the course of my teaching career.  I truly believe that if teachers can make connections with students and develop a relationship, they are much more likely to engage the student in whatever topic/subject/activity they are delivering.  In developing a relationship and connection with students, I believe that they need to see and understand that you are a human being and not an immortal, larger-than-life teacher.  So, I feel as though teachers ought to be open and transparent with students because kids can see through phoniness.  Additionally, the research points to the likelihood of success with students (especially high school students) when they make a meaningful connection with a significant adult at the school.  Many students have tremendous issues that they may not feel comfortable going to their parents or counselor or other strange adult.  If there is an adult with whom a student has a connection, they are more likely to approach them to get the needed support. We teach in a profession where we thrive on helping people and I don't believe we have the ability to "turn off" caring for students in need.

HOWEVER, there is a proverbial line in the sand when it comes to sharing your information with students.  Ultimately, we are teachers and are held to a higher standard than many other people in the world.  We have an image to uphold and must strive daily to represent our profession with the utmost respect.  If individuals don't want to be held to a higher standard, I don't believe they should join the teaching profession.  For this reason, I believe teachers can give certain information out to students (possibly a cell number or a work-related Facebook/Twitter profile) where professional conversations can occur.  A teacher should never cross the professional line and the minute that a student crosses the line, the conversation must be documented with an authority (principal, superintendent, police - if necessary).  At the end of the day, we are still the professionals and our relationships with students - on social media and in person, must remain professional at all times.

Technology Overload????

How do people keep up with technology?  As soon as it is "the thing", it is already outdated.  Additionally, in this social media world, how does one possible keep up with all of the happenings of those around us?  There are days when I'm not sure I can keep up with my own life, wife, and 3 kids let alone everything that is happening around me as well.  I used to get in trouble from my father who was upset that I didn't watch the news so that I knew what was happening in the world - so, I try to watch the news a bit more.  However, the news is almost "old news" as well in the social media world.  I refer to Alec's post about the water discovery in Kenya.  We received the post informing us that a newscast would be "coming out tomorrow".  Newscasts are historical (even if they are the daily news).

How do people keep current with everything out there while still maintaining their own lives?  And, how do you "keep up in the world" without being stuck to your phone/computer/etc. like the "I Forgot My Phone" video suggested?  How does Alec keep following 26,500 people?  I can't follow my three boys!

Information overloaded,
Blair

First class....

I have always considered myself relatively literate when it comes to technology.  I love being on the computer and I am often consulted by colleagues regarding computer-type issues (software issues).  I signed up for this class thinking that I would be expanding my knowledge of the technological world slightly.  However, I could not have been further from the truth.  At the conclusion of the first class, I realized that although I may be technologically literate, I am a technologically social hermit.  I have a Facebook account (largely to see what everyone else is doing in the world) and have not embraced Twitter at all.  In fact, I was hoping to remain anonymous from Twitter on principle alone.....who needs Twitter, right?  (I guess signing up for this class ruined that idea!).  Anyhow, I am excited to see what some of these technology things can do for me and what they can do for education.  I plan to use this blog as a journal-type area where I can log my experiences with moving into the 21st century with technology (because apparently, I may have still been in the 90's).