moral, ethical, and legal uses of technology

In the context of early childhood education, this topic is extremely relevant to the sharing teachers do via online platforms. Early years teachers use documentation as a way to share their students’ learning experiences with children, families, and other educators.

Teachers must consider: a) who the audience of an online post will be and, b) what the purpose of sharing a post is. This is related to several topics that Dylan discussed in his video this week, including informed consent, full disclosure, privacy, and security.

When the purpose of creating an online post is to share children’s learning directly with them or their families, teachers should use a digital platform that has a restricted child/family audience, such as Edsby or Seesaw. These digital platforms, which are directly used by school divisions, are more secure and require a log-in to access digital artifacts. Therefore, because there is more security, educators can share more openly. Images including children’s faces and information about the child (such as their name) can be shared.

When an online post will be shared on a social media platform such as Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, however, the audience is much more broad. The purpose of sharing a post on these open platforms is usually to share with other educators. In these instances, educators must take extra care to protect the privacy of their students. Common practices I see (and that I use myself) are referring to children by a letter rather than a first name (ex. “T” instead of Timothy), cropping out children’s faces in photos, covering or blurring children’s faces, or sharing an image of the items children are playing with rather than the children themselves.

The examples below are all from my own Instagram account:

Lovepreet discussed the blurred lines between personal and professional uses of technology. When teachers share images of their classroom or students on social media accounts, they must take utmost care to ensure that the posts are being shared for professional reasons and are written in a professional manner.

Shristy’s video brought up confidentiality and sharing photos respectfully and safely. This is directly related to the Media Release permission forms that families sign at the beginning of the school year. Caregivers can decide how/if they would like their child’s image shared in a variety of contexts – community newspaper, school Facebook page, school yearbook, etc. Educators must, above all, respect the direct wishes of families when sharing online content.

While I firmly believe in having these permission forms, I do think they can be made more clear and easily understandable for all parties. Families need to be more informed on what exactly the media release forms are referring to, and teachers need to understand what each choice on the form means in regard to sharing. I feel that the way the forms are written don’t make these things explicitly clear, which could easily lead to a misunderstanding. There have been instances where families will have full permissions for one child in the family but not another, or families will have no permissions one year and full permissions the next. I think this speaks to the vague nature of the forms’ language, or perhaps even the families checking off items on the forms that they don’t fully understand.

What measures do you take to ensure privacy when posting about your classroom/students online? What is your division’s process for obtaining media permissions from families?

Until next time,

-KKF

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