WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND?

Aleesha Paddleford

Cathi VanKirk

Melissa Moore

Terri Wright

Tony Perkins

Vanessa Roets

MORAL ISSUES WITH SOCIAL NETWORKING

With the rise in popularity of social networking students and teachers are facing new moral and ethical dilemma's.

Should teachers and students be friends on the same social network?

What are the advantages and risks of taking part in social networking with students?

WHAT IS A SOCIAL NETWORK?

Social network sites (SNS) are web-based services that allow individuals to: (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a

bounded system (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they

share a connection (3) view and traverse their list of connections and

those made by others within the system (Boyd & Ellison, 2008)

Bulletin Board System (BBS) Local networks created to share text/notes.

TIMELINE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS

2010

1997

1970

2004

2003

2002

2006

SixDegrees: Circle of friends based on connections

Friendster: Find circle of friends based on similar interests.

LinkedIn, MySpace

Facebook (Harvard)

Facebook (world-wide), Twitter

AOL: Create personal profiles that other members can find

1990 Classmates: Find & communicate friends from past

1995

THE EARLY YEARS…

1970’s: Create social networks as alternative communication strategy & share files in the workplace

1990’s: Interest in Social Networks expands with the increase of Internet users. Interest shifts to making connections with people (known

or unknown) and initiating communication 2003: Social Networks focus on established circle of friends

instead of creating circles from the unknown.

FUNCTIONS OF A SOCIAL NETWORK Communicate with friends, family, co-workers by:

Post public status or announcement Instant Message Post pictures & video Comment on other’s profile or comments Games & Quizzes (Results are posted for people to see)

On many of the large [Social Network Systems] SNSs, participants are not necessarily “networking” or looking to meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network (Boyd & Ellison, 2008).

Users all around the world--regardless of their site of choice--were divulging their deepest thoughts, fears and desires in rapid exchanges to as few as one and as many as one million people at once. Finally, widgets added connectivity to MySpace, Facebook and virtually every other social-networking Web site, and tied everything--and everyone—together (Simon, 2009).

TODAY’S POPULAR SOCIAL NETWORKS LinkIn:LinkIn: Networking resource for businesspeople who want

to connect with other professionals. Today, LinkedIn boasts more than 30 million members.

MySpace:MySpace: Focuses on the young adult demographic with music, music videos, and a funky, feature-filled environment. About 90 million users.

Facebook:Facebook: Opened to the general public in 2006. Currently boasts in excess of 150 million users.

Twitter:Twitter: Essentially a micro-blogging "What are you doing

at the moment?" site where users keep contacts informed of everyday events by posting from their computer or handheld device.

(Nickson, 2009)

What started as a note system with a dozen or so users has evolved into a global phenomenon with hundreds of millions of users reaching nearly every corner in the world. From elaborate, graphics-intensive personal pages to brief, brisk bulletins, the explosion of social networking sites has succeeded in bringing people closer together as the restless masses stand on the mountaintop, waiting for the next revolution.

(Simon, 2009)

OH THE PLACES WE WILL GO…

--Dr Seuss Book

LOOK HOW FAR WE’VE COME…

Or have we? Perhaps people should consider a few of George Washington’s Rules of Civility before they post anything.

3d Shew Nothing to your Freind that may affright him.

45th Being to advise or reprehend any one, consider whether it ought to be in publick or in Private;

81st Be not Curious to Know the Affairs of Others neither approach those that speak in private.

HARNESS THE NETWORKS

"We read a lot in the media about how young people are using social networking sites with harmful results," agrees Christine Greenhow

"The question is, can we harness this interest and passion in their online lives for educational purposes?“ Greenhow not only found an increasing awareness by Sommers and other students of the potential of these sites to express their creativity and explore their interests, but also the potential to complement lessons in more formal educational settings -- if teachers can just figure out how to use them.

MAKING CONNECTIONS

If that is going to be possible, however, first teachers must learn from the students' mindsets -- that is, rolling up their sleeves and creating Facebook profile themselves.

Demographics are working in teachers' favor, as the fastest-growing group of Facebook users, for example, is 25 and older.

In between reconnecting with high school friends and uploading their own vacation photos, a teacher might begin to understand why students find these sites so attractive -- and perhaps come up organically with ideas for using them in class.

DIGITAL CITIZENS

Perhaps even more important than the impact of social networking on the classroom, however, is the impact that the classroom can have on social networking, by teaching students how to be responsible "digital citizens" online.

At their most basic level, these sites can be launching points to discussions on Internet ethics. "If we want kids to be digital citizens, we must model that behavior for them," says Greenhow.

DIGITAL CITIZENS CONT.

As it stands now, however, most schools do the exact opposite, actively discouraging student use of social networking sites by blocking them on school computers -- sending the message that they are dangerous or inappropriate.

NETWORKING AWARENESS Educators studying social networking sites are just beginning to

develop ways to use them to teach social issues.

The biggest gift of social networking sites is the same thing that makes them such a danger -- the immediate ability to interact with so many strangers so different from themselves.

"If it turns out that, gee, people very different than me are also very like me in some ways, that doesn't automatically lead to a respect for others, but it can help with that and with a skilled teacher building those connections.“ said Dede

Greenhow suggests, they must take a page from social networking sites themselves and allow student to take an active part in the discussion. "The more we understand about what motivates and engages youth to use these technologies in their everyday lives," she says, "the more we will be able to build on what they are learning in school, so they are developing the 21st century competencies that we value, and co-learning or co-constructing their own educational experience.”

GETTING TO KNOW YOU…

Song from “The King & I”

ADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL NETWORKING

Advantages: Motivating: Gibbons(2010) found that students who

used a wiki to complete a writing assignment were more motivated and got more useful feedback then the group that followed more traditional writing process

Simple to get resources and information that could be too time or cost prohibitive to access otherwise

Access to communication partners, information outside of school day

CONCERNS ABOUT SOCIAL NETWORKING

Concerns: Cannot “read” people the same way as in person: no

intonation, voice volume, facial expression, gestures or other cues as to person’s intent or state of being.

Overlap with advantages: quick, simple, round-the clock access is not limited only to academic or socially appropriate content

Lack of awareness of and education about how to use appropriately and safely.

Safety: cyberbullying, predators/stalkers, identity theft.

Permanent nature of information posted: it does not go away.

SURVEY SAYS…

SURVEY OF INTERNET RISK AND BEHAVIOR (KITE, GALE, FILLIPELLI 2010):

A survey given to 7th and 8th grade students assessed the following:

View of and experience with social networks

Knowledge of appropriate behavior and possible risks

Bullying behaviors demonstrated by respondents

Frequency and type of internet use

SURVEY RESULTS

Only 37% thought a predator could use information they posted on-line to contact them further

Only 43% thought a predator could use on-line resources (I.e. Google earth) to locate their home or school

Only 54% thought that they could get in trouble for carrying out, at school, threats they made on-line.

Only 40% would inform an adult if they were contacted by a stranger

Only 44% would inform an adult if they received threatening or unkind messages

Only 57% would inform an adult if they were harassed by another student

A THIN LINE: 2009 AP-MTV DIGITAL ABUSE STUDY

(as reported in Siegel, 2010)Respondents were 14-24 years of age 75% thought that abuse via digital media was serious

problem for their age group Approximately only half considered it possible that

their posting could have harmful repercussions for themselves

24% stated they had been involved in “sexting” (posting or forwarding suggestive, nude, or explicitly sexual pictures)

61% of those who sent naked photos were pressured into doing so by someone else

Close to 20% who received sext messages forwarded them to someone else

PROBLEMATIC CYBER INTERACTIONS

Siegel, (2010), describes eight categories of harmful interactions developed by Nancy Willard:

1. Harassment: Threats or negative comments sent repeatedly

2. Denigration: Deliberately sending or posting information about a person to cause damage to his or her reputation or relationships

3. Impersonation: Sending or posting information in someone else’s name in order to damage that person’s relationships or reputation

4. Impersonation: Assuming someone else’s identity in order to send or post information that will have negative consequences for that person: damage to reputation, harm to relationships, lead to danger, cause person to get in trouble

CYBER INTERACTIONS, CONTINUED

5. Outing: Posting or sending confidential or potential embarrassing information or images about another person

6. Trickery: Manipulating a person into revealing confidential or potentially embarrassing information online

7. Exclusion: Deliberate and unkind exclusion of a person from an online group

8. Cyberstalking: Threatening, fear-inducing harassment, especially with denigrating content, that is intense and repeated

WHY IT MATTERS IN SOCIAL NETWORKING AND DIGITAL MEDIA Spreads exponentially: faster to larger number of

people All day, every day access and posting of information Not just words but video, photos Collier (2010) states it this way: “…persistence and searchability (the Net as a

permanent as searchable archive), replicability (the ability to copy and past from and to anywhere on the Net), scalability (potential visibility beyond the audience you have in mind), invisible audience (never really knowing who’s seeing/reading/watching what you post), and blurring of public and private (private from whom?).”

CATEGORIES FOR POTENTIAL HARM: AREAS FOR EDUCATION

Physical Psychological Life-long reputation or legal harm Identity, property, or online-communities stolen or

attacked (from Collier, 2010)

CONSEQUENTIALIST POV

Can provide character education.

Can help kids learn to be safe from online predators, bullies, and other harm from the internet.

Can help teachers promote safe behaviors both in and out of school.

Allows access to families they might not otherwise be able to reach.

NON-CONSEQUENTIALIST POV

It’s an invasion of student and teacher privacy

Ignore that social networking sites exist, much like previously done with sex education.

Social networking is prohibited at school; therefore, it is not a school issue.

WHY CAN’T WE BE FRIENDS?

--Song by WAR

EFFECTS IN THE CLASSROOM

Social networking is affecting how students write in class which concerns teachers. Students are using “chat” like conversations in their writing in place of correct grammar. Using lol, dk, idk, gr8, in place of the actual words.

Students are spending hours online communicating with friends which affects their ability to focus in class and complete homework assignments. The results are that more students who are involved in social networking have poorer grades.

IS IT WISE TO PARTICIPATE IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE?

If a teacher does participate in one of the over 100 social networking sites on the Internet, here are three questions to consider: Is your social network site open to anyone? Do you allow students to be your “friend"? Will anything on your social networking site be

embarrassing if found by a student, parent of a student or a supervisor?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you may want to re-think participating in the social networking site.

Ultimately, sites like Facebook are social environments. Teachers guide students in a professional capacity, and being social doesn’t seem like part of the job description.

THE REALITY

Social networking web sites are here to stay, serving many purposes that, generally, are beneficial.

With the advances in internet communication, school boards and administrators must address crucial issues involving professional deportment relative to such media.

Proactive, published policies may go a long way in preventing avoidable staff confrontations and possible litigation. Seminars covering such issues should be a part of on-going professional development as well as mandatory for new-teacher orientation sessions.

GOT TO BE REAL

Real Life Examples

--Song by Cheryl Lynn

PRIVACY INVADED

Facebook and other social networking Web sites help people reconnect with old friends and keep in touch with former classmates, but they also can give students unprecedented access to the private lives of their teachers.

Teachers are very aware of the damage inappropriate online postings can have on their careers - but what one person considers inappropriate might be deemed well within bounds by someone else

A teacher was forced to resign when a student found pictures of her drinking and playing a bingo game that spells out a curse word.

SOCIAL NETWORKING CAN CREATE PROBLEMS FOR TEACHERS

A middle school teacher last year posted on his Facebook page that he hated his students and his job. When district leaders found out, they suspended him for five days. The local teachers’ union is fighting a Manatee County School District policy proposal that would govern how teachers and other employees can use Facebook and other online social networks.

As internet communication increases, school systems and boards must grapple with privacy issues that affect professional standards of behavior by teachers.

STACY SNYDER

Stacy Snyder, lost her chance to obtain a degree in education because of a photo she posted on her MySpace page. The photo was of her dressed in a pirate costume, with the caption “drunken pirate.” Snyder sued the university and lost. Millersville University, ultimately made its decision to give

Snyder, an English degree, instead of a degree in Education, based on her overall performance as well as the photo posted on her MySpace page (Perez, 2008).

TAMARA HOOVER Tamara Hoover, a high school art teacher was fired for

nude photos posted on a photographer’s website. The photographer had taken the photos and posted the photos on her professional website as art. When school administrators became aware of the photos posted on a public website, Hoover was fired from her teaching position (May, 2006).

JOHN BUSH

John Bush, middle school PE teacher, was fired for photos and posts he had put on his MySpace page. School officials “conceded that the online content was not pornographic, but contained information parents would not want their children to know about their teacher.” (Florida Teacher Fired Over MySpace Page, 2007)

ANU PRABHAKARA Anu Prabhakara, a middle school foreign language

teacher, was put under investigation after a posting

she made on her MySpace page. Prabhakara, had complained about a certain student and this student’s parent. Other students in Prabhakara’s class read the posts. Parents complained to administration that Prabhakara “crossed the line” between student/teacher interaction causing an investigation into her conduct (Carvin, 2007).

ASHLEY PAYNE Ashley Payne, high school English teacher, resigned

from her position after an anonymous email was sent to administration with concerns about the photos and posts on her Facebook page. The anonymous email stated that Payne had inappropriate content on her page and that one of her students had access to and seen this content on Payne’s Facebook page. According to Payne, she did not have any students as “friends” on her Facebook page (Melandon, 2010).

CONSEQUENCES FOR STUDENTS Abstract:

On February 18, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit (covering Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands) handed down rulings in two different cases involving regulation of student speech when that speech takes place online and off campus. The rulings--one that favored the school district defendant and the other that favored the student plaintiff--have added to existing confusion over whether schools may legally regulate student speech when such speech takes place online, but off campus. In 2005, using his grandmother's computer during nonschool hours, a high school student created a fake Internet profile of his principal on the social networking site MySpace. The parody, which contained a real photo of the principal, contained answers to profile questions that were written by the student in such a way as to mock the principal. Later that year during an investigation, the student admitted to creating the profile and apologized to school officials both verbally and in a letter. Later, following a hearing, the student was found guilty of an array of infractions. The student received a 10-day suspension from school and was placed in an in-school alternative education program for the remainder of the school year.

CONSEQUENCES FOR STUDENTS CONT. Consequently, the student's parents filed suit against the school district alleging, among

other things, violation of their son's constitutional right to free speech. In ruling in favor of the student ("Layschock v. Hermitage School District, 2010"), the court reasoned that school officials have less authority to regulate speech and expression that takes place off campus than speech that occurs on school grounds. On the same day as the "Layschock" decision, a three-judge panel also in the 3rd Circuit handed down a 2-1 ruling in favor of a school district that had disciplined a student for off-campus, online speech. In the case, "J. S. v. Blue Mountain School District (2010)," a middle school student was suspended from school for 10 days after eventually admitting that she used her home computer to create a phony MySpace profile that was designed to mock her school's principal. The student included a legitimate photograph of the principal on the profile page, accompanied by "profanity-laced statements insinuating that [the principal] was a sex addict and pedophile." The student's parents filed suit, arguing that the school district violated the Constitution when it punished the student for out-of-school conduct that did not cause a disruption of classes. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the school district. They found that although the student created the profile off campus and her behavior did not cause a substantial and material disruption of the school environment, the school district did not violate the student's First Amendment rights by disciplining the student because of "the facts of the case and because the lewd and vulgar off-campus speech [on the profile] had an effect on-campus." These rulings demonstrate that there is much debate over whether the ability to regulate lewd and profane student speech applies to off-campus speech, and about what type of disruption is significant enough to justify school official's regulation of off-campus student speech. Consequently, school administrators should continue to tread carefully in these matters.

CYBER SAFETY EDUCATION: RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS

www.cyberbullying.us www.cyberbully.org www.athinline.org www.cybersmartcurriculum.org California cyber education and safety program

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