Teacher Suspended in Facebook Incident

Okay, admittedly this is old news, but I'm only hearing it now. Apparently, a teacher in a public school posted a comment to her Facebook page, thinking her profile was set to private, when in fact it was public. I'm guessing she wasn't a technology teacher. Or maybe I'm hoping she's not. At any rate, she was suspended. I read about it in T.H.E. Journal article "Suspended Teacher In Facebook Incident Ignites Debate." Of course there is some responsibility on the teacher's part for learning how to use a tool before posting sensitive information. But on the other hand, I think this is a perfect illustration of how our students fall into these same kinds of situations. They are not taught at school the correct ways to keep their information private, these subjects are taboo, and the Web sites blocked out. That kind of thinking produces adults who make mistakes like this one! My school blocks these sites out, but that's because of school policy, not my policy. I try my best to teach the students about it anyway through demonstration. I'm just not sure how much responsibility lies with the parents. Wouldn't you say most of it? Or no?

Hey, Blocking's Not So Bad!

Google Images has become a minefield for technology teachers in elementary schools. We use Internet images for so many different projects, and honestly, most projects just are not as compelling without graphic components. So of course, we have been using the most simple way to find images--Google images. However, I've noticed that in the past few years there are more and more inappropriate pictures popping up on even the most innocuous searches. This week, the inevitable occurred. Some boys figured out that if you search for girls' names and click down a few pages, you're going to find something "cool!" They were doing this at indoor recess at their classroom computers, gaggled together so that teachers on duty could not necessarily see what they were doing. I checked the history and sure enough, they had seen some scantily clad women.

My instinct was NOT to block. My instinct is never to block. I like to try to explain, to discuss. My friend Barry is dating a teacher at another school and she explained her school's philosophy to me this weekend. She said that the kids are actually MORE thoughtful about their image searches when they use Google Web search, then visit the page itself, rather than having Google aggregate for them. I realized she was right. So, I'm going to be blocking Google Images out of our school computers this winter break. But honestly, I think it's going to mean our children do a better job of finding images.

Image credit: www.netbus.org