Friday, December 05, 2008

MySpace Means No Space for Studen-Teacher

A federal court rejected Stacy Snyder's argument that her MySpace page is considered free speech and should not be used to dismiss her from a college teacher-training program. A high school Snyder was student-teaching out had complaints about professionalism and content knowledge but asked she be dismissed after seeing a MySpace page which had pictures of her drinking and posts critizing her supervisor. Because Snyder was dismissed from the student-teaching program, she could not complete the requirements for an education degree. Because the judge considered Snyder's position with the high school more an aprenticeship rather than an educational pursuit, the school was within its right to dismiss Snyder over the MySpace page. Also, it probably did not help that Snyder told her student about the page too.

I always tell students two things about the Internet:
  1. Don't post anything you would not want you mama to see.
  2. What goes on the Internet, stays on the Internet.
ARS Technica article

2 comments:

Michael Reed said...

Also, these social network sites have filters. Each of these future educators has the ability to make private, and only allow the people they choose to see these items.

John Woodring said...

What you say is correct Michael but even with restrictions, things can possibly get out in the open. It can be the friends of friends that let things slip sometimes.