@izzythepush,
Quote:Private meetingsd on the rare occasions that they have to happen, and it's very rare, can be conducted within earshot of another teacher. It is completely different from developing a non-professional relationship with a pupil on social media.
BillRM completely missed the point of the article in the opening post, and consequently, the reason for this thread. And, no matter how many times it is repeated to him, he still doesn't get it.
Quote:Faced with scandals and complaints involving teachers who misuse social media, school districts across the country are imposing strict new guidelines that ban private conversations between teachers and their students on cellphones and online platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
The policies come as educators deal with a wide range of new problems. Some teachers have set poor examples by posting lurid comments or photographs involving sex or alcohol on social media sites. Some have had inappropriate contact with students that blur the teacher-student boundary. In extreme cases, teachers and coaches have been jailed on sexual abuse and assault charges after having relationships with students that, law enforcement officials say, began with electronic communication.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/business/media/rules-to-limit-how-teachers-and-students-interact-online.html?hpw
The concern in that article is not about teachers who might already be pedophiles using social media and electronic communications as an additional way of seducing students into inappropriate relationships--although that seems to be how BillRM is looking at it. That's why he foolishly says things like it's safer to have the teacher communicate by electronic means than in face to face contact with students in school. If that teacher is really a pedophile, it wouldn't be safe to have him/her around students, or communicating with students in any way, period.
But, the topic really isn't about pedophile teachers, it's more about how the social media and electronic communications, by their very nature, can lure some teachers into inappropriately social relationships with students and how this might, in some instances, mushroom out of bounds, and out of control. Because the social media sites already encourage a certain amount of exhibitionism, and already blur the distinctions between the personal and the private, they might become a mine field for a teacher who indiscreetly posts private information about themselves a student might view, or who becomes overly chummy with students on a Facebook page and blurs professional boundaries with students.
These things are real concerns for the teachers who see benefits in using the social media, but also realize the need for guidelines and rules to prevent harm to anyone, including themselves. BillRM is ignoring the fact that the impetus for these rules is coming from the teachers and school districts--they want, not just their students, but the professionalism of teaching protected. Fashioning rules for social media use by teachers is not unlike setting speed limits for traffic, in both instances the goal would be to try to prevent unfortunate and unnecessary reckless accidents, things that were unintended, but could wind up causing harm.
Since BillRM seems unaware of the dynamics of social media use, as well as how public school teachers currently use the social media, his comments, as usual, are out in left field and quite off the mark of the topic. And the fact that he disregards your experiences and comments, as a teacher, highlights the fact that he isn't interested in learning anything either.
You are just plain nuts! And your obsession with me is bizarre.