Mentor - Student Interactions Online

[Nemo]

The main result of this type of policy overkill is to hinder people who have common sense and integrity. As Don said, rules already exist to disallow inappropriate interactions between students and teachers. A strict ban is pointless, because any district can fire a teacher for unprofessional conduct given that it has administrators who are prepared to do their job. All of the social media shenanigans described in the article stand out as quite obviously unprofessional.

At different times I use email, phone, text messaging, and Twitter to coordinate various logistical aspects of the team. A smart school policy allows this type of positive communication to take place. I'm glad I work in a district where the administrators have some common sense about this stuff. Instead of a strict ban on social media use, we have had open discussions in faculty meetings about what types of communications are appropriate. It is something to be mindful of, to be sure.