NAVIGATING THE MINEFIELD OF TECHNOLOGY & SOCIAL MEDIA

Presented by

Mary Angela Shaughnessy, SCN, J.D., Ph.D.

Our School Days

Think back …

Slide rule

Electronic calculators

Record players

Filmstrip projectors

Some with records!

The Opaque Projector

The Ditto Machine

Transistor Radios

Telephone

including pay phones

DO YOU REMEMBER?

NOW School Days

• Cell phones

• iPods/Nanos/Shuffles

• Laptops & Desktops

• Ipads

• Text Messaging

• Cell phone Cameras

• Video internet

• Digital Cameras

• www.Facebook.com

• www.MySpace.com

• www.youtube.com

• Etc…

Cookies in the olden days…

Cookies today…

• A text string that identifies a specific computer visiting a specific website

– How long the user stays there

– What the user does

– Stored on the user’s computer

– Will identify that computer at a later visit

– Can be used to link stored information at visited sites with personal computer/user

Cyberspace and Students Today

• Adept

• Accustomed

• Adoptive

• Communicative

• “Acceptable loners”

Acceptable Loners

• Research indicates students use the Internet for: – socialization

– Instant friendships

– Imaginary intimacy

– Safety

– Financial purchases

– This is also what the rest of us may use the internet for!

Grooming via the Internet

• Microsoft and Xbox: embedded messages

• Parental controls easily bypassed

• Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft, Chess, Checkers… “partner” games via internet

Plugged In Kids

• 82% of kids across USA are online by seventh grade 2

• 6.5 hours per day!

• Through “media multitasking” kids actually do 8.5 hours per day

• Lack prudence concerning technology use

• See technology as “safe”

• Have fun with technology

– But do not readily understand dangers

• 2 Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005

Technology & Supervision

• Adults feel “tethered” to technology – Survey: 2,134 adults 3 – 96% used email, internet, cell phones – 46% of these both love & hate technology simultaneously – 50% said they check work email on weekends – 25% check work email while on vacation

• Utilization is paired with resentment • What is “mastered” by adults is fun for children • Parents feel kids “need” to be in touch 24/7 • Kids in school “need” a cell phone for safety!

3 Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2008

SCHOLAR, GEEK, OR LONER?

Where can students go for help?

• Teachers

• Friends

• Counselors

• Help/Crisis Lines

• Facebook/MySpace: what is the attraction?

Bullying

• Has anything really changed?

school yard bullies

cyber bullies

WHAT IF I DON’T FIT IN?

WILL I EVER FIT IN?

Teachers and Social Media

• Don’t I have rights?

• Why can’t I befriend my students?

• If I do something outside school, why should it be anyone’s business but mine?

• Can’t anyone take a joke anymore?

PRIVACY: does it even exist?

Legal right to • Communicate with whom I wish?

• Whenever I wish?

• As long as I wish?

• About whatever I wish?

So, let’s see what we know.

Question #1

• Check the statements that apply to Catholic and other private schools. – The United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights

guarantees rights to students and teachers in Catholic and other private schools.

– Statutory law can apply to both public and private schools.

– Legal and moral boundaries apply in Internet and e mail interaction, even though no physical contact occurs.

– Federal laws, such as the Communication Decency Act, currently protects students from pornography.

Question #2

Please mark True or False. • Since current law does not adequately address e-mail,

teachers cannot be held liable for what they write in e-mail. • Internet Service Providers will give the real name and

address of persons using an e-mail address, if a school makes the request and provides an e-mail address.

• Schools should reserve the right to discipline students for conduct on or off school property.

• Teachers can be held liable for one student’s harassment of another, if the teacher knew or should have known that harassment was occurring.

Question 3

If a student tells you that he or she is being stalked via the Internet, Facebook/MySpace, etc., check appropriate actions to take.

a. Ask the student to bring in a copy of the e-mail or pages.

b. Call the student’s parent. c. Tell the student that nothing can be done until

there’s an attempt to cause actual physical harm. d. Tell the principal.

Question #4

Your sister sends an e-mail containing some off-color jokes to your school e-mail account. They don’t seem pornographic to you. Which of the following actions that would be acceptable to take?

• Forward to a couple of your friends on the faculty but tell them to delete immediately after reading.

• Forward only to e-mail addresses off campus. • Ignore it. • Ask your sister to stop sending these to you at school or

you will have to block her e mails to you. • Tell the principal what happened and that you have

instructed your sister to stop sending such e-mails to you.

Question #5

Mark the following statements TRUE or FALSE. a. Schools have the same legal right to search

computers as they do to search lockers. b. Searching student and teacher computers is one

way of trying to keep students safe. c. Schools have no right to block student access to

materials on the Internet. d. A school’s first legal concern should be student

safety.

Question #6

You have learned that a few of the baseball players have a blog on MySpace. One of the players who does not participate in the blog reports that boys rate the girls in the school on a 1-10 basis. Next, they are planning to rate, he says, “boobs and butts.” Mark the items that are accurate statements of the law.

a. The school has no right to take any action with regard to what students do off campus on their own computers. b. If nobody gets physically hurt, there is no legal issue. c. Students who do such things must be thrown out of the school. d. School administrators can discipline students for behavior that occurs outside school if such behavior could be or is detrimental

to the reputation of the school.

Question #7

Complete the following sentence with the most appropriate answer.

Blogging is _____________

a. often illegal.

b. not available to persons under the age of 21.

c. can involve federal, as well as, state law.

d. easily erased.

Question #8

Mark each statement TRUE or FALSE. • One of the best ways teachers can help students understand the dangers

associated with blogs like MySpace and facebook is to get a blog of one’s own and communicate with the students through it.

• Students cannot be held responsible for posting statements about

teachers on the web if they never say they believe the statements. • It is acceptable for a teacher to have students on his or her home e-mail

buddy list. • Before communicating with a minor student via e-mail, a teacher should

think about whether he/she would be comfortable if another teacher were communicating with his/her child, niece, nephew, grandchild, etc. in the same manner.

TRUE OR FALSE

• 1. The laws governing social media are well-established.

• 2. If a teacher or student uses his/her home computer to send or post inappropriate or defamatory material, the school can take no action.

• 3. Catholic schools have no obligation to deal with student or teacher Internet or social media behavior.

True or False (con.)

• 4. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in e-mail, social media or Internet sites visited in a school or parish.

• 5. Catholic educators should not have Facebook accounts.

• Now, let’s test your Social Media IQ by answering True or False.

TRUE or FALSE?

1. It is impossible to send an “anonymous” email.

2. A person’s password is always safe if it is “strong” enough.

3. I am the only person who can post messages on my Facebook page.

4. As a teacher, I have no responsibility for what students post on their Facebook page about my school or my class.

Teachers have no responsibility to address threatening or bullying remarks by one student against another as long as those remarks are made on social media (e.g. Facebook).

•

• Persons who post messages on Facebook (or any social media) have no responsibility for the actions of anyone who reads those messages.

•

• Instant messages on a cellphone are not available to anyone except the person using the cellphone.

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Still good law. . .