T.+Baker+Social+Media+Use+Policy

I wish I could say that I will be exactly myself on all social media as I am anywhere else but we all know THAT is how people lose their jobs. With that thought in mind, my use of social media has changed over the past year.

I USED to have current students as friends since I never post anything on my Facebook or MySpace (yes, I still have one of those) page that could be considered terrible. I have said much worse in person in my classroom than I have ever said on a social media site. Now I have made it a policy to only have students as friends after they are no longer my students. The only wrinkle in this plan is I presently have two current students as friends since they had previously failed the class. As I mentioned, since I have made it my personal policy to not post anything that could be considered objectionable on my page, I do not worry about this.

Of course, my policy may change again, if say my district were to enact a policy that made stipulations on my use of social media. I presently have a fan page on Facebook that I have used in the past to use for homework completion and to get information out to students. Since this page is purely academic and there is even a member of the school board that is a fan of it, I do not fear that it is being negatively viewed.

For my fan page, students have been instructed both orally in class and on hard copy that if they begin talking negatively about each other (in a non-kidding way) or if they start speaking negatively about another teacher on the page, their comments will be erased. Also since student postings involve a great deal of monitoring, I have not required my students to use the fan page since I no longer have internet access at home and Facebook is blocked at work. Once I throw aside my miserly ways and once again become wired, this will change.

I do not have a Twitter account or a Google+ and don't really see a use for those in the future. I believe social media is another way to engage students and as long as it is used in a professional and academic manner, I have no problem using it as such, unless my district says otherwise!