I have just complete my first week as a Teacher Aide at a large high school after almost 7 years at a smallish primary school. Wowie do I have a lot to learn. Some of the skills I have acquired in my years in Special Education are transferable, some just don’t help at all.
One of the biggest differences (I have observed) is the relationship between student and teacher. Both educators but underpinning the role of the teacher in the primary school environment is quite a nurturing persona. High school has a very different ‘feel’ when it comes to behaviour, social & emotional develop and general communication. As it should. The students are teen and young adults and it is essential to treat them in a different way.
In the past I have seen some very successful lessons for senior primary students about cyber safety. These were delivered by a caring teacher, in a protective manner to help students to navigate the dangers that lay ahead. I have also seen both in primary and high school teachers who focus on the potential of negative impact the internet, especially social media has on young people.
I have just completed the first module of the Cyber Smart initiative Connect.ed. The website describes this module as:
1. The Connected World
Purpose:
- To introduce the positive nature of the online world
- To familiarise teachers with the online world and the activities that their students might be undertaking online
- To induct teachers as guides and mentors for their students
This module just made me go “YES!”. I am 40 yrs old and unlike many of my same aged peers, the internet plays a very big role in my life. I get terribly frustrated when my parents (both very active 65+ year olds) roll their eyes at the ‘nonsense’ that is facebook, how totally unimpressed they were when I showed them my 4 kids class blogs.
I have seen this frustration in the eyes of students as teachers focus on the negatives of the internet and don’t fully embrace the role of social media today.
It does make me consider the rules about social media. From the Code of Conduct we have:
Employees must not use personal social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter, to
contact or access students enrolled in any state educational facility. Employees must discourage
students from communicating with them in this manner.
Yet in the last 5 years or so, more and more schools are choosing to open their own pages on facebook as a means of communication with parents. This perhaps blurs the lines of how social media can fit into the school environment. Yes this is different from private messaging with students however teachers have the opportunity to have private face-to-face conversations with students on a daily basis that are not recorded. If, as educators, we were told to discourage students from a one-on-one conversation at school, it would be ludicrous.
Im not saying we should change the rules and rush out to ‘friend’ all our students on facebook, but I am saying that it is no surprise that teachers are advocating the evils of social media when they are themselves directed to avoid it due to the dangers.
ICT and Pedagogy 