Social Networking amongst Educators

Social Networking amongst Educators

While browsing the internet yesterday I came across an interesting website about educators and social networking. “How to avoid committing social media gaffes”, is an interesting article that provides do’s and don’ts when it comes to social networking. Social media use is growing exponentially across all demographic groups, including senior citizens. “With social media use becoming more mainstream, principals, teachers, parent volunteers, and other adults affiliated with public schools are frequently using social media for networking and communication purposes.” Some examples of these social networking sites are Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook just to name a few.

With the use of these social networking sites amongst educators becoming more and more common, it is imperative that we monitor what we post to these sites. Parents, students, and principles often access these sites and search to see what information they can find on a particular individual. If they find negative or improper pictures/information it will look bad on us as educators. I personally make sure that I don’t post anything that I wouldn’t feel comfortable with my students reading.Not only are parents and students searching these sites to find information on an individual but so are principals. Many times before you receive a job the principal will search these types of sites to see what type of person they are hiring.

Some tips listed in the article about social networking are:

Avoid participating in the cutesy, sometimes raunchy online surveys and other gimmicks that social media sites use to generate traffic.

Keep your personal business private.

Don’t connect personally with students, ever. There’s never an appropriate or legitimate reason to develop online relationships with students

Recognize that the parents of your students are your partners in the educational process, not your “friends

These are just some of the useful tips listed in the article about educators and social networking. I feel that these are very important tips because as educators we have to monitor everything that we do. Some things we may not feel are inappropriate that our parents or administration will. This is why these tips are so useful.

Carr, N. (2010). Retrieved from: http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/10/05/how-to-avoid-committing-social-media-gaffes/2/?