Don’t Twitter while teaching – tweaching is bad
Twitter is a great service to use – just ask Oprah. However, using it when you should be working is never a good idea, especially if your job is to teach children and you are tweeting about the kids in your care.
Instances of social networking getting people in trouble are growing by the week. If it isn’t Facebook updates being seen by an employer and getting you fired, it’s photos revealing the state tenants have left a rented flat in. Or how about having Facebook friends who are criminals? A bit of a problem when you are a prison officer.
Now comes a new addition to this line-up of malcontents. According to BBC News, an unnamed teacher at a secondary school in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, has been hauled over the coals after it was discovered she had been using Twitter while teaching. Not only that, but she was posting tweets talking about students and other teachers.
The female teacher is thought to have posted up to 38 tweets a day to the social networking site. She also maintained a personal blog but hadn’t updated that for a while after complaining she was too busy on Twitter to do so.
The tweets posted by this teacher weren’t just about her own life but the lives of others. Some were critical of her job, her school, other teachers, and her pupils:
“Had S3 period 6 for last two years…don’t know who least wants to do anything, them or me.”
“Have three Asperger’s boys in S1 class – never a dull moment! Always offer an interesting take on things.”
“The thought of having some of my S4 beyond exam time doesn’t bear thinking about – for them as well as me I suspect.”
Argyll and Bute Council claim it is official policy not to allow access to social networking sites at any school. However, this teacher will not be disciplined for her infraction. And rightly so because I’ve heard of worst crimes. Sure, she shouldn’t have discussed pupils or sensitive information on a public site but she didn’t name names.
Just a couple of months ago it emerged that Twitter, blogging, and podcasts could be added to the British school curriculum. In light of the fact the government clearly wants kids to be learning about these new ways of communicating maybe the teachers should be encouraged to first get a handle on them? Which is exactly what this Scottish teacher was doing.
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May 25th, 2009
The mind boggles, and boggles, and boggles..