N.Y.C. Outlines Social Media Guidelines for Educators
New guidelines released this week by the New York City education department make it clear that social networking has a place in education, but they call for restrictions on how educators and students interact in such spaces.
The guidelines recommend prohibiting students and teachers from being "friends" on popular social-networking sites, such as Facebook, and instruct teachers to create school-related email accounts that are separate from their personal email accounts, for example, for interacting with students. The guidelines also call for principals or educational supervisors to closely monitor social-networking sites that are set up for educational purposes.
Despite the restrictions, city Schools Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott touted the use of social networking as way to engage students and boost learning. In a letter to school principals released April 30, he wrote that the responsible use of such digital tools is important.
"We seek to provide our students with the opportunities that multimedia learning can provide--which is why we should allow and encourage the appropriate and accepted use of these powerful resources," he said.
Matthew Mittenthal, a spokesman for the 1.1 million-student district, emphasized that the guidelines do not recommend banning social-networking sites or interaction between students and teachers on such sites. The district will continue to collect feedback on the guidelines and will review them every three months and update them as needed, Mr. Mittenthal said.
Nancy E. Willard, the director of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, based in Eugene, Ore., called the guidelines "noteworthy" in their "obvious concerted effort to recognize the importance of social media for instructional activities and the effort at distinguishing between professional and personal socializing."
But she and others expressed worries about how the guidelines will ultimately be carried out. For example, the recommendation that principals and supervisors oversee educational social-media sites and review their content closely is unlikely to work in the real world, she said.
"There is no way ... a principal can effectively manage a multitude of professional social-media sites," she said. "Impossible."
Communication Issues
In crafting the guidelines, the country's largest school district is following in the footsteps of other districts, including the 664,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District as well as the 9,000-student Minnetonka, Minn., district, which Mr. Mittenthal said were both used as models for the guidelines.
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N.Y.C. Outlines Social Media Guidelines for Educators