1. (E-safety) Teachers have a responsibility to raise awareness. Students need awareness raising when it comes to appropriate use of social media and other online tech and this must feature at appropriate intervals when using tech in and beyond class.
2. (Media release) Seek and get signed permission (from parents if 18 or under) for use of images, audio or video of students.
3. (Data Protection) There are strict guidelines on storing data about students in e format and how long you can store it for.
4. (Cyberbullying) Abuse can take many forms and an ever increasing type is within social media. Even is you eschew technology completely you still need to be alert to how it may manifest itself and the implications if you are a teacher!
5. (Online/ digital professionalism) Freedom of speech allows you to express yourself in many ways, including online. It is a QUALIFIED right though in UK law not an absolute right. This means that you can impinge on other people's rights in your expression. The first lesson is that you need to think carefully about what you say and opinions you express. It is also wise to state clearly somewhere in blogs/ twitter accounts etc. that the views expressed are your own (this is still not an 'excuse all' however). Secondly, think about the blurring between personal and professional. Images on Facebook (for example) can easily be found and are potentially there FOR EVER! Current and potential employers are increasingly using social media searches to assess suitability (according to their terms of course, not yours).
6. (Equality) There are many aspects of the Equality Act which link to use of technology in teaching but what was the DDA says that we must (and no doubt we wish to too) make reasonable adjustments to accommodate students with disabilities and learning difficulties. It is here that technology affords a great opportunity to enable those adjustments but we must be alert to its potential to exclude as well as include.
7. (copyright) One of the few things I ever need to show people how to do is find and use images on Google image search. If you want to display those images in class and use them simply for teaching you are fine. However, if you then put them somewhere other than where you found them or post them online you could be in a lot of copyright breaching trouble. Be alert to this. ALWAYS credit the source (a good to model this for students too) and look for copyright free images or produce your own if you want publish online.
Martin Compton 9/9/13
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