A number of local authorities are now advising heads and teachers to consider whether having a Facebook account is compatible with their status as a teacher. Services like Facebook and Twitter seem to be routinely blocked by the filters. There appears to be an ever widening gulf between the innovators and pace setters in the world of educational ICT and the "authorities".
Straightaway I'll set my stall out. I think the way to teach children about the dangers of water is by immersing them in it and teaching them to swim. Some, like me, will only ever plod around the pool at a sedate pace; others will be transformed and will embrace water as if they should have been born a dolphin. Both groups of us will be safe and we will have the knowledge and experience to evaluate risks and take the necessary decisions to mitigate them.
It seems that the reasons given for banning Facebook et al revolve around the dangers of inappropriate contact with children on the web via social networks through the blurring of professional boundaries; children accessing inappropriate content on your social network accounts; or children attempting to impersonate teachers in order to become Facebook friends and cause mischief. All of these things happen and have happened and a few teachers have been suspended due to their social networking activities.
The General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) are also wading into this arena with the publication of their draft code of conduct for teachers. As an aside, it would appear that faith groups have more influence over government than techno geeks as they have succeeded in substantially watering down the entirely laudable (in my eyes at least) requirement to "promote equality and value diversity", and to "proactively challenge discrimination." This code will, however, only add to the clamour to block and ban.
But, is this the right thing to do? I think it is incredibly patronising of the blockers to tell headteachers that "we know best". Apparently, there are 20 million Facebook acounts in the UK alone. Secondary school children especially are using it to collaborate and chat about school projects and homework, thus avoiding the institutional attempt at building "creepy treehouses," a phrase I learned this week. Social networking and Facebook in particular have become part of the fabric of our society and teaching children how to make safe choices online is becoming an ever greater imperative.
Surely what is needed is education not banning? Teachers need to understand the privacy implications of social networks. They need to be taught how to discover and control their digital footprint and to understand the protocols surrounding online contact with children out of school hours. It seems there is an obvious tension between those wanting to develop Virtual Learning Environments and extending school beyond the traditional hours and those that want to block and control the technologies that help to realise these policy ambitions. I find it ironic that one of the banning authorities is Kent whose document on safe practice with technology for professionals in schools I admire greatly.
I do worry, though, that the newest recruits to the teaching profession have gone through school and college with a very open and relaxed attitude towards social networking and I think it is incumbent on teacher training institutions to include discussions around the issues raised in the Kent document in their courses. These might include:
- Use of personal equipment (phones etc) to take photo, video and audio recordings of children;
- Teacher use of social networking sites;
- Attempts by minors to "friend" adults via social networks or engage in online conversations;
- What constitutes inaapropriate content;
- Use of school equipment such as laptops at home.
Schools may do well to include references to these issues in their acceptable use policies and staff induction materials.
So, I think that telling teachers to delete their Facebook accounts is akin to sticking one's head in the sand and pretending that we are still in a 20th century education system. We're not, and we need to provide teachers with the skills and confidence to exploit this technology for the benefit and education of children (and adults), and not to be afraid of it.