Educational Use of Social Media: An Ethical Issue from this Exposure
Of the various ethical issues raised by educational use of social media, one I find particularly essential to discuss in depth is the issue of bullying.
While the use of social media for educational purposes is increasingly popular, alike what we are doing for this module, there is an obvious growth in the participation of online bullying as well. 1 million children were cyber-bullied on just Facebook alone in the past year (Consumer Reports, 2011). Isn’t this figure shocking?
While many educational institutes recognise the need to integrate social media as a platform for communication between teachers and students in their learning, it is difficult to monitor student activity during lesson when everyone are hidden behind screens. Many abuse this opportunity to learn, by participating in bullying acts online – no matter if it was meant as innocent fun or stemmed from a malicious intent.
Online bullying happens not only between students – often, teachers are the victims of online ridicule when students rant their frustrations publicly.
Image Sources: www.quickmeme.com
See these memes? Ridiculing teachers have transitioned into a social norm that online platforms are constantly churning fresh, relatable materials to allow students to indulge in this unhealthy act. I myself have witnessed friends circulating similar images online, with specific names of teachers mentioned.
Sometimes, the bullying gets even more personal when students brazenly edit their teachers’ faces into the memes!
An example of an online friend publicly humiliating a train commuter on social media, out of pure fun. It doesn’t sound very fun if the victim was you, does it?
Any form of bullying is not acceptable, what more if these bullies are educators?
Shocked? I am appalled. Facebook is a popular platform for educational communities to easily share ideas, submit assignments, etc. However, sometimes teachers themselves abuse this learning avenue. Students may make silly mistakes in their assignments, but educators should never publicly shame them by sharing snapshots of assignments online. There are even websites like Shit My Students Write that are dedicated to this purpose! Educators are here to inculcate positive values and knowledge to students, so why are they themselves involved in online bullying?
Image Source: www.Smosh.com
The exposure to these platforms have blurred the lines between personal and professional for many educators – check out how a teacher lost her job after mocking a student’s name online.
Read the full story here: Death By Social Media [Image Source]
Detention slips listing the school’s name and student’s identity are often circulated by teachers as well.
Image Source: www.thegoodhumour.com
Though these acts may initially seem guiltless, it creates unnecessary humiliation and stress for the child and defamation of the institute’s reputation.
All in all, it is unethical to bully anyone even under the context of ‘a little fun’ or done without the victim’s knowledge – the harm is not diminished just because the victim is not directly threatened by your actions.
Word Count: 450
References:
Shit My Students Write, (2015). Retrieved from: http://shitmystudentswrite.tumblr.com/
Death By Social Media, (2014). Teacher Loses Job for Facebook Post Mocking Student’s Name. Retrieved from: http://deathbysocialmedia.com/2014/public-officials/teacher-loses-job-facebook-post-mocking-students-name/
Faris Mokhtar, (2011). Teachers Slammed for Mocking Special Needs Student Online. Retrieved from: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/teachers-slammed-mocking-special-needs-student-online-061338158.html
Institute of Business Ethics, (2011). Business Ethics Briefing: The Ethical Challenges of Social Media. Retrieved from: https://www.ibe.org.uk/userassets/briefings/ibe_briefing_22_the_ethical_challenges_of_social_media.pdf
David Vinjamuri, (2011). Ethics and the Five Deadly Sins of Social Media. Forbes. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidvinjamuri/2011/11/03/ethics-and-the-5-deadly-sins-of-social-media/
Santa Clara University, (2015). Unavoidable Ethical Questions about Social Networking. Retrieved from: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/social-networking.html
Sharlyn Lauby, (2012). Ethics and Social Media: Where Should you Draw the Line? American Express: Open Forum. Retrieved from: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/ethics-and-social-media-where-should-you-draw-the-line/
The Guardian, (2014). Twitter Abuse: Easy on the Messenger. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/24/twitter-abuse-abusive-tweets-editorial?CMP=twt_gu
Glenn Greenwald, (2014). Why Privacy Maters. Ted. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters
Leo Kelion, (2013). UK Jumps up Digital Scoreboard as Digital Divide Grows. BBC. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24426739
Internet Safety 101, (2012). Cyberbullying Statistics. Retrieved from: http://www.internetsafety101.org/cyberbullyingstatistics.htm
