We all know that whatever you put on the Internet is subject to criticism from all sides. You have to be wary about what you post so as not to offend anyone or spark negative discussion. This becomes even more of an issue when you become a professional in the limelight and particularly for us as student teachers. However, it is our choice how we look at this, will we see it as a negative or positive for our career/personal life?

I have to admit, I was very daunted when I first considered how sensible we have to become when posting on social media. It made me rack my brains through every post I’ve ever shared; instagram, Facebook, twitter, snapchat and so on. It is scary to think that the things you say could be open to so much scrutiny, and that parents, pupils and colleagues may look to find you on your personal social networking sites.

I’ve always had public profiles, but following our lecture with Derek I decided to go ahead and make most of my profiles private. I use my networks to share posts with my family & friends and I can still do this on a private platform, rather than allowing the world to look at me living my life out on the internet. I’ve done this purely to let me have a personal life as well as a professional one.

However, working in a marketing role I use my Facebook quite regularly to discuss my service with potential clients and choose to make certain posts public and others completely private. This is an extremely useful aspect of Facebook.

It would be very easy to take a negative view towards social media and the challenges it creates but I like to see opportunity in everything. It has allowed me to investigate ways in which I can moderate my social media, something I can share with pupils, parents and colleagues to promote safety online. I have looked at a variety of different online platforms, which I can see would allow my pupils to share their work in a safe environment online. I feel we have to be open to move with the times in terms of the ‘Digital World’ to best accommodate for the every growing minds of our pupils.