ICT was not used appropriately

Standard 4 of APST states that teachers must ‘Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments’. Of particular relevance is section 4.5 ‘Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically’.

We saw in the example that Miss Hawkins has used social media to engage inappropriately with students; to the point where she has agreed to meet with two year 9 boys, alone, outside of a professional setting.

VTPCC Principle 1.5 states that: ‘teachers are always in a professional relationship with the students in their school, whether at school or not’, relevant sections include part B and D of Section 1: ‘a professional relationship will be violated if a teacher:’

Given her position as a teacher, Miss Hawkins violated this principle when she chose to make her Facebook profile public without ensuring that her posts were appropriate for public display. The profile included images of herself at parties and clubs; these images were then made available to her students, not only because of her public settings, but because she chose to use Facebook as a class resource. As a result Miss Hawkins has exposed students to inappropriate material through ICT, violating part B, Section 1 of principle 1.5 ‘Uses sexual innuendo or inappropriate language and/or material with students’.

Furthermore, part D of Section 1 addresses that this principle is applicable when a teacher “holds conversations of a personal nature or has contact with a student via written or electronic means including emails, letters, telephone, text messages or chat lines, without a valid context”. We feel that with the ever changing nature of communication, it is reasonable to assume that this section would include social media platforms (and ultimately Facebook) as a portion of electronic means.

Ms Hawkins did not have a valid teacher / student context for the social media interaction, so this could be a serious matter and be taken further by a school. If a male teacher was to be invited to a female student’s party or even invited to a party that many girls were going to it would be potentially seen as more inappropriate.  As Ms Hawkins is a young woman it makes us focus on the ethical dilemma and relationship between student and teacher. Maintaining distance into private lives is important for both the student and the teacher.