Earlier this week, folks were speculating about whether it was safe to use MySpace, Facebook, or you name it social networking sites. Like a virtual game of whack a mole, characterized by pop up services that enable people to connect with each other beyond the control of centralized authority, schools are rushing to ban tools. The latest case? A teacher complaining about student behavior. Having worked in an urban school district, I can just imagine what would have happened if I’d put my English major, rich vocabulary-laden prose from discipline referrals on the Web via a social networking site today.

As supportive as school administrators were about my elegant descriptions of misbehavior–“Write the bad word, Miguel, that the student said rather than describe it” after a particularly polite referral describe a curse word and its usage in a 6th grade class found its way into my principal’s hands–I doubt they would have garnered the same praise if found on Twitter…which is exactly what one teacher did, as described below. The reaction was no less than anticipated–OUTRAGE.

One angry parent, who read the messages, said she knew half the children that were being commented on, adding: “I am outraged that she describes children as hard work.

“She is paid a lot of money to do her job and it is unbelievable that she sitting talking about them on a computer rather than teaching.”

Gordon Chalmers, a local councillor in Oban, said: “I do not pay my council tax so that staff can waste time on these sites.

“People should be spending time with real people rather than with cyber friends.

“It is a drain on public resources. It’s shocking.”

A council spokesman said social networking sites were blocked in all schools as a matter of policy.

She added: “Any member of staff found to have breached council policy will face appropriate disciplinary action.
Source: Teachers Banned from Twitter, Telegraph

As I read this, it makes me agree that social networking used for these purposes IS a waste of time. However, Twitter is used daily–and appropriately–to answer the question, “What are you learning now?”

This question is key for me…what are you learning now? And, it goes without saying–except it doesn’t–that situations like the one described in the news article come about because we have “shushed” the discussion, avoided it like the plague.

When something is new, that is the best time to learn. In the meantime, line up to whack a mole!

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure