Hidden amongst other Kelsey's....

After going through the Google and Pipl searches of my name, the main hits were for Facebook and Myspace, but not my own. I was able to find some volleyball articles from when I played in college. Those were located at http://www.lcpioneers.com/sports/wvball/2008-09/bios/clark_kelsey. Because my name is fairly common, I did not appear in the search until the second page. I know that my Facebook page has privacy settings, which may be the reason why it did not appear in the Google search. When I did a Google image search, a picture for my Myspace profile was one of the found images, but when I clicked on it the profile that popped up was not my own. It was a link to a friend’s Myspace profile that does not have privacy settings.

I also used Pipl to do a search for myself. When I used the city that I grew up in as part of the credentials, many results appeared that were actually me. When I used Portland, OR as my city of residence, there were only one or two results that were actually me. I was really surprised at the amount of information there was about me just floating around. One website, http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=Kelsey%20Clark,%20Eagle%20Creek,%20OR&g=name_pipl_scd_city01#:916318247, even had information about my parents. There was no mention of my brother, though. The age they have listed is also off, but they have the square footage of my parents’ house!

Because I did not come across anything incriminating, I did not change anything, nor do I plan on changing anything at this time. My social networking profiles all have privacy settings, which make my pictures and information unavailable to anyone outside of my friends on the site. I do not plan on having students as friends on these sites.

I do not think that teachers should be held to community standards in terms of their personal lives. How is what I, as your child’s teacher, do on my Saturday afternoon going to affect their education? Most likely it will not. Teachers should be aware that if they allow students access to their personal websites and social networking profiles, they are taking away their own privacy. There will no longer be secrets. It is a very poor decision to give students this window into one’s life. If a teacher chooses to open this door, it is their responsibility to monitor the activities they show and speech they use. It only becomes an issue when the teacher puts it out into the open.

The article, Have you Googled your Teacher Lately? presents some interesting information. I can see how some teachers are using Facebook as a tool to enhance students’ learning, but I still do not agree. There are the few people who abuse the privilege, such as the teacher who continued to communicate with students after he had been fired on suspicion of lewd acts with a minor…ick. It is people like that teacher that can ruin it for those who are using social networking for good. As the article points out, it is important to keep professional life and internet/social life separate.

I believe I have already taken some of the proper steps toward protecting myself on social networking sites. I have privacy settings on all of my social networking sites, and do not accept people I do not know as friends. I know that I will not accept my students as friends if I am still using Facebook when I become a teacher. I know that students are curious, but there are certain parts of my life that they do not need to know about.