The Internet is a pretty crazy place with a ton of information about most people. Fortunately for me it doesn't seem to know a whole heck of a lot about me. When searching for myself in Google I found a ton of other people with my same name but nothing about me. That surprised me a little because in the past I could find my Facebook page, but not anymore. When searching for myself on PIPL I found a little bit more information. My freshman year basketball bio was there. http://www.collegeofidaho.edu/athlete/wbasketball/profiles/0304/mortensen.htm I also came across my old My Space page that I have not opened up in almost forever. http://www.myspace.com/57628031
When searching for myself I did not find anything that I wouldn't want people to see. I was however concerned about all the pictures I am tagged on. I signed into my Facebook and spent 20 minutes untagging myself from any questionable photos.
I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the issue of teachers being held to a higher standard and loosing their right to free speech. Part of me says of course teachers should be held to a higher expectation. The other side of my brain says that it isn't right for anyone to tell me what I can and can't do away from work. The part that I think really sucks is that administrators would go searching for information about their employees on the Internet. I don't think a teacher should loose their job for pictures they have posted on the Internet. I think their job should be lost when having inappropriate contact with students through the Internet, otherwise I think teachers should be left alone. Going back to the issue of free speech and talking trash about the work place, I am still undecided on the issue.
The most interesting story in the article "Have You Googled Your Teacher Lately?" was the woman who's partner had a nude artistic picture of her on the Internet. I think that situation sucks and is not worthy of dismissal. I am glad I read about it though. The best thing I think I can do for self preservation in the teaching business is to limit the amount of material that gets posted of me on the Internet. I will do my best to never let another picture of me be taken with a drink in my hand. I will always have all of my profiles on social networking sites private and I will never have students as friends on these sites.
Its scary to think that the Internet, something I don't have control over, could cause me to loose my job...
It is nice not to have to worry about negative information or anything that could be perceived poorly so readily available to the public. As long as we live our lives to the best of our abilities and think before we say or do, we can just focus on being the best teachers we can be.
ReplyDeleteI was somewhat similar with you and my Google searches. I was able to find old high school sports stats about me but no personal information. On the pipl site I was not even listed as one of the 4 Jayne Herrington's in the US. I believe that teachers need to have the right to be people too and not be under a microscope 24/7. I think our speech should be watched but what we do in our personal lives should be personal. One thing I do know is I will never let one of my friends tag me in photos involving drinking.
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