You Have Googled Your Teacher Lately?
Teachers Use of Social Networking Sites
Common sense doesnt necessarily prevail when teachers plunge into the world of social networking sites. Disastrous consequences can ensue, and the authors urge educators to consider the potential outcomes before they post. BY HEATHER L. CARTER, TERESA S. FOULGER, AND ANN DUTTON EWBANK
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EARS AGO, when e-mail rapidly became the norm for communication in schools, blasting nasty-grams was soon discovered to be a no-no. As teachers grew more familiar with digital communication tools, they figured out quickly what was appropriate use of e-mail and more important, what was not. You have probably seen a variation of this story in your own workplace. One day, an e-mail sent from a superintendent to a principal was forwarded to all the teachers on campus. The superintendent was horrified that her private communication with the principal had been broadcast to people in a way that she felt was inappropriate and even unprofessional. But there are no take backs in electronic communication. And when someone forwards an e-mail to two friends, and each of them forwards it to two more friends, digital communication can easily go viral. A more recent version of this story happened last year in a teacher preparation course. The get to know your classmates assignment was simple: post a photo of yourself and three of your favorite websites that you envision using as a future teacher. Many of the students in this class posted their personal MySpace.com pages. One students site, though, was particularly shocking. It showed a bloody hand with a 10-inch machete stuck in it, blood dripping down the page, and a quote stating, Force the hand that writes. The shock did not stop there. The personal icon for this future teacher
I HEATHER L. CARTER is a clinical assistant professor in the College of Teacher Education and Leadership at Arizona State University, Phoenix. TERESA S. FOULGER is an assistant professor and ANN DUTTON EWBANK is education liaison librarian at Arizona State University, Glendale.
Photo: Liquid Library
was a wrist with a dotted line and the words cut here. This student chose to submit his personal website as part of this assignment, and the images were unforgettable. The instructor wondered how parents would respond if this person were their childs teacher. The instructor realized that a conversation with the entire class might be in order. She made a general announcement about the assignment, describing how students transitioning into teaching should consider managing their online lives with an eye to their future careers. The next day, the student with the blood-soaked profile page had set it to private (meaning only users that he deemed his friends could view the link). However, from that point forward, even his successes in class
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could not erase the lasting effects of the bloody MySpace page. Changing or omitting the get to know your classmates assignment would avoid this possibility in future semesters. But doing so would deny the instructor an opportunity to have an important conversation with her students, and it would deny the students an opportunity to learn some essential lessons about self-restraint
set to private, then only friends can view the entire page. Some sites also use favorite features that limit those who can access information and offer other types of privacy controls to prevent the public from viewing the profile. There are many social networking sites online. While MySpace is the most popular, with over 200 million accounts,2 Facebook and YouTube are other well-known
What happens when the online world of the teacher reveals more than professional information? What happens when a website provides a glimpse into a teachers life after school?
and the importance of reputation to their future roles. This story is just one example of the personal information we have seen future teachers post online. It is common to see content related to alcohol, drugs, and sex posted on future teachers social networking profiles. Both preservice teachers and many inservice teachers do not seem to understand that the line between their personal lives and professional lives is not black and white in todays world. Colleges of education and district professional developers need to have in-depth conversations across the country on the topic of using social networking sites.
WHAT ARE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES?
examples. Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft have all designed systems to capture this burgeoning market. Wikipedia lists 110 active social networking systems.3 Social networking sites are so popular that MySpace.com is currently the sixth-most-visited website on the Internet.4 As the millennial generation (defined as those born between 1982 and 2002)5 increasingly enters the teaching profession and as social networking technologies become more popular, more and more teachers are becoming users of the sites. It should be noted that young adults are not the only ones using social networking sites: roughly 40% of MySpace users are 35 and older.6
PROFESSIONAL LIFE MEETS LIFE ONLINE
Social networking sites are interactive websites designed to build online communities for individuals who have something in common an interest in a hobby, a topic, or an organization and a simple desire to communicate across physical boundaries with other interested people. These sites are not unlike the old-fashioned party line telephones, but they leave a more permanent record of the conversations. Most social networking sites include the ability to conduct live chats, send e-mails, upload videos, maintain a blog or discussion group, and share files. Users can also post links to pictures, music, and video, all of which have the potential to create a virtual identity. The basics of these websites are simple. A person visits a social networking website, creates an account and user profile, and then uploads any personal information into his or her space. Once a page is established, its owner can make the profile public, which means that anyone can view the page and information, or private, which means that a person must be invited to view the page. A mutual relationship between users called friending1 links profiles together, creating the backbone of the websites social network. If the profile is
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What happens when the online world of the teacher reveals more than professional information? What happens when a website provides a glimpse into a teachers life after school? As we have become firmly rooted in the technology tools of the 21st century, social networking has evolved to be an integral part of our reality. The introduction of online social networking has created a cultural shift related to the idea of privacy: some people today are willing to expose more about themselves. The social networking tools are so easy to use that anybody students, parents, other teachers, and administrators can create online identities. Are there any rules when it comes to teachers using social networking sites? Some teachers view the social networking sites as an avenue to enhance instruction. High school teacher Alyssa Trzeszkowski-Giese claims that her profile on Facebook has allowed her to establish deeper relationships with and understandings of her students because she can communicate with them beyond the four walls of the classroom.7 She states that quiet students are sometimes more vocal online because they feel more
comfortable behind the artificial cloak of anonymity offered by the Internet. Tapping this medium has proved to be a resource for tying classroom instruction to real life for her students. Other school professionals have created social networking profiles as a means to generate buzz about school programs. Missouri teachers and club sponsors Phil Overeem and Jami Thornsberry use Facebook to provide updates on club information. Overeem credits Facebook with increasing his clubs attendance by 50%. High school social studies teacher Andrew McCarthy from Hickman, Missouri, uses Facebook to remind his students of upcoming homework deadlines and quizzes.8 In contrast to the benefits that teachers are experiencing from using social networking technology, other uses are coming under fire. Recent reports in the media have shown teachers being reprimanded for what school districts consider inappropriate activity. The content on these questionable pages includes candid photos, racy or suggestive song lyrics, and references to sex or to alcohol or drug use. Venting about personal frustrations at work has also caused problems. While completely banning teachers from having social networking profiles seems downright draconian, some school districts have taken a range of disciplinary actions, including dismissal, against what they consider to be questionable uses of social networking sites by teachers. Tamara Hoover, a teacher in Austin, Texas, was fired from her position as a high school art teacher when nude photographs of her were discovered on the website of her partner, who is a professional photographer.9 Hoover was fired based on conduct unbecoming a teacher, even though some might interpret the photographs as professional and artistic. Hoover agreed to a cash settlement with the school district, and now she uses her MySpace profile to promote teachers free speech rights.10 The case has attracted national media attention. In St. Augustine, Florida, middle school physical education teacher John Bush was fired over the content of his MySpace profile.11 He was dismissed when the district superintendent viewed what he called an inappropriate photograph and comments on the page. The superintendent admitted that the content was not pornographic but claimed that the profile contained things that students and parents should not know about a teacher. Anu Prabhakara, a foreign language teacher at Southern Middle School in Maryland, was investigated by her school board after posting content critical of the school system, parents, and teachers in an expletive-
laden MySpace blog. She exclaimed, When the [expletive] did parents decide that their kids are not responsible for anything they do?12 After a child revealed that she had read the offending comments because she was a friend of her teacher on MySpace, her mother reported Prabhakaras comments to administrators. Other teachers who have expanded their online social networks to include students as friends have also found themselves in hot water. Matthew Cepican of Rialto High School in Rancho Cucamonga, California, is still communicating with former students on his MySpace profile after being booked on suspicion of lewd acts with a minor.13 An online social networking profile can cause problems even before a teacher enters the profession. Stacy Snyder, a teacher candidate in secondary English education at Millersville (Pennsylvania) University, was denied her teaching certificate and given an English degree rather than an education degree after campus administrators discovered photos on her MySpace profile in which she portrayed herself as a drunken pirate. The 27-year-old filed a federal lawsuit against the university asking $75,000 for in damages.14
PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT
Long before the advent of social networking sites, teachers private lives had been scrutinized. A 1915 document outlining rules for teachers, such as you are not to keep company with men and you must under no circumstances dye your hair,15 is often seen posted on classroom walls as a tongue-in-cheek reminder of the way things used to be. The document is evidence that society has always been interested in the actions of teachers beyond the classroom walls. In todays world it is simple to google someone you want to know more about. Students may google their teachers out of curiosity, and principals may google prospective teachers in order to see online portfolios of their professional endeavors. Such inquiries have led to some interesting circumstances. As communities have viewed what they consider to be inappropriate information on an increasing number of teachers social network spaces, judgments have been made, and a range of consequences have been experienced. No matter how significant the outcome, these cases create lasting opinions about individuals and affect the entire profession. While judgments about whether or not personal information should be publicly displayed cannot be based on personal feelings or underlying moral or religious beliefs, predictable legal interpretations have not yet been firmly established. Moreover, the
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choices teachers make about what to post must be influenced by the context of the diverse communities in which they work. Whether we like it or not, teachers are held to a higher standard of moral behavior than is the population in general. This expectation is reflected in the clauses of state certification procedures, such as this one from Arizona, which mandates that teachers shall not engage in conduct which would discredit the teaching profession.16 It is under these state clauses that teachers have been denied entry into or dismissed from their profession. Because of the alarming possibility of life-changing consequences to teachers, professional associations have published guidelines for teachers participation in social networking sites. The Association of Texas Professional Educators suggests that teachers should not post anything that they would be embarrassed to have their supervisors discover. The association also provides guidelines for dealing with student-initiated contact, such as friend invitations and comments.17 Understanding the risks involved for teachers, the Ohio Education Association recently sent a memo to all members strongly discouraging them from joining social networking sites in light of an investigation into teacher misconduct on the sites launched by the Columbus Dispatch.18
AN UNCHARTED LANDSCAPE
any off-duty free expression of a teacher that is not of public concern. Virginia high school art teacher Stephen Murmer was fired after a video of an art project that involved the use of his buttocks and other body parts to spread paint on a canvas was discovered on the video-sharing site YouTube. In October 2007, Murmer filed a lawsuit in federal court to challenge his dismissal.23 Similar cases are bound to arise in the near future, given the number of teachers being reprimanded or fired for posting personal content on social networking sites in the past two years. The decisions in these legal challenges will ultimately define how teachers speech is evaluated in the social networking realm.
A CALL TO ACTION
Teachers, like all other Americans, are protected by the free speech clause of the First Amendment. The landmark Supreme Court decision in Tinker v. Des Moines asserted that students and teachers do not shed their constitutional rights . . . at the schoolhouse gate.19 Furthermore, in Pickering v. Board of Education, the Court clarified that a teachers speech is protected if it is speech in regard to issues of public importance.20 Yet in Connick v. Myers, the Supreme Court further elaborated on that ruling by citing that the First Amendment rights of a public employee are weighed against the ability of the government employer to maintain an efficiently run organization.21 These two court decisions together form what is commonly referred to as the Pickering/Connick balancing test. Under the Pickering/ Connick test, a teacher could be disciplined for speaking out publicly against a school administrator only if that speech interfered with the efficient operations of the school.22 This litmus test has shaped court interpretation of teachers First Amendment rights for some time now. However, the legal system has not yet established a clear-cut test of whether discipline is appropriate for
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Because of the Internets new social networking capabilities, opportunities for providing personal information in public places have become readily available, widely acceptable, and almost commonplace. Likewise, the general public can use Internet resources to seek information about any individual. Some individuals who wish to project a particular image on a social networking site will naturally think through the short- and long-term consequences of their choices. But others may not fully understand the public nature of the Internet and the potential impact of their choices to be circumspect about or fully expose their personal lives. Making decisions about what and how to share private information cannot be taken lightly, as negative consequences for a teacher are lasting. As new teachers enter the profession, they are just as accountable as veteran teachers for decisions related to professional conduct. How can we support both current teachers and future teachers so that they can make informed choices, without impinging on their personal rights? In a world where social connections and friendships are newly defined by user-generated content on the Web, it is unclear where privacy ends and professional life begins. Based on media reports of teachers using MySpace, it is clear that many educators are learning to define this line for themselves. It might be best to view these situations as significant ethical dilemmas posed by a technology-dependent, 21st-century world. And more dilemmas will surely be upon us as we experiment with ways to use any new technologies. But those engaged in such experimentation must weigh the risks. Those of us who are committed to the field of education cannot stand idly by and allow careers to be jeopardized. At the same time, we must not be deterred from exploring new possibilities and discovering appropriate uses of these powerful tools. The over-
all benefits are surely worth the risks, but the risks in each situation must be identified and thoughtfully weighed. Teach...