With more than 1.7 billion users on Facebook, 500 million users on Instagram, and 377 million users of Twitter, social media has become prevalent in the lives of many young children (“Global Social Media Ranking 2016 | Statistic”). Considering the advancement of technology in personal lives, society could infer that technology would inevitably make its way into classrooms. With this new implementation comes not only new and exciting opportunities for teachers and students, but also rules and responsibilities regarding ethical use of social networking. But do the benefits of social media outweigh the risks it involves? A look at why social media has shown up in America’s classrooms, how it benefits students and teachers, and the risks that education
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Since anything posted online, especially on a social media site, can be accessed by a vast number of people, the privacy of students is a primary concern. Some sites have privacy policies that give them the right to sell or share information posted on the website, which could violate a student’s right to intellectual property (Rodrgiuez). Oftentimes if the use of a website account is free of charge, the security of personal information is probably minimal. Although settings can be tuned so that only specific people of the general public have access to information, the website provider itself may technically have the right to sell or share a user’s personal information (Shear). Much like articles can be accessed for a research paper, postings for a class are accessible at the disposal of many. The only difference between these two is that published articles are copyrighted and a student has no bound legal ownership of his or her work, which may draw a red flag in special circumstances. A popular controversial ethical issues regarding Facebook occurred in 2009. After a change in the privacy policy, any public content posted by users was free of charge for Facebook to use in any circumstance (Rodriguez). Considering these dilemmas, a teacher must ensure that the chosen sites for utilization in the classroom are private enough to ensure student safety in both their privacy and
Since anything posted online, especially on a social media site, can be accessed by a vast number of people, the privacy of students is a primary concern. Some sites have privacy policies that give them the right to sell or share information posted on the website, which could violate a student’s right to intellectual property (Rodrgiuez). Oftentimes if the use of a website account is free of charge, the security of personal information is probably minimal. Although settings can be tuned so that only specific people of the general public have access to information, the website provider itself may technically have the right to sell or share a user’s personal information (Shear). Much like articles can be accessed for a research paper, postings for a class are accessible at the disposal of many. The only difference between these two is that published articles are copyrighted and a student has no bound legal ownership of his or her work, which may draw a red flag in special circumstances. A popular controversial ethical issues regarding Facebook occurred in 2009. After a change in the privacy policy, any public content posted by users was free of charge for Facebook to use in any circumstance (Rodriguez). Considering these dilemmas, a teacher must ensure that the chosen sites for utilization in the classroom are private enough to ensure student safety in both their privacy and