When the Internet Has Teeth

All right, let me warn you, I'm going to keep things vague here. You'll see why.

Between school and both of my jobs, I come into contact with a ton of teachers and professors. I mean oodles. This contact has been an eye-opener and has impressed upon me that, in the teaching sector there are some stunning, innovative, brilliant folk, and some that are... less so. Katherine knows many of these same folk since she knows just about everyone in the education sector through SCWP. This morning, Katherine calls me to say she's running a bit late and sending me a file to make copies of, and oh, by the way, did I read the paper yesterday?

I don't get the paper, much less read it (I know, bad me for not keeping up on current events). She says, "X was in it. Check it out."

I go to the paper's website and there it is, an article about how X is currently on administrative leave while people who do these things investigate. Why?

MySpace strikes again. Public sphere, people, public sphere. Granted, not quite so public in this case as X's profile is private, however X gave some students a password to access the account, which contains some suggestive/not-so-appropriate material for sharing with one's students.

Katherine's comment: I talk about this in class. When I talk about Blackboard (our campus's online forum platform) I talk about this. Any time we talk about using this kind of technology, I talk about this. You've heard me talk about this.

Me: Yeah. Some people listen louder than others, though.

So, at the moment, I have no idea what X's fate will be. However, I just don't see how getting one's name in the newspaper where the story is about how you've been inappropriate with students is any kind of good sign.

Now, getting a bit reflective: I write SCWP posts from time to time. This means this blog pops up if you search for SCWP. See where this is going? Notice how my SCWP posts are especially carefully worded? Next semester I'll be teaching, with a number of students I could talk about. I won't. Anything you hear about class will be, like the SCWP posts, carefully worded.

I'm all for having free expression and not having to hide who you are. I'm also all for having audience awareness and appreciation for what it really means to put who you are online. Let's face it, sometimes too much personal expression comes back to bite you.

Okay, I'm stepping off my soap box now.