I have to admit, I'm not really sure what to write about for this entry. Reinventing myself isn't necessarily something I have tried to do, but as I think about it, social media does give you a tremendous opportunity to make connections with others on your own terms. Maybe, through this networking, you can create a new persona. For the most part, you do have a lot of control over what information is made available about yourself (if you know what you're doing). As a teacher, I could use facebook , for example, to connect with my students, and their parents, outside of the classroom. I don't know that this is necessarily "reinventing myself" but the Ms. Pallotta persona on my class's facebook page would indeed be different from the persona that my family and friends have access to on my personal page.
There are a lot of horror stories out there about teachers losing their jobs over stuff on facebook and myspace, cyberbullying on class websites, and even students impersonating teachers and administrators. Not to scare anyone away from exploring these tools, but instead to motivate educators to be aware of them, how to use them, but maybe we should all read this article on the National Education Association's website about the internet and students' first amendment rights. I don't understand why more schools don't have professional development regarding social media and it's proper use so that more teachers (and parents!) are aware of how to monitor a child's activity on these sites. It would be a shame if the negative consequences of students' access to social media discouraged teachers from trying to use them in their classroom.
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