The Manitoba Teacher, Sept., 2007

Warning: digital potholes ahead

By Bobbi Ethier, Staff Officer,
Teacher Welfare Department

A  teacher in an isolated community in Manitoba created a blog to stay in contact with friends and family in Winnipeg.

Like thousands of other teachers with blogs, included were anecdotes about colleagues, students, the school. Inevitably, it was discovered by students, creating a furor through the school and up to the division.

The employing Division felt that the teacher’s musings on the blog were akin to being disloyal to the employer, a breach of the MTS Code of Professional Practice and a possible breach of both the Personal Health Information Act and the Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act.

While at that point, the teacher may have felt alone, they weren’t.

More and more MTS is hearing of teachers inadvertently stepping on digital landmines when they enter the online world of blogs and social networking sites.

Blogging, especially, is almost a norm among teachers. Many of their humorous blogs or online diaries have provided great fodder for staffroom kibitzing. Indeed, reading a blog about some else’s struggles in teaching calculus or the interpretation of Shakespeare’s soliloquies has been reaffirming to those in the trenches. However, like all good things, they have a dangerous side too as more than a few Manitoba teachers have learned.

We have had experiences where teachers have been victimized by students on their blogs. Given that postings on a blog on the web are public comments, employers and the Society, on behalf of the teacher, can take action for libel and defamation. While Canada has little in related jurisprudence, a number of American cases have allowed for limitations on a student’s free speech when writing cyber attacks on teachers and schools. We remain confident that Canadian courts will support similar limitations in order to protect both the schools as institutions of a civil society and those noble teachers who work there.

Facebook, the social networking site that enables people with common interests, associations, and affiliations to network with one another, has proven to be another tool that can backfire.

Originally designed for Harvard University students to connect with one another, the site has now expanded to the point where it is used by groups such as political parties, magazines, companies and universities as a place to promote their agendas.

In April, I created my own Facebook profile so that I could have access to the site to investigate the alleged abuse of one of our members. Since creating my profile I have done no maintenance on it and yet I receive daily email, contact from former students, long lost friends, political acquaintances, and old boyfriends asking to be “my Facebook friend.” Luckily, the site allows you to decline.

When beginning the Facebook investigation I was unfamiliar with the site. Since its creation, it has morphed into the largest free social networking site with over 30 million registered members’ world wide. In 2006, an American university student survey rated Facebook as the second most rated “in” thing among undergraduates—tied with beer and sex. Given the results of that survey, it’s apparent the world has changed and that we can be assured that Facebook is here to stay. Thus, the savvier we are about the uses of Facebook, the better it will be for our membership.

Two recent Manitoba cases have challenged the Society to examine the negative utilization of Facebook. One of our members was subjected to a great deal of ridicule on a Facebook site that required people who were participating in the online dialogue to sign in. The conversation that ensued about this teacher criticized his clothing, his interests, and alleged that he was engaged in very serious illegal behaviour. The Division and the Society were able to take swift and severe action against these irresponsible individuals because we knew their names and who they were from their Facebook profiles. This case received a great deal of media attention, locally and nationally, as it was one of the first to seriously target a fine teacher. The ensuing public debate on the CBC through to letters to the editor expressed enormous regret by the public at large that teachers were being subjected to this additional irresponsible humiliation.

Many teachers have created their own Facebook profiles and are using it effectively to communicate with their students and community. Regrettably, one teacher was astounded when her Facebook profile was poorly received by her employer. When creating the profile, you are asked to answer the following questions: relationship status, looking for ___, religious views, and political views. There is also a means of including photos and postings on a virtual wall.  The employer was upset that the teacher had generously filled out all kinds of details answering the profile questions and then elaborated further in the postings. The teacher had also uploaded photos of herself with many students, unfortunately without their permission and the Division felt that it reflected poorly on them and on the teacher.

Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and blogging have completely changed our communication, mostly in a positive way. Individuals can have an international soapbox of unknown proportion to influence, share ideas and commiserate. Yet we can not afford to ignore the hard lessons. The Society urges caution when using these seemingly private tools. The absolute rule to live by is that you would be comfortable to have your Facebook and blog activities appear on the front page of the newspaper. If you are not, then changes need to be made before it becomes an issue. Until then, have fun with these new technologies that support teaching and learning.