The topic, Openness and sharing in schools is unfair to our kids, up for debate last Tuesday was a bit confusing for me. “What does this even mean?”, was the first question that popped in my head and I was anxious and excited to see how my colleagues, Melinda and Altan, and Sherrie and Dean, would go about debating this topic. I believe that it could be addressed in many ways:
- Openness and sharing in social media.
Parents are creating a digital footprint for their children. Just like all the other big decisions they make for them, deciding on vaccinating or not for example, sharing pictures of their children on social media can impact their lives for better or for worst. It’s imperative to consider how sharing pictures of our children on social media might affect them when they are older. Parents behaviour on social media platforms can alter the safety of their kids. According to Jessica Baron, they become more “at risk of identity theft, humiliation, various privacy violations, future discrimination, and […] developmental issues related to autonomy and consent”. In her article, Could children one day sue parents for posting baby pics on Facebook?, published in The Gardian, Nicole Kobie explains that “Given the relative youth of social media, it’s hard to say exactly how growing up online could affect children but there are concerns around infringing privacy, safety and security […], and leaving children open to bullying”. Sharing can be positive when done with good intents. Living five provinces away from my family, I know it’s important to stay connected. Sharing pictures on Facebook, Instagram and Snap Chat is how we do it. I love being able to see pictures of my nephews and keeping up to date with all their activities and achievements. It makes it much easier to keep relationships strong. It’s especially easier for me to start conversations with them after seeing a picture that was posted online, when video chatting or speaking on the phone.
When taking pictures of students and sharing them on social media, schools should be careful. It’s important to take into consideration that some pictures may be embarrassing and could lead to problems for them in the future, like getting a job for example. Schools should have a policy in place to assure everyone’s, students and staff members, safety regarding sharing pictures on social media. Just like parents overshare, schools can do the same. Are we looking to celebrate achievements or are we just trying to look good? Exploitation is a problem and oversharing is a way of looking for trouble. On the other hand, celebrating achievements is important and social media can be a great tool to use to do this. This year, because of Covid-19, our school celebrated graduation on Facebook. We decided, with the graduates and their parents, to create videos to present the grads and awards and bursaries they won. It was hard work but I feel like we captured the essence of our usual grad ceremony while highlighting the positive each student brought to the school community throughout their years at École St-Isidore.
With that being said, schools need to collaborate with parents and children when opting to post information on social media. When sending media release forms to families, it’s important to assure parents or guardians understand what they entail. It is also important to ask the children if it’s ok to share pictures before sharing them. Educators and administrators need to use common sense before posting information online. They also need to educate themselves and students on the subject. Once again, digital citizenship is key to assure everyone’s safety. According to Tanner Higgin, director, Education Editorial Strategy at Common Sense Education, “To be true digital citizens, our students need teachers who model pro-social, creative, and responsible social media use”. Creating an open classroom takes time, patience and practice. Open learning enhances “learning opportunities within formal education systems or broadens learning opportunities beyond formal education systems”. Rdouan Faizi, Abdellatif El Afia, Raddouane Chiheb in Exploring the Potential Benefits of Using Social media in Education, explain that social media can encourage communication between students and teachers. If used properly, it can become a tool that engages students in the learning process. They also state that the use of social media can enhance collaboration between students.
Choosing often leads to unexpected and unpredictable results. While there is risk associated with the unknown, there is even greater reward and goodness.
Eight Qualities of Open Pedagogy – Next Thought Studios
- Openness and sharing resources amongst teachers
Sharing resources to help others is a necessity to grow the school sense of community. Steve at edfuturists.com explains that at “At Leeds City College, we actively promote sharing ideas and best practice and have a Google community where staff can share the amazing things they are doing in their practice, which may inspire someone else to magpie their idea or spur them on to challenge themselves to do something differently with their learners.” Working together is powerful. I’ve always believed that “two heads are better than one”. When colleagues brainstorm, share and collaborate, innovation happens. And it is my belief that students feel more connected to their learning because of this collaboration. Caitlin Tucker, in her article entitled Cultivating Communities of Practice, explains that members of a community of practice help “grow their collective knowledge-in-use, or ‘practice’, by incorporating variations that arise form the diversity of their dynamic membership and their collective interaction with the larger communities”. At École St-Isidore, collaboration is a value set in stone. We meet every two weeks to discuss what is going well in our respective classrooms, what we are doing that students are liking, which students need more guidance and what others are doing to help assure every child’s needs are met. Openness and sharing help us be on the same page and assures every child is accompanied through learning in efficient ways and according to what they need to better thrive. It also allows teachers and other staff members to learn from others and grow as individuals.
- Openness and sharing about your personal life, to some extent, to help create strong relationships with students.
I remember being in elementary school and meeting one of my teachers at the grocery store on a Saturday and thinking, “whaaaaaat are you doing here, you should be at school?”. Now that I’m a teacher, I have a hard time understanding why questions like this one even crossed my mind. Teachers are real people. They have families, hobbies, expectations, and goals that exist beyond what defines them as being teachers. But if we don’t share these parts of ourselves with our students, how are they supposed to understand that we are normal human beings. I truly believe sharing with others, listening to what they have to say and opening up to ideas and change is important to create climates of trust and respect. With this being said, it’s important to be cautious, some things are better left unshared. “Romantic relationships, family matters, and personal drama are of no concern to your students”, stick with the funny things your kids did, or talk about a book you are reading for fun, what you did during the weekend or a family trip you took. Keep it light and happy.
To conclude, I propose we become teachers that are digital citizenship advocates who encourage open learning in our classrooms to help our students become engaged, responsible and independent in their learning process.
Thank you for reading 🙂
Here are the openning statement videos created by my classmates on the topic of openness and sharing…
Madame Jazz 
Great blog. I know that through exploring openness in sharing in the classroom we can minimize the risk and increase the rewards for sure.
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