Prompt: Digital citizenship includes modeling appropriate communication skills and being a productive digital citizen. Locate an article or blog post online written about the importance of digital citizenship, including perhaps a topic of controversy surrounding the use of technology in schools. Your blog post should include:
Link to article: ‘Drunken Pirate’ Lawsuit Rejected (December 2008)
My article summarizes an instance where a Millersville undergraduate student was denied her education degree for supposedly posting photos on Facebook of her dressed as a pirate and holding a red solo cup and was captioned as a “drunken pirate.” The article was written by Lancaster Newspapers from 2008. The true story came to light after the initial headlines where university officials explained that the denial of her degree was not due to the post but instead, due to her insufficient completion of her student teaching. Regardless of this outcome, the article circulated quickly throughout Millersville, where I was attending as a junior in the education major. Many students were quick to clean up their profiles so that none of their photos or posts could be misconstrued. Some went as far to delete their accounts until they have found a contracted teaching job.
The main takeaway for me as a student is different from how I would think about this article from the lens of a school leader. I think it’s critical for school leaders not only to model appropriate use of social media for their staff and school community, but they should also be proactive in educating teachers about how to protect themselves online and especially regarding social media. This is sometimes referred to as “netiquette.” Some may argue that this isn’t the job of a school leader but as times have changed, I think it’s important to acknowledge the changes and help teachers to navigate them, just like we do for our students. This doesn’t have to take the form of exact measure that teachers must take, but there can be recommendations made that are based on educational journals and research that will help teachers protect themselves.
I don’t know of any schools today that do not have a Learning Management System and access to some technological devices. This creates a need for a netiquette protocol that should echo the school’s mission, values, and policies. I think it makes a lot of sense to develop a netiquette protocol for the district, and then plan professional learning for teachers about the netiquette. Schools aren’t on their own in developing a protocol. There are tons of open online netiquette protocols to review what other schools are using, such as Rasmussen College and Duquesne University.
The main takeaway for me as a student is different from how I would think about this article from the lens of a school leader. I think it’s critical for school leaders not only to model appropriate use of social media for their staff and school community, but they should also be proactive in educating teachers about how to protect themselves online and especially regarding social media. This is sometimes referred to as “netiquette.” Some may argue that this isn’t the job of a school leader but as times have changed, I think it’s important to acknowledge the changes and help teachers to navigate them, just like we do for our students. This doesn’t have to take the form of exact measure that teachers must take, but there can be recommendations made that are based on educational journals and research that will help teachers protect themselves.
I don’t know of any schools today that do not have a Learning Management System and access to some technological devices. This creates a need for a netiquette protocol that should echo the school’s mission, values, and policies. I think it makes a lot of sense to develop a netiquette protocol for the district, and then plan professional learning for teachers about the netiquette. Schools aren’t on their own in developing a protocol. There are tons of open online netiquette protocols to review what other schools are using, such as Rasmussen College and Duquesne University.
