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Re: [Phys-l] Should teachers blog???



Good, the public officials are under the same rules as the teachers. But
there is also the problem of how to communicate with parents privately
without the students being able to intercept the messages.

Teachers are told they should not use their home phones for such
communications, but parents are often not available during the day. There
is a conflict between privacy rules for media. Telephone conversations are
supposed to be private, but E-mails from the same place are not. The FOI
act does not apply to student records just the same as it does not apply to
medical records. So is there a way to electronically communicate with
parents without the possibility of it being made public without the parent's
consent? Does FOI apply to a system where the parent logs in using a
password to get information such as grades...? I suspect it does not.

The advantage of E-mail is very evident. You can say things carefully an
politely, but if the other party claims the message was scurrilous, the
message can be examined. I have been in the situation where verbal
communication has been completely misunderstood and then the administration
lowers the boom. This was actually when a colleague complained to the
administration. It was obviously very unprofessional. But because the
system is set up top down otherwise adult people are infantilized.

University professors do not have this sort of problem so far. But it is
coming. Accountability may mean that your syllabus and what you have to
cover will be dictated from the top. The community colleges often have such
strict rules so that innovations such as Scaleup or Teal may not be possible
in many schools. Top down in education reduces the learning to mediocre,
and prevents good innovation. Control at the top is a mixed blessing. When
the leader is minded, dramatically good changes can be enacted, but the
opposite is also probable.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


John Clement writes:

The E-mails being public is serious. I get E-mails from teachers where
the
school system has appended a note saying that they are public records.
In
other words if a parent asks for information about their children, you
can
not supply it in an E-mail. Written information can be more carefully
worded than verbal info. So the alternative is to send a note home, but
you
do not have any assurance that it will arrive.

While teacher's E-mails could be perused by administrators in case of a
conflict, they should not be public records. And if this sort of thing
is
to be a public record, then the legislators mails should also be public
records. The point is that they should grant the same privacy rights to
others that they themselves demand.

I am an elected official (Council member and Vice Mayor). Any and all
emails and other correspondence pertaining to public business are
considered part of the public record, and may be demanded by citizens and
media under FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). Further, if I were to send
a "broadcast" email to the rest of Council pertaining to public business,
that would be considered an illegal meeting of Town Council. I can't even
talk to my colleagues other than one on one outside of a suitably
advertised open meeting of Council.

So, my take is that while teachers may have the freedom to tweet, post,
blog, or email about their students, the public also has the right to see
the contents of those communications. Discretion may well be the better
part of valor here ... talk to colleagues if you have a complaint about
your students. Talk to the student. Don't broadcast.

*******************************************************
 "I learned very early the difference between knowing
the name of something and knowing something."
     - Richard Feynman
*******************************************************

Dr. George Spagna
Physics Department
Randolph-Macon College
P.O. Box 5005
Ashland, VA 23005-5505

phone: (804) 752-7344
fax: (804) 752-4724
e-mail: gspagna@rmc.edu
http://faculty.rmc.edu/gspagna/public_html/index.html


-----Original Message-----


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