Taking off on a tangent here...
The new technologies that (particularly) younger teachers so readily
embrace are also cause for potential problems. All educational
personnel need to know the pitfalls of emailing, texting, Facebook,
Twitter, etc., with their students. I know of a couple of situations
(and I imagine there are lots more) where texting with students has
gotten out of hand and one of them actually backfired. While it may
start out innocently, it can 'go viral' and escalate. With a phone
call, one can tell by the voice who is on the other end of the line.
With Twitter, Facebook, Texting, email, etc., anyone could get into
your account (particularly if you don't keep good control) and
represent themselves as you.
Don't get me wrong, I love the new technologies (and I'm no spring
chicken!) but please remember to think carefully before using them
with students. Just like you don't give rides to students, don't set
yourself up for other potential problems.
****************************
Barb Engvall
=^..^=
Teacher-Librarian
John Campbell Elem
Selah, WA
macbarb@charter.net
http://www.selah.k12.wa.us/JC/jc.cfm
On Jun 18, 2009, at 8:24 AM, Carol Simpson wrote:
> Catherine, and all,
>
> Let me give you another perspective on Twitter and some of the other
> online tools. As an attorney, we have to look beyond the face of
> things to see what potential pitfalls lie ahead.
>
> Not so recent changes in trial procedure have brought about a new
> wrinkle in trials called "e-discovery." Discovery is the process
> through which opposing parties in a lawsuit are allowed to request
> information from the other side so no one is blindsided at trial --
> everything is out in the open and no one is allowed to hide anything
> related to the lawsuit. E-discovery means getting all the
> electronic records, such as word processing documents, spreadsheets,
> emails, and other electronic evidence.
>
> Twitter is one of those things that may be considered to be evidence
> in some cases. If you Twitter in the course of your job, those
> messages are documents as far as a court is concerned. Since the
> messages are typically ephemeral, there is no archived record that
> can be delivered over to lawsuit opponents because you are not in
> control of the technology. Failure to turn over those types of
> documents can generate huge fines. IT people are concerned that
> using these sites and then not being able to produce information
> from them under rules of discovery places the district at risk,
> therefore, IT doesn’t want to open up these sites.
>
> You are much more likely to get the district to sign off on
> electronic communication tools that the district can control. It
> isn't an issue of not wanting to provide the tool -- it is an issue
> of potential fallout from using a tool over which the district has
> no effective control and no documentation of what actually happened.
>
> Carol Simpson, JD
> retired SLMS
> csimpson at carolsimpson dot com
>
> ---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
> From: "Catherine A. Trinkle" <CATrinkle@AVON-SCHOOLS.ORG>
> Reply-To: "Catherine A. Trinkle" <CATrinkle@AVON-SCHOOLS.ORG>
> Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:37:17 -0400
>
>> I am so thrilled by twitter. I am going to tweet every day for one
>> year on the topic of a book, author, reading info for parents &
>> teachers, etc. Many parents ask me for recommended reading and I
>> make suggested reading lists a few times each year, but twitter
>> will allow me to communicate about great books and authors more
>> frequently. My principal asked me to speak each month at staff
>> meetings about the best in children's lit and twitter will be
>> another avenue for reaching out to teachers. I also want to tweet
>> with my students to summarize stories, use adjectives to decribe
>> books and authors, work with words, etc. but my school corp has
>> blocked the login for twitter, though any page can still be
>> viewed. I'm hoping to get the block removed so I can tweet with
>> the kids at school.
>>
>> Anyone else out there twittering on literacy? Here's my page:
>http://twitter.com/lovemylibrary
>>
>>
>>
>> Catherine Trinkle
>> Media Specialist
>> Avon Community School Corporation
>> Avon, Indiana 46123
>> catrinkle@avon-schools.org
>>
>>
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