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TEACHERS SHOULD NOT use their own personal social media accounts for school-related projects and avoid using personal photos in their profile information.
That is just two pieces of advice given to school staff by the Joint Managerial Board recently, in the wake of concerns that cyber bullying is becoming a major problem in Irish schools.
The body, which manages secondary schools across the country, issued a guidance bulletin on cyber bullying in schools last week.
Seen by TheJournal.ie, the document shows the incidence of students attacking teachers online is becoming more common. However, student-on-student bullying is still the most reported form, it says.
According to general secretary Ferdia Kelly, the best way to prevent bullying is to take a “whole school approach”, which includes the creation of anti-bullying initiatives and a code of practice outlining expected behaviour. This should include a policy on the use of social media a teaching tool, according to the JMB.
Teachers have also been asked to become familiar with the terminology used on the internet, for example ‘likes’, ‘tweets’, ‘re-tweets’ and MEMEs.
“Teachers are increasingly using the internet and social media sites as educational tools,” continues the document. “It’s important that teachers take precautions to safeguard themselves against cyber bullying and also protect their privacy.
“For example, connecting with students on social media sites can seem like an effective means of communication. However, this gives students potential to access personal information about teachers and the opportunity to target them with abusive behaviour.”
The JMB Professional Behaviour Guide asks for an “arms-length professional relationship” to be maintained at all times.
There was other practical considerations given to staff, such as a proposed ban on students taking photographs in school – of either staff or classmates -unless required for a project.
The Board advised that permission should always be sought from school management and parents before running a social media-related project.
Other advice given included:
The bulletin, dated 26 November, comes after three girls - Erin Gallagher (13) from Donegal, Leitrim teenager Ciara Pugsley (15) and Lara Burns Gibbs (12) from Kildare – took their own lives after being allegedly bullied online.
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Seems that this report is more about teachers’ standards and professionalism online than about cyberbullying
Teachers are adults and better able to look after themselves. Trying to control young people’s internet access is like pushing water uphill – they will get round it. A top-down sanctions approach or simply saying this is wrong will not work – you need to do the work with the students in schools in groups, with properly trained facilitators. It is an important and critical matter for young people. Remember David Coleman in Bullyproof – he got that young woman who had been bullied to stand up and talk to the other students in her year and tell them how it felt for her. You have to do the emotional work or nothing will change. To make it into good and bad people is not realistic – probably many go along with it out of fear that if they stand up for their classmates they will also be targeted, and they say that people who have been bullied may do the same themselves as a reaction. So if we are serious about tackling it, there are many evidence-based approaches that can be taken in schools that will make a difference – the will is all that is lacking.
I really can’t believe this
advice on how the teacher protects themselves
Nothing at all about the real problem of children been bullied or how prevent their deaths..
can I just add if a teacher is too dumb to understand risks of getting students to have to use facebook and other social media for school related activities then they should be replaced
How to stop cyber bullying – block or delete , then toughen up
Useless. A top down sanctions approach has not worked so far. Nor have anti-bullying weeks or information. Of course there need to be guidelines and information, but without doing the emotional work with students and group work to explore the issue nothing will change. They need skilled and trained people to work with the young people in groups in schools to help them to understand at a cognitive and emotional level the real impact of this kind of behaviour, and also of peers not standing up for individuals. School that have a whole school approach to social and emotional literacy have dramatically reduced bullying and better and more trusting relationships between all members of their school communities. Probably any young person is as capable of engaging in this behaviour as they are of being at the receiving end, or of being afraid to stand up for their friends…
‘School that have a whole school approach to social and emotional literacy have dramatically reduced bullying’
That is clearly the approach that should be absolutely required. Three suicides amongst young people says it all. ‘Guidelines’ are not enough. Social and emotional education should have as much of a priority in schools as science or maths. It says a lot that there are huge pushes to increase science education because the economy requires it, but what is needed by young people themselves just gets some guidelines.
Education should be targeted towards helping to educate young people for life, not just for jobs.
“Teachers have also been asked to become familiar with the terminology used on the internet, for example ‘likes’, ‘tweets’, ‘re-tweets’ and MEMEs.”
If they aren’t familiar with those basics they have no place talking to young people on the dos and don’ts of social media. If schools don’t have the understanding of the area they need to bring in people that do for workshops and talks and it should all be based on understanding the emotional impact this can have on others.
Pretending parents can monitor their kids online activities is a waste of time as they can’t. Standing and lecturing about ‘cowards behind their computers’ will be met with indifference.
I agree with you, but the problem is that teachers who know too little can end up picking ‘experts’ who know too little.
My 14 year old son’s school had a so-called expert in yesterday to give them a talk about avoiding cyber-bullying (not crazy about that term, but it’s what we’ve got). The talk mostly addressed Facebook and Bebo. Yes, Bebo. Also, oddly, Wordpress, which was described as a social network.
Shortly after he started the part on Facebook privacy settings, hands began to go up:
“Sir, that’s different now since they introduced the new timeline”.
“Oh, is it? I’ll have to have a look at that”
“Sir, I can explain it if you like…..” And so some guy in the audience educated the expert.
The other part that was … interesting … was his advice that they should “NEVER go anywhere near Reddit or 4chan”. Reasonable enough advice, except probably more than half the class had never heard of Reddit or 4chan. Those who had filled them in afterwards. Guess what they’ll be checking out this week?
He didn’t mention Google+ at all, for some reason. :)
Yeah, It’s a big problem now a days. But i believe every problem has a great solutions. Yeah, All of you are right. There is a good solution to parenting online to keep our child safe from such problem. It is a software called PG Guard. I have mentioned it’s features following.
-PG guard is a simple to use service that safeguards children on facebook.
-PG guard safeguards children regardless of devices they use or their location.
-PG guard constantly monitors your child’s entire social environment.
-PG guard uses unique artificial intelligence algorithms to profile each user.
-Each social interaction is analyzed according to the profiles of the users involved.
-PG guard informs parents of suspicious interactions in child’s social environment.
-PG guard allows parents to educate, encourage and set boundaries online.
for more details you can visit https://pgguard.com/ here
I think the Journal’s opening line is wrong. It says “TEACHERS SHOULD NOT use their own personal social media accounts for school-related projects”. The actual advice quoted in the body of the article says “Avoid connecting directly with students by using Facebook ‘pages’ – in this case a student can access the page without having to be ‘friends’ with the teacher” – this is better advice, and contradicts the opening line. Teachers SHOULD use their own personal social media accounts, but should use these via pages to create a layer of protection.
Hi Shane,
The first line comes from a separate part of the document, which reads: Teachers should not use their personal Twitter or Facebook account for any school-related projects but should set up separate Twitter or Facebook accounts to use for school-related projects.
The line about ‘pages’ is a separate piece of advice.
Thanks
Sinead
Thanks for the clarification, Sinead. In that case, I think that particular bit of advice – to open a seperate account – is bad advice. If a teacher gets on top of FB privacy settings, they should have no fear about using their FB account for school projects, using FB pages or groups as suggested in the article.
@ Shane, it is actually written now in the code of conduct and professionalism for teachers that personal FB accounts etc must not be used by teachers to make contact with their students. It is imperative that the relationship between teacher and pupil is strictly professional as it can be easy for lines to get blurred. This is for the protection of the children but also for the protection of the teachers.
Jane, it depends what is meant by ‘making contact with the student’. I absolutely agree that teachers should not be in social contact with students on Facebook or other social networks. However, it would be very valid for a teacher or school to set up a FB page or group for the school, or for a school project, or for a class. If a student asks ‘what date is the next project due’ and the teacher replies giving a date, is this considered to be ‘contact with a student’?
Schools seem to be running scared of social networking with absolutist guidelines like this. They’d be better off setting out decent guidelines that encourage schools, teachers and students to make sensible use of these facilities, instead of being scared off. Students will learn from teachers role modelling how to use social networking. Students will learn nothing if they don’t see their teachers using these networks,
have your say