NEA’s fear of the web.
There is was! In my e-mail: “Could your Facebook postings cost you your job?”
The e-mail was from the NEA.
OMG! I have a Facebook account! And a blog. And I’m on Twitter. I’m gonna lose my job!!!
What nonsense. What followed was a series of horror stories from Michael D. Simpson of the NEA Office of General Counsel:
A teacher who was fired for putting a picture of his butt on the web.
Another who was fired for writing suggestive stuff on Facebook.
You get the idea. Stupid people doing stupid things.
But not a word of the thousands of educators who use Web 2.0 meaningfully. Bloggers who write about their teaching experiences. Teachers who engage their students with the wider world through wiki sites and blogging sites. Local teacher union leaders who blog and tweet as organizing tools.
Should teachers use the internet foolishly? Uh, no. But couldn’t the NEA web site show some balance? Instead they feature the Ohio Education Association’s warnings to teachers to “remove all files from Facebook.”
Calm down folks. The future is nothing to be afraid of.
