Listening to Jesse Miller’s talk about privacy in education was incredibly interesting and brought up ideas and lines of thinking that I really hadn’t thought about before.  There is certainly a need to strike a balance between being available to your students and keeping up clear boundaries.  I remember, in my high school, our drama teacher sometimes got really involved in students lives, especially those who were on the after school improv team.  His familiarity was never something insidious but I remember hearing about improv camp from my friends and being uncomfortable with how much of their personal lives they felt comfortable sharing with him.  It always seemed strange to me.

 

On the other hand, my art teacher was very personable while still having clear barriers around her personal life and also respecting the personal lives of her students.  The most we knew about her life outside of the school we found out from other people.  She would talk to us about art and about our pursuit of further education but she never asked us to reveal any thing about our personal lives and she never tried to connect with any of us on social media until after we graduated.

 

It was also interesting to be reminded that even if the contact that you have with your students outside of school is completely innocent it will be subject to speculation and suspicion around whether it’s above board or not.  Sometimes suspicion can be enough to ruin a reputation even if those suspicions are proven to be unfounded.  It is ever more important to keep your social media presence in check.

 

Additionally, as I was checking things off this weeks task list, I spent some time going through google to see what information could be found about me.  I don’t really have too much of an online presence beyond what seems necessary for communication with friends these days so other than an ancient twitter account that is now deleted there isn’t really much to find for which I am grateful.  This exercise was also a reminder that you can only control what you put out into the world on social media, less so with what other people post about you and even less what is published in news papers that get put online.  For example, several years ago my cousin was killed in a hit and run in Kamloops which obviously prompted an investigation which is often followed up by articles in the local news paper.  Because we share a last name, if you google me you can find those articles with ease.  It’s not something that will affect my job prospects or my future in this profession but it is interesting that, in this age of information, all it takes is a quick google for someone to find out something about you that is so personal.

 

It’s a very good thing to take whatever control you have over your presence online but I also think that it’s important to remember that you can’t control every aspect of it.