Social media in schools rises as a hot topic for SD8: superintendent
By Nelson Daily Editor
By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily
Social media is blurring the lines of what is personal and what is public domain for teachers, staff and students of Kootenay Lake School District No. 8, says the district’s superintendent of schools.
Jeff Jones said the district’s policy committee is currently grappling with a consistent policy approach to social media and how it can be used within the school district.
As students of the district become more and more engaged in various social media, Jones said, it becomes imperative the district be ahead of the challenges they anticipate might happen.
“We are asking ‘How is it that we as a school district embrace this technology while also providing the support and, in essence, the protection that our students may need from a more global access to the work that they are doing?” he said.
If a teacher has a Facebook page, for instance, and it is their personal and private page, where does private time end and their work time begin, Jones said.
As well, should teachers be allowing students access to their personal pages, he added, or do they allow or permit Facebook for school purposes, as long as it is limited to the people within a class or a school?
“These are huge questions because they get into who is accountable, when does a teacher’s time become personal and when is it no longer public,” he said.
In some school districts in BC it is not recommended that teachers allow students access to their Facebook pages if they have them, said Jones. He said one SD8 school set up a Facebook page for their school, with the students and parents welcome to sign up for it as participants.
Jones said one of the major scholastic debates right now is the safety of using technology for learning, or more specifically, how are students and school board staff protected from predators that lurk in the public domain.
“It is much easier to spot somebody who is wandering the halls of the school who shouldn’t be there than it is to spot somebody who is lurking in the various places on the Internet,” he said. “So we need to have some sort of grip on that.”
SD8 isn’t alone in addressing the social media concern. There are other school districts in the province trying to establish policy on social media, said Jones.
The policy committee is working on the social media policy right now, but it might not be finalized this year. However, something in draft form may come to the board of education trustees before the end of this school year.
