WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND?
Aleesha Paddleford
Cathi VanKirk
Melissa Moore
Terri Wright
Tony Perkins
Vanessa Roets
MORAL ISSUES WITH SOCIAL NETWORKING
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With the rise in popularity of social networking students
and teachers are facing new moral and ethical dilemma's.
Should teachers and students be friends on the same social
network?
What are the advantages and risks of taking part in social
networking with students?
WHAT IS A SOCIAL NETWORK?
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Social network sites (SNS) are web-based services that
allow individuals to:
 (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a
bounded system
 (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share
a connection
 (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those
made by others within the system
 (Boyd & Ellison, 2008)
2010
TIMELINE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS
2006
2004
2003
2002
1997
1995
1990
Facebook (worldwide), Twitter
Facebook (Harvard)
LinkedIn, MySpace
Friendster: Find circle of friends based on
similar interests.
SixDegrees: Circle of friends based on connections
Classmates: Find & communicate friends from past
AOL: Create personal profiles that other members can find
1970
Bulletin Board System (BBS) Local networks created to share text/notes.
THE EARLY YEARS…
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1970’s: Create social networks as alternative communication
strategy & share files in the workplace
1990’s: Interest in Social Networks expands with the increase of
Internet users.
 Interest shifts to making connections with people (known or
unknown) and initiating communication
2003: Social Networks focus on established circle of friends instead
of creating circles from the unknown.
FUNCTIONS OF A SOCIAL NETWORK
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Communicate with friends, family, co-workers by:
 Post public status or announcement
 Instant Message
 Post pictures & video
 Comment on other’s profile or comments
 Games & Quizzes (Results are posted for people to see)
On many of the large [Social Network Systems] SNSs,
participants are not necessarily “networking” or looking to meet
new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with
people who are already a part of their extended social network
(Boyd & Ellison, 2008).
Users all around the world--regardless of their site of choice--were
divulging their deepest thoughts, fears and desires in rapid
exchanges to as few as one and as many as one million people at
once. Finally, widgets added connectivity to MySpace, Facebook
and virtually every other social-networking Web site, and tied
everything--and everyone—together (Simon, 2009).
TODAY’S POPULAR SOCIAL NETWORKS
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LinkIn: Networking resource for businesspeople who want to
connect with other professionals. Today, LinkedIn boasts more
than 30 million members.
MySpace: Focuses on the young adult demographic with music,
music videos, and a funky, feature-filled environment. About 90
million users.
Facebook: Opened to the general public in 2006. Currently
boasts in excess of 150 million users.
Twitter: Essentially a micro-blogging "What are you doing at the
moment?" site where users keep contacts informed of everyday
events by posting from their computer or handheld device.
(Nickson, 2009)
What started as a note system with a dozen or so users has evolved
into a global phenomenon with hundreds of millions of users
reaching nearly every corner in the world. From elaborate,
graphics-intensive personal pages to brief, brisk bulletins, the
explosion of social networking sites has succeeded in bringing
people closer together as the restless masses stand on the
mountaintop, waiting for the next revolution.
(Simon, 2009)
OH THE PLACE WE WILL GO…
--Dr Seuss
LOOK HOW FAR WE’VE COME…
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Or have we? Perhaps people should consider a few of
George Washington’s Rules of Civility before they post
anything.
3d Shew Nothing to your Friend that may affright him.
45th Being to advise or reprehend any one, consider
whether it ought to be in publick or in Private;
81st Be not Curious to Know the Affairs of Others neither
approach those that speak in private.
HARNESS THE NETWORKS
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"We read a lot in the media about how young people are
using social networking sites with harmful results," agrees
Christine Greenhow
"The question is, can we harness this interest and passion
in their online lives for educational purposes?“ Greenhow
not only found an increasing awareness by Sommers and
other students of the potential of these sites to express
their creativity and explore their interests, but also the
potential to complement lessons in more formal educational
settings -- if teachers can just figure out how to use them.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
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If that is going to be possible, however, first teachers must
learn from the students' mindsets -- that is, rolling up their
sleeves and creating Facebook profile themselves.
Demographics are working in teachers' favor, as the
fastest-growing group of Facebook users, for example, is 25
and older.
In between reconnecting with high school friends and
uploading their own vacation photos, a teacher might begin
to understand why students find these sites so attractive -and perhaps come up organically with ideas for using them
in class.
DIGITAL CITIZENS
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Perhaps even more important than the impact of social
networking on the classroom, however is the impact that
the classroom can have on social networking, by teaching
students how to be responsible "digital citizens" online.
At their most basic level, these sites can be launching
points to discussions on Internet ethics. "If we want kids to
be digital citizens, we must model that behavior for them,"
says Greenhow.
DIGITAL CITIZENS CONT.
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As it stands now, however, most schools do the exact
opposite, actively discouraging student use of social
networking sites by blocking them on school computers -sending the message that they are dangerous or
inappropriate.
NETWORKING AWARENESS
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Educators studying social networking sites are just beginning to develop
ways to use them to teach social issues.
The biggest gift of social networking sites is the same thing that makes
them such a danger -- the immediate ability to interact with so many
strangers so different from themselves.
"If it turns out that, gee, people very different than me are also very like
me in some ways, that doesn't automatically lead to a respect for others,
but it can help with that and with a skilled teacher building those
connections.“ said Dede
Greenhow suggests, they must take a page from social networking sites
themselves and allow student to take an active part in the discussion.
"The more we understand about what motivates and engages youth to use
these technologies in their everyday lives," she says, "the more we will be
able to build on what they are learning in school, so they are developing
the 21st century competencies that we value, and co-learning or coconstructing their own educational experience."
GETTING TO KNOW YOU…
The King & I Lyrics
ADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL NETWORKING
Advantages:
 Motivating: Gibbons(2010) found that students who used a
wiki to complete a writing assignment were more
motivated and got more useful feedback then the group
that followed more traditional writing process
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Simple to get resources and information that could be too
time or cost prohibitive to access otherwise
Access to communication partners, information outside of
school day
CONCERNS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING
Concerns:
 Overlap with advantages: quick, simple, round-the clock
access is not limited only to academic or socially
appropriate content
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Lack of awareness of and education about how to use
appropriately and safely.
Safety: cyberbullying, predators/stalkers, identity theft.
Permanent nature of information posted: it does not go
away.
SURVEY SAYS…
SURVEY OF INTERNET RISK AND BEHAVIOR
(KITE, GALE, FILLIPELLI 2010):
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A survey given to 7th and 8th grade students assessed the
following:

View of and experience with social networks
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Knowledge of appropriate behavior and possible risks
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Bullying behaviors demonstrated by respondents
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Frequency and type of internet use
SURVEY RESULTS
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Only 37% thought a predator could use information they
posted on-line to contact them further
Only 43% thought a predator could use on-line resources
(I.e. Google earth) to locate their home or school
Only 54% thought that they could get in trouble for
carrying out, at school, threats they made on-line.
Only 40% would inform an adult if they were contacted by
a stranger
Only 44% would inform an adult if they received
threatening or unkind messages
Only 57% would inform an adult if they were harassed by
another student
A THIN LINE: 2009 AP-MTV DIGITAL ABUSE
STUDY
(as reported in Siegel, 2010)
Respondents were 14-24 years of age
 75% thought that abuse via digital media was serious
problem for their age group
 Approximately only half considered it possible that their
posting could have harmful repercussions for themselves
 24% stated they had been involved in “sexting” (posting or
forwarding suggestive, nude, or explicitly sexual pictures)
 61% of those who sent naked photos were pressured into
doing so by someone else
 Close to 20% who received sext messages forwarded them
to someone else
PROBLEMATIC CYBER INTERACTIONS
Siegel, (2010), describes eight categories of harmful
interactions developed by Nancy Willard:
1. Harassment: Threats or negative comments sent
repeatedly
2. Denigration: Deliberately sending or posting information
about a person to cause damage to his or her reputation or
relationships
3. Impersonation: Sending or posting information in someone
else’s name in order to damage that person’s relationships
or reputation
4. Impersonation: Assuming someone else’s identity in order
to send or post information that will have negative
consequences for that person: damage to reputation, harm
to relationships, lead to danger, cause person to get in
trouble
CYBER INTERACTIONS, CONTINUED
5.
6.
7.
8.
Outing: Posting or sending confidential or potential
embarrassing information or images about another person
Trickery: Manipulating a person into revealing
confidential or potentially embarrassing information
online
Exclusion: Deliberate and unkind exclusion of a person
from an online group
Cyberstalking: Threatening, fear-inducing
harrassment, especially with denigrating content, that is
intense and repeated
WHY IT MATTERS IN SOCIAL NETWORKING
AND DIGITAL MEDIA
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Spreads exponentially: faster to larger number of people
All day, every day access and posting of information
Not just words but video, photos
Collier (2010) states it this way:
“…persistence and searchability (the Net as a permanent
as searchable archive), replicability (the ability to copy and
past from and to anywhere on the Net), scalability
(potential visibility beyond the audience you have in mind),
invisible audience (never really knowing who’s
seeing/reading/watching what you post), and blurring of
public and private (private from whom?).
EDUCATION NEEDED FOR PROTECTION
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Physical
Psychological
Life-long reputation or legal harm
Identity, property, or online-communities stolen or
attacked (from Collier, 2010)
CONSEQUENTIALIST POV
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Can provide character education.
Can help kids learn to be safe from online predators,
bullies, and other harm from the internet.
Can help teachers promote safe behaviors both in and out
of school.
Allows access to families they might not otherwise be able
to reach.
NON-CONSEQUENTIALIST POV
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It’s an invasion of student and teacher privacy
Ignore that social networking sites exist, much like
previously done with sex education.
Social networking is prohibited at school; therefore, it is not
a school issue.
WHY CAN’T WE BE FRIENDS?
--Song by WAR
EFFECTS IN THE CLASSROOM
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Social networking is affecting how students write in class
which concerns teachers. Students are using “chat” like
conversations in their writing in place of correct grammar.
Using lol, dk, idk, gr8, in place of the actual words.
Students are spending hours online communicating with
friends which affects their ability to focus in class and
complete homework assignments. The results are that
more students who are involved in social networking have
poorer grades.
IS IT WISE TO PARTICIPATE IN A SOCIAL
NETWORKING SITE?
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If a teacher does participate in one of the over 100 social
networking sites on the Internet, here are three questions
to consider:
 Is your social network site open to anyone?
 Do you allow students to be your “friend"?
 Will anything on your social networking site be
embarrassing if found by a student, parent of a student
or a supervisor?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you
may want to re-think participating in the social networking
site.
Ultimately, sites like Facebook are social environments.
Teachers guide students in a professional capacity, and
being social doesn’t seem like part of the job description.
THE REALITY
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Social networking web sites are here to stay, serving many
purposes that, generally, are beneficial.
With the advances in internet communication, school
boards and administrators must address crucial issues
involving professional deportment relative to such media.
Proactive, published policies may go a long way in
preventing avoidable staff confrontations and possible
litigation. Seminars covering such issues should be a part
of on-going professional development as well as mandatory
for new-teacher orientation sessions.
GOT TO BE REAL
Real Life Examples
--Cheryl Lynn Lyrics
PRIVACY INVADED
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Facebook and other social networking Web sites help
people reconnect with old friends and keep in touch with
former classmates, but they also can give students
unprecedented access to the private lives of their teachers.
A teacher was forced to resign when a student found
pictures of her drinking and playing a bingo game that
spells out a curse word.
Teachers are very aware of the damage inappropriate
online postings can have on their careers - but what one
person considers inappropriate might be deemed well
within bounds by someone else.
SOCIAL NETWORKING CAN CREATE PROBLEMS
FOR TEACHERS
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A middle school teacher last year posted on his Facebook
page that he hated his students and his job. When district
leaders found out, they suspended him for five days. The
local teachers’ union is fighting a Manatee County School
District policy proposal that would govern how teachers
and other employees can use Facebook and other online
social networks.
As internet communication increases, school systems and
boards must grapple with privacy issues that affect
professional standards of behavior by teachers.
STACY SNYDER
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Stacy Snyder, lost her chance to obtain a degree in
education because of a photo she posted on her MySpace
page. The photo was of her dressed in a pirate costume,
with the caption “drunken pirate.” Snyder sued the
university and lost. Millersville University, ultimately
made its decision to give Snyder, an English degree instead
of a degree in Education based on her overall performance
as well as the photo posted on her MySpace page (Perez,
2008).
TAMARA HOOVER
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Tamara Hoover, an Art high school teacher was fired for
nude photos posted on a photographer’s website. The
photographer had taken the photos and posted the photos
on her professional website as art. When school
administrators became aware of the photos posted on a
public website, Hoover was fired from her teaching position
(May, 2006).
JOHN BUSH
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John Bush, middle school PE teacher, was fired for photos
and posts he had put on his MySpace page. School officials
“conceded that the online content was not pornographic,
but contained information parents would not want their
children to know about their teacher.” It was because of
these posting, Bush was fired from his position (Florida
Teacher Fired Over MySpace Page, 2007)
ANU PRABHAKARA
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Anu Prabhakara, a middle school foreign language teacher,
was put under investigation after a posting she made on
her MySpace page. Prabhakara, had complained about a
certain student and this student’s parent. Other students
in Prabhakara class read the posts. Parents complained to
administration that Prabhakara “crossed the line” between
student/teacher interaction causing an investigation into
her conduct (Carvin, 2007).
ASHLEY PAYNE
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Ashley Payne, high school English teacher, resigned from
her position after an anonymous email was sent to
administration with concerns about the photos and posts
on her Facebook page. The anonymous email stated that
Payne had inappropriate content on her page and that one
of her students had access to and seen this content on
Payne’s Facebook page. According to Payne, she did not
have any students as “friends” on her Facebook page
(Melandon, 2010).
CYBER SAFETY EDUCATION: RESOURCES FOR
TEACHERS AND PARENTS
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www.cyberbullying.us
www.cyberbully.org
www.athinline.org
www.cybersmartcurriculum.org
California cyber education and safety program
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