By Dr. Harry Tennant
Sunday, December 12, 2010 Trends: How Accountable Will We All End Up Being?Many social media on the internet now provide a forum for speech of all kind, including some examples we might wish away. "Is ignorance bliss?" I asked myself this question for days before I wrote this post. Or, "is forewarned forearmed?" So many other questions about it had me leaning against writing about the topic. After discussing it with a number of other educators, however, none of whom were aware the website below and others like it exist, I decided to post about it. Indeed, there are other such websites. And the likelihood that there will be more with rising participation is very high. The internet gives individuals a stage (and a huge potential audience) to voice their opinion on people, places, and things. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Guilty by opinion. Praised if lucky, uh, I mean deserving. It is all so public. Much like the teacher-ratings for individual teachers many states are now publicizing (I wrote about it in a blog entry-- In The News: California Teacher Ratings Released; New York Teacher Ratings Release Delayed), this can feel downright personal and, I bet, can often be off-the-mark! In fact, though those official ratings in the LA Times might get seen by more people, the types of comments that can be left on sites like the one below can certainly produce as least as much damage even when viewed by fewer people. So, in considering whether to post on this topic, I came down on the side of.......when in a mine field, isn't it best to know as much about the situation as possible? What can we as individuals do to best navigate this mine field? What are the implications for education professionals, campuses, and districts? Clearly it is better to consider these questions sooner rather than later. Click Here To Go To The Website When school personnel consider these questions sooner rather than later, potential problems can be more easily defused and this potential "threat" can actually become an opportunity!!! That is the ticket!
A few questions and suggestions for you to consider:
Posted at 6:13 PM Keywords: Trends , Teacher Voice , Accountability 0 Comments |