Podcast Intro and Digital Citizenship-Are we responsible?

This is the first episode of the podcast and as such I wanted to explain what this podcast is about. This is a show about education and will cover a variety of topics related to education. The title for this show and my blog comes from a quote attributed to Albert Einstein “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what then is an empty desk a sign.”

As anyone involved in education knows, the issues surrounding it are very complex, overlapping and cluttered. This show is my attempt to clear some of the clutter. So each cast will cover some topic in a brief manner if possible. Some of my favorite podcasts are roughly 10-20 minutes in length and I would like to stick to that model. This way you can listen during your planning period, lunch break or commute to and from work.

Just to give you some background on me and my experience in education, I have been a middle school math, 5ht & 6th grade math, science, social studies, and language arts teacher, tech coach, professional development facilitator, elementary principal, secondary assistant principal and district technology coordinator. So I have experience across multiple disciplines in addition to all the other useless knowledge rattling around in my brain.

One thing that has been on my mind lately is our responsibility as educators to our students. What is it we are required to do for them and required to get them to do? This is a very complex topic. I am sure I will revisit this in later episodes.

For this episode in particular, I want to look at digital citizenship. What are we expected to model for our students? To narrow it down even more, let's look at social media. Whether you realize it or not they are watching you online and learning from you. In the news we are constantly seeing stories about some teacher doing something inappropriate or illegal with a student often times it begins online in some manner. It saddens me that this behavior occurs in our profession, but that isn’t really what I want to focus on here. I really want to look more closely at how we converse online.

I know you have probably witnessed it on twitter or facebook at one point or another. You have probably witnessed it this week. Something negative happens to someone and instantly they take to social media to complain. All of their “friends” chime in and offer their two cents worth on the event. This could be in the form of bashing the offending party, demanding the user seek retribution or even tagging a local news station in the post in order to draw extra attention to the problem. This usually results in the issue being very one sided and not only that often times the one being accused is in a position that they can’t offer a comment without violating privacy laws or personnel laws. So the negative image persists. It would be great if comment could be offered to clarify the point, but that is seldom possible.

This type of behavior is what our students are seeing modeled online and institutions cannot rectify the situation.

But what about other situations and other ways we model behavior for our students? I recently stumbled on a thread in which two people I follow that are in other parts of the country had a rather Heated exchange as the result of what one probably intended as a fairly innocuous comment that was maybe taken out of context or the original meaning may have had more read into it then was initially applied. That is one of the problems we have with social media. Unless you are using video, there is no great way to indicate the tone you are intending with your comments, so it is left up to the reader to interpret that tone. We all know that three people can read the same paragraph and come away thinking very different things about the author’s intent for the piece. Punctuation helps convey that message, but often times when there are limited characters punctuation is the first to go. This leaves each of us in a very precarious position when we read posts on social media and if we are not careful we can easily become offended by the remarks of others.

I can’t say for certainty that this is what happened here. In fact, I think it could easily be argued that both parties were at fault in the conversation I read.

Back to my original point, as educators what are we modeling for our students. Do we carefully craft our words in a way so that they cannot be misconstrued? Or do we nonchalantly comment on everything that pops into our mind? If we are doing the former, we may never be able to comment safely online, and if we are doing the latter then we are a person that has no filter or someone that is offended by everything and thinks every comment is a personal attack. We should always keep in mind how a comment will be taken, but not be so consumed by it that we are paralyzed and never comment. We should also not be like the kid on the playground that thinks just because someone looks in their direction that they are talking about them or making fun of them.

As educators we need to think a little before we comment online. For my part I intend to be more positive with my posts. If I do have an issue with something it is with the idea or the action and not the person. I don’t want to be attacking other people online, but return to conversation. That is something that we seem to have lost in this age. We are no longer able to converse or debate without being offended. I like the exchange of ideas and if someone has one contrary to what I have, I can share my point without being snarky or sarcastic and should work to avoid responding that way. This is a behavior that our students need to see modeled, especially in a day when social media is dominated by those that are consistently ridiculing and demeaning others.

So, how do we do this? I think we have to approach it from a couple of angles. First, think about what you say. You don’t always have to say something, in fact I think we should all live by Proverbs 17:28 which says “Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.” There is a time to say something, but most of the time we don’t need to say anything because it will further inflame the situation. The second way we can approach this is to focus on the positive things you can say. If someone responds negatively, don’t respond in a negative way but instead find a way to point out the positive.