Ethics in my practice...

My ethics are what determine how I react in different situations and might be different from someone of a different cultural or religious background. However, there is a code of practice that governs our behaviour as teachers: Code Of Ethics for Certified Teachers.
The key focus is that in dealing sith students, whanau, colleagues, The BOT, cluster colleages.....

• We treat people with respect
• We nurture all students and encourage them to think critically
• We promote student wellbeing
• We collaborate with whanau for the good of their child
• We respect privacy and confidentiality
• We collaborate with and support colleagues 
• We promote our school in a positive manner

There was probably much more but this seems to be the essence of it.... and should be what is at the foundation of all my actions as a teacher.

What happens when you throw the ever-changing aspect of social media into the mix? Keeping our students safe becomes a much more challenging task than it was 20 years ago.

I have been blogging with my class for at least 6 years, students have had individual blogs for three years and my students have been using Titter as a reflective tool for the same amount of time. According to the NZ Teacher's Council (2012) the purpose of using social media must be established and I can attest that blogging has increased student writing due to a sense of ownership and audience. Using Twitter allows for the succinct sharing of reflections and both of these tools allows us to connect with a wider community of learners, where we can begin to collaborate and have access experts from around the world. 

So how do my personal ethics and choices protect both me and students from potential issues?

I migh not call myself an early adopter but I was pretty close behind. I value the professional support I gain through Twitter and the opportunities that social media bring to education. But how can I make use of this resource and keep myself professionally 'safe' in my professional environment?

My personal twitter account @kiwiallana is where I share my learning as a teacher, blog posts and Mindlab assignments. I am careful to make my posts positive and think carefully about what is professionally appropriate for posting. This account is not shared with students. 

The class share a separate account @coolkiwikids where they post reflections and images from class. These are identified only with a first name and images must be checked before posting. 

My personal Facebook account is very inactive but does allow me to connect with family overseas and is mainly limited to how my garden is growing or how many mice the cat has caught - nothing that could be a bad example to students should they 'happen' to see any of the posts. I do not 'friend' students or their parents. I have also chosen to not 'friend' the school so that my personal Facebook account has no connection with my professional life. I do know of a colleague who was intentionally 'stalked' by students and understand the importance of keeping everything professionally appropriate and separate.

Digital Ethical Issue:

Within the school environment, we have so many systems in place to protect our students but have also been very lucky to not have had many major issues arise. As a result, I will unpack something that I can see being a possible digital issue.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kyteacher/3578441521

All senior students at our school have personal 'Blogger Blogs' and Google Drives which are tracked through Hapara Dashboard. Students have completed a series of 'Cyber Citizenship' lessons at the beginning of the year, signed annual safety and image sharing contracts then completed a BYOD Quiz before creating their own 'safe' password and learning about how to use their blog. This year our inquiry included lessons on blogging skills including their digital foodptints and acknowledging sources. There are still workshops being run throughout the year for students to upskill in this area.

The educational purpose of these blogs are for student writing, reflection and to share their learning with family and the wider learning community. We train students to make constructive comments on one-another's work with clear next steps as they are AKO kids and are excellent teachers of their peers.

But what happens if a student posts an inappropriate image of another on their blog, or makes 'bullying' type comments on another student's work or in the form of an e-mail?

Hall (2001) would suggest that there are a series of questions to ask when dealing with a digital issue. For us the steps would be very clear and based on the contract signed which determines our school expectations.

This type of behaviour would be picked very qucikly. Any posts, comments or e-mails would be sent to our ICT co-oridnator and teachers via the 'Linewise' and 'inappropriate word' filter. We also have the protocol of students only saving blog posts with TBC (To Be Checked), then the teacher giving advice or posting the piece for them, until they have earned the right for independent posting.

The facts of the incident would be unpacked then students and parents would be referred back to the signed contract about appropriate use of ICT. As a restorative school, the people harmed would be identified and a way to restore this relationship would be set in place with the students involved. If it was a more serious case, a restorative conference would be set up between the two families, with a trained facilitator to unpack the steps required to restore the relationships, a plan and monitoring would be set in place. In all instances there could be a period where the student was removed from the school wiifi, followed by close supervision and tracking.

Any learning opportunities would be unpacked from this event for the remainder of the class and the need for futher training in what is 'appropriate use' would be establised and carried out. Systems would be reviewed to see ifchanges need to be made for the future.

Pandora has been let out of the box and in most instances, devices and social media are an effective tool in making connections, collaboration and sharing learning. There could be no suggestion that these tools should be removed from our classrooms. We do, however, need to have strong systems in place to protect our students from potential issues that might arise. 

Source: 

Hall, A. (2001). What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Developing-leaders/What-Ought-I-to-Do-All-Things-Considered-An-Approach-to-the-Exploration-of-Ethical-Problems-by-Teachers

Henderson, M., Auld, G., & Johnson, N. F. (2014). Ethics of Teaching with Social Media. Paper presented at the Australian Computers in Education Conference 2014, Adelaide, SA. Retrieved from http://acec2014.acce.edu.au/sites/2014/files/attachments/HendersonAuldJohnson_EthicalDilemmas_ACEC_2014_0.pdf:

Ministry of Education. (2015). Digital technology- Safe and responsible use in school. Retrieved from http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/School/Managing-and-supporting-students/DigitalTechnologySafeAndResponsibleUseInSchs.pdf: 

New Zealand Teachers Council.(2012). Establishing safeguards.[video file]. Retrieved fromhttps://vimeo.com/49216520