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One of the Three R’s of Teacher Blogging is Going to be Restricting
Filed Under Behaviour Management, Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Computers In The Classroom, The Way I See It
Recently, I participated in The Dangerously Irrelevant 2007 Blogosphere Survey and talked about why Everyday is Professional Development Day in the Educational Blogosphere. So it was with much interest that I read Jennifer Radcliffe’s article A new school of bloggers . The article outlines reasons why some teachers blog -to vent about the profession and also notes that policy regarding blogging is being developed by school districts.
While the district does not have the authority to prevent district employees from subscribing to these types of applications from their homes or from exercising their rights to free speech, employees are held accountable for adhering to the state code of ethics for educators,” wrote Lenny Schad, Katy’s deputy superintendent for information and technology services. ( Lenny Schad, deputy superintendent for information and technology services Katy School District, Houston Area)
No doubt over time all school boards will develop policy regarding blogging for their teachers and administators, or all employees for that matter. I’ve heard that my school board is in the process of doing this. It will be interesting to see what develops. Given that we are being encouraged to be life-long learners, and given that blogs are an excellent source of information , reading and writing blogs should be encouraged as a form of professional development. I certainly see it that way. I’ve learned a lot.
As far as policy for blogging goes, I wish I could say “Why don’t we just let common sense prevail”, except that common sense isn’t that common. I think the position on blogging Gail Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers articulates is a sensible one
… districts can’t restrict teachers from commenting on public matters.
They can, however, forbid teachers from revealing students’ identities or from using taxpayer resources for personal pursuits.
“They have an absolute right to blog,” Fallon said. “Just not on school time, not on school computers — even if it’s lunch, it’s still a school computer.”
I wonder what my Federation’s policy is? I’m going to check that out. Will I have to do that using my cell phone at lunch tomorrow?
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At Learning and Teaching Scotland we made a policy for internal use which East Lothian Council have now taken and adapted for students and teachers. It’s available to pillage over here:
http://edubuzz.pbwiki.com/eduBuzzSupport
Thanks, I’ve had a chance to look at the policy and and think I could live with it. It’s not unreasonable. I hope to have my students blogging in two weeks so the student guidelines are useful. Today at school, I tried to set up a multiuser blog with Word Press, but the board blocked their e-mail to me. Frustrating to say the least.
Always better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission Elona
Seriously, this is a really relevant question about blog use by students and teachers alike. My current school district doesn’t have a specific status on blogs. However, I’m sure it won’t be long until a ‘case’ comes forward somewhere in the province.