Jesse Miller of Mediated Reality came to speak to EDCI 336 on October 4, 2019, to talk with us about aspects of social media we might want to consider as beginning teachers.

Jesse asked us to consider what private means?  When you post something  online you have to think about where it might end up.  For example, screen shots can be taken of anything and distributed widely even if the information originated on someone’s private page.  Private texts can even be distributed this way.  Because of this we need to think about our digital identity.  Are we differentiating between social, professional and personal communication networks?  And how are we keeping our professional network separate from our personal and social networks?  Jesse suggested that there are 3 audiences for social media use by educators…

  • public/parents
  • staff
  • students

… and that we should be wary of crossing boundaries between these audiences.  Think about who should be your friends on social media.  Drawing the line at students and their families seems like a good place to start.

Jesse also mentioned the importance of understanding the school expectations and policies of the employer.  Many businesses have not caught up legally around issues of employees posting images in and of  their place of work.

Parts of this lecture that resonated with me personally were around one’s public digital identity and the fact that anything one puts online should be done with thoughtful intention.  I think too many times people post  without any thought at all or post from an emotionally charged place.  As uncomfortable as I am with social media culture, I can see the value in being aware of it and having knowledge of it.   As a teacher I need to be aware of the social networking environments my students are trying to navigate within so I can understand and help them with that.