Discuss what challenges/opportunities you may be faced with when marrying the personal vs the professional presence on social media.

I big challenge when marrying the personal and the professional presence on social media is privacy. We as teachers must be mindful of the professional boundaries and remember not to over step the mark. With social media it is easy to share information and opinions but as teachers we should never attempt to establish inappropriate relationship’s with children. However the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) do realize that teachers do have private lives and we should not put them on hold. But we should maybe show more discretion. For example having separate profiles, one which is private and the other for teaching. We should not misuse any electronic communication and maintain a formal and professional tone. Technology can enhance the curriculum. We want to use this to our advantage.

How are the challenges/opportunities afforded by social media framed? How will you frame things – positive or deficit viewpoint?

Generally social media can sometimes be seen as a bad thing in education. But personally I think it can enhance children’s learning.   I think the public are wary of it, which they have every right to be as we sometimes see horrible stories in the media. But if we use it correctly it can help teachers and children to work. We know live in a world surrounded my social media. The children that we will be teaching have grown up with it. It could be a good way of understanding children, who they are as people and how they learn.