A professional digital persona is a key aspect to the growing world that we are all apart of. Through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media sites we see the necessity that is maintaining a positive image both online and off. Our generation for the past five years has moved further and further towards a big brother society where the information that we post online is available to the public without our knowing. Pictures and posts that we place online that we believe are in good fun and private have in fact come back to hinder many teachers throughout the nation.
Some teachers and job applicants may feel comfortable making posts on their social media sites to vent after a long day. In doing so, they leave a digital fingerprint that has come back and hurt them in their job search. As future teachers, we need to be able to maintain our professionalism. Facebook, Twitter, and other sites limit this professionalism if people choose to not be careful with what they post.
These social media techniques could be utilized as teaching tools for various reasons. Prompts could be posted on Facebook or Twitter with students being responsible to respond to the discussion. As long as social media is used in a responsible manner, these techniques can facilitate learning both within the classroom for discussion, as well as at home through homework.
It is true that teachers need to maintain professionalism with their digital fingerprint. It is important that teachers recognize that facebook is a tool to be used to connect friends. It is not a public diary. Students deserve discretion and respect, so teachers should not be able to post about their students on facebook, a public forum.
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