Web 2.0
Web 2.0 refers to a second-generation of web based communities. This includes social networking sites like Facebook and twitter, blogs, other collaboration sites like wikis and video hosts like YouTube. All of which aim to facilitate the collaboration of sharing between users. Putting it simply, any web sight when you can post a comment or pose a question, having a two way conversation or just letting someone know you 'like' their page. It provides the opportunity for the creator and the reader to interact with each other with generally no-one editing or deciding on the content except yourself and the terms and conditions of the website you are using.
Social media sites are a bit of a mystery to me. I know how to use and navigate the sites and mobile apps that are available, but due to my line of work (secondary teacher) and some of the horror stories you hear, I have chosen to opt out of participation. I must admit sometimes I feel I am missing out on what the rest of the world seems so obsessed by. In my line of work it is not recommended that these social community websites are used for your personal life. Sharing intimate or inappropriate personal information that does not uphold the professional standards of someone in my line of work, I would say, is not recommended. I have one social media web page (Facebook) and I keep it under lock and key. One of the bonuses of these second-generation sites is for you to have the control of content and security settings. Unless I "friend" you, you cannot see anything except my profile picture and name (which is backwards so my students cannot find me).
I spoke just before about opting out of participation from the other sites because of my job. In the reader 1 for this task, I found it interesting reading about the 'Architectures of participation'. Web 2.0 is a tool of networking and communication and obviously is designed for and encourages participation. The reader talks about an active and passive aspect (taking part in something as well as creating it). Often referred to as cultural consumption and cultural production (Bourdieu 1993). It carries on to mention J.Hamilton's notes that participation is a function, in part, of the reduction of the barrier to access. The barriers in this instance being time, skill and money. Make something quick, easy and affordable or even free and more people from different communities can access and participate. However what about looking at participation from a ethical point of view in terms of employment?
When I started working in my first school, it took about 5 weeks before I received a 'friend request' from one of the students. I immediately deleted the request and suspended my Facebook account. I returned to work the next day to seek advice from my fellow colleagues and they all had a story to tell about a student or a parent contacting them via Facebook. I was shocked, mainly because I had always considered my Facebook page to be quite personal and between me and my friends. Little did I know all my personal settings were set to public and the majority of the world could see everything on my profile. I spent my lunch break that day with a teacher going through my settings, ensuring everything was set to private. I had never had to consider this would ever be an issue as I was a carefree self-employed dancer, my Facebook profile really had no implications on my career, if anything it benefited it. Larry Kuehn's article 'Getting into trouble on Facebook' described teachers as "probably the most vulnerable group in danger from violations of boundary crossing between ones personal and professional lives" (Kuehn 2010, p.86). I would completely agree with this statement a lot of new teachers starting their career are not aware of the implications second-generation social websites can have.
The article quotes Wanda Cassidy, director at Simon
Fraser University’s Centre for Education, Law & Society, who
said, "Teacher candidates in their 20s and 30s often have trouble
understanding that freedom of expression does not trump professionalism". A lot of trainee teachers and newly qualified teachers do not realise how vulnerable they are using social media, if students or parents gain access to their personal information or worse incriminating photos, there could be serious consequences. Most of the terms and conditions for web 2.0 social networking sites ask for your declarations for all content you post to be for the public domain, so once you post its out of your control. I found an article in the guardian reporting how parents of student in school are targeting teachers on social media websites.
The flip side of this situation is from the child's perspective. Another article talks about how teachers befriended their students on Facebook and developed inappropriate relationships with them. There are similar articles like this world wide. Safeguarding with in schools across the UK is prevalent the new government policies are of an extremely high standard and why shouldn't they be? With mainly negative press towards teachers using social networking sites, maybe they just shouldn't bother? Or maybe these sites should create a 'teacher' setting?
Thanks Joe very comprehensive - I like your research and how you have explained it - very important to your work on the course. Nice to see a number of differing perspectives considered, e.g. Cassidy about the point of view of those who are going into the teaching profession as mature students - however - a counterpoint might be that they might also be more savvy than the younger candidates about their online identity. Good points to raise for our 'critical' (using expertise and analysis ) consideration of the topic. These sound like good ideas for Reader 1. You raise the issues of policy - always policy and practice in education - safeguarding is huge - misconduct? I think the ideas of being a digital scholar (Weller) is useful because while there are guidelines - there is also the need to learning how to communicate privately and publicly. Yes negotiating FB requests but be one of the issues for teachers... good to be aware...
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