How Educators Can Stay Safe in the Classroom
In the world that we currently live in, social media has become the fore front of how we communicate with each other. Whether we are using it as an expression of our individual brand, to remain connected to friends and family who live away from us, for business purposes, or just simply as a means of posting funny pictures. HOWEVER...as educators we are held to a higher standard of expectation then the 'general public' regarding what it is that we do with our lives outside of the classroom and it is through the use of social media that we can help to either make or break our careers.
Please see the article 6 Ways Teachers Can Stay Safe Using Social Media for some quick advice on how to protect yourself. As it states at the end of the article...If you’re angry, think twice…then think again…and then probably don’t post it. Don’t ever post criticism of a student, parent, colleague, or your district.
Consider all angles from which your post could be received, and all the ways in which it could be viewed. If you’re worried someone could be offended, don’t post it.
Also consider, that if you want to incorporate technology within your classroom (which I think is a great idea) that you should make sure that you are aware of what the policies are in your district and that you know the specific technology that you are using is safe for you and your students. I know that some boards or even specific schools within certain boards can have differing policies on the use of media sights such as Netflix so it is important to know what it is that you can and cannot use in the class. And remember...there is nothing wrong with asking if you are unsure!!! When it comes to life sometimes the best policy is to act and then ask for forgiveness, but when it comes to teaching the best policy is to ask for permission and to CYA because you don't want to chance risking your job due to a YouTube video that a parent thought was inappropriate.
DSBN Policy E-05 Use of Technology
Privacy Concerns in an Online World
According to Wikipedia PRIVACY is...the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively.
When something is private to a person, it usually means that something is inherently special or sensitive to them. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of appropriate use and protection of information. Privacy may also take the form of bodily integrity. The right not to be subjected to unsanctioned invasions of privacy by the government, corporations, or individuals is part of many countries' privacy laws, and in some cases, constitutions.
In the business world, a person may volunteer personal details, including for advertising, in order to receive some kinds of benefit. Public figures may be subject to rules on the public interest. Personal information which is voluntarily shared but subsequently stolen or misused can lead to identity theft.
The concept of universal individual privacy is a modern concept primarily associated with Western culture, British and North American in particular, and remained virtually unknown in some cultures until recent times. Most cultures, however, recognize the ability of individuals to withhold certain parts of their personal information from wider society, such as closing the door to one's home.
Privacy is something that is becoming harder and harder to maintain in modern times. For example, if I Google myself, my roster pictures from varsity lacrosse show up, pictures off of a myspace page I haven't touched in over 10 years, twitter, Instagram, Facebook, pictures from my bodybuilding competitions that were posted by the organization that I compete in. All items that I personally did not post to Google, but that internet search engines are able to access from other sites on the internet.
Teaching our students to be safe and secure while navigating the internet is becoming just as important in our jobs as it is to teach them the curriculum expectations. A great way to ensure that student work and student information is not shared through social networking sites is for us to set up a class account that the students have access to while they are in the class. We can open up the site for class and leave it open and when they leave for the day they wait until the next time we are together to have access to it. This way it is truly a class site and there are no risks of the students information being taken without their knowledge while they are outside of the class. Another way to protect their privacy, is by using a social media sites privacy policy as an assignment. By taking the time as a class to go through the whole policy that we all just agree to without reading due to their length, and breaking it down to help the students to see what it actually is that they are signing up for by hitting the I Agree button.
Teaching Privacy is a really great resource to help our students to learn how to properly use the internet.
Open Education Resources
Please view my wakelet on Open Education Resources to see additional resources pertaining to teaching health and physical education
The Online Physical Education Network (OPEN), is an American website that has access to lesson plans and suggestions for HPE teachers. It is a free resource that you can use to access these materials. One lesson that stood out to me was on how to Juggle Nutrition for Health, I like that I can choose between primary, middle and high school lesson plans.
I can see the risk of using OSR in our classrooms being that we need to ensure that we know the sources behind the material that we are introducing to our students to ensure that there aren't any biases in it that we don't want there to be. We need to ensure that if it is international content that we encourage the students to also draw comparisons to Canadian content so that it connects to the Canadian curriculum. But also, with it being a more self-regulated form of learning we want to ensure that our students stay on track in order to properly work their way through the material in order and on time.
I can see this type of learning being engaging for the students if they use it almost as an ISU in a class so they get to choose it. If it was something that was completed in pairs or small groups would also help to ensure that the students stay on track as there is that level of accountability amongst the group members to get their work in to each other on time. But also, depending on the grade level, and the students within your class providing a reward system could always work to ensure that the student are completing the work. That is another reason that it is so important to get to the know your students right away at the beginning of the semester/term. The more we know about them the more we can know how best to teach them, what sorts of systems are going to be successful for them, and we can get a baring on their background knowledge where concepts such as self-regulation and self-directed schools work are concerned.
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