Tech Bits: Week 29 - APC - Influence of Law and Ethics on Professional Practice

Legal and ethical issues in my practice
The influences of social media and access to the internet within my professional practice scares me a little. We build positive relationships with students, whanau, and the community. We believe we have good communication and that our community of practice understands our obligations around ethics. This is not always the case. There are different perspectives and views of what is acceptable when sharing personal information, especially when sharing it globally. I have a facebook account, but rarely use it for fear that what I content I post may be construed not appropriate for a teacher. I feel that as a teacher we are very 'visual' and need to be appropriate at all times. This can be challenging especially when you are not in a teaching context, outside of school hours and one of your own children is playing up in a public place! Who is watching? Judgments are made on how well you deal with the situation!

Influences that support law and ethics on professional practice:

We are bound by the Teaching Standards and also the Code of Ethics to guide us.

Autonomy to treat people with rights that are to be honoured and defended
Justice to share power and prevent the abuse of power
Responsible care to do good and minimise harm to others
Truth to be honest with others and self.

We have school policies under our strategic plan that clearly outline what we are required to do to protect our students and fulfill our obligations.

Below is an excerpt from part of the cyber safety agreement:
"Any photographs of students, or examples of their work, published online must meet the school's guidelines for publishing student information. This includes checking that parents have given consent (at time of enrollment) for their child's image or work to be published, and obtaining the child's permission to use their work. "

Parents often forget what they have signed and do not understand the ramifications or even the potential for information sharing about their children. If we intend to set up a school blog or classroom blog and share images or student information in a global context, then parents should be reminded if they are happy for this information to be shared. The parents and families do not always update with new information or change their sharing of information guidelines. Schools need to have regular contact with parents to check if they have all the necessary information to ensure that privacy issues are not breached.

However, if I was developing a new initiative I would review the PPTA toolkit (2016) and contact parents before posting information. As the above states "at time of enrollment" and as I mentioned earlier a lot may have changed for and parents may have forgotten the consent.

My other concern is that once the information is posted who has access to it and what can they do with it? I feel students are still vulnerable and maybe we need to be creative in how we use their information, so that they are more protected. I try to take photos so that not all their face is totally visible, but they can be seen in the activity.

Students do not need to provide all their personal information and I have experienced some excellent cyber safety courses run by NZ Police (The KOS programme). Many students are not aware that they should not have a facebook account until they are 13 years old and many are using social media without guidance or support to ensure that they are safe. Parents and teachers should experience the same social media that students are using to support them and understand the dynamics of the particular tool.