Libability Issues for Educators Who Blog

Hey, teachers who crave the blog-light, read Scoble/Isreal's Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk to Customers that looks deeply at the use of blogging in corporations.  Apply all of it -- both the opportunity and the liability issues -- to what you you do as an edu/classroom-blogger.   And remember, blogging is not a technology issue.  It's a voice and liability issue.  Always.

If you as a blogger belong to any organization who owns a computer, assume everything you say will and has been read by a client, a colleague, and a superior...and their HR and legal teams.  If not today, tomorrow. If not then, the day after.  It's one of the blatantly obvious -- but often mis-understood -- realities of blogging.

Blogging may be rocket fuel into a global network of conversations, but it comes with a price...and I'm not talking about your TypePad monthly fee.  Same for teachers, administrators, and anyone working for a school.

If you are attempting to remain anonymous -- and several of the best in-the-classroom bloggers I read and respect are -- assume that by this time tomorrow, every one of your school/district leaders can access your identity...and make whatever connections they want in terms of the value or disruption or potential liability your blog and blogging and opinions and such may hold for the larger community.

Anonymous is only a delay; it no longer means anonymous.  And eventually 'anonymous' means 2 things:  1) Can I trust an anonymous blogger that I read and 2) If one of my teachers has been writing passionately without sharing their identity, my default is to look for what does not match my expectations.  And then it's up to me to decide.  And I'm already biased against you.

So, if you are a blogger in a school (much like a blogger in an organization or business) it behooves you to recognize that everything you write will go down on your permanent record and be used by others sooner or later to either support your role or to downplay/end your role.  It may be subtle and nearly invisible, or it may require quite public conversations. But it's only a matter of degree, not if.

Kim Moritz is one of those rare beings who is using blogging as an administrator to reflect upon what she's learning and the larger questions faced by all committed educators, not just her expertise or rules.   Her G-Town Talks blog has been a major staple of my RSS feed for some time now. And if I were a new teacher, I can tell you I'd embrace the chance to work under her leadership.  If I were a colleague, I'd be trying to echo the way she blogs.  If I were her boss, I'd see her passion and intelligence and honesty and questions as the very definition of what we seek in our school leaders. 

But in this day and age, the disclaimer is critical.  You'll notice that she just posted about the need for her to add a legal-esque disclaimer at the top of her blog that her views (etc) do not necessarily reflect her district.   She writes honestly/passionately about the more critical issue of "blog smart" rather than just relying on a disclaimer, but she still realizes that now that she's blogging, you can't do one without the other.

The best defense, in some respects, is a good offense:

• Be public about who you are, what role you have...anonymity while somewhat logical at first has no real currency in time.  Give one of your decently tech-savvy kids 1 hour and challenge them to find the identity of any anonymous blogger.  And then wonder how long it'll take your boss if they become curious or get an anonymous email from an 'interested' colleague.
• Assume that your boss is reading every blog entry you write.   Not just the ones you wrote today, but the ones you wrote 6 months ago when you were just getting started and were venting and perhaps said something you wouldn't have shouted down the hallway during a passing period.
• If you wouldn't say it in a faculty meeting or yell it down the hallway during a passing period, perhaps you need to re-think posting it.
• When in doubt, never use your students' names.  Never.  And if you're writing about your colleagues, school, superiors, or district policies, you have 3 choices:  1) Write positively without hesitation or 2) learn to ask great questions that remain open-ended while refusing pejoratives and in lieu of criticisms or 3) do not write about any of the above.
• And simply use a "blog smart" mind-set.  There are no specific rules; it's a mind-set.  And there are no second chances unless you're comfortable in the looking-for-a-new-job process.

Oh, and if you're not helping your students wrestle with these issues in your classrooms when you launch into blogging (etc) programs, you're failing the #1 opportunity. Yes, give them rules.  But teach them how to use common sense, too.  They'll thank you for years and years from now when their first job isn't lost because they did something foolish under the guise of being 'anonymous' and they get the job they really wanted because someone recognized/valued their passion and common sense and unique voice/brand.

Note:  read Miguel's post that also dives into Kim's disclaimer questions.  He offers some great real-world experiences, and reminds us that districts that have passionate writers who work for them offer great PR.  The trick, then, lies in how to maximize the positive PR in an authentic way without causing anyone to be disciplined/fired/down-sized in the process.

Comments

[Kimberly Moritz]

Christian, Thank you for the support. I do appreciate it, even expected it of my fellow bloggers, when I posted that I had to include a disclaimer. It's interesting to me that others in our district are now asking the questions that I've considered since my very first post. And you nail it--write like you're writing for the district newsletter. Only better than the newsletter, it's a more frequent and immediate way to influence thinking, my goal since the beginning.

[Rick]

Great post here. My bottom line for blogging is that it's not a place to air out dirty laundry. If I'm going to post about something about somebody else, it will always be in a positive light. Anything less than that should be taken up privately. And I don't think it's EVER a place to post students' names. I won't even relay a situation at school because there's a chance that somebody will be able to connect the dots.

Blogging has responsibilities. Abdicate them, and you may find yourself in serious trouble.

[John Powers]

This http://www.alternet.org/rights/46925/ is a bit off topic, but seemed worthwhile bring up anyway.

The gist is that in a class of 12 year olds the computer a substitute teacher was using went into an endless loop of porn. She was charged and convicted of "corrupting the morals of minors" and faces 40 years in prison.

The article left me with questions. But from what I gather it was an older school machine not behind a firewall. The teacher claimed that the porno came up because the computer was infected with malware and a security expert who carefully examined the computer was convinced of her innocence.

Wow, this story rang so many alarm bells. I'm so not geeky, but following IT discussions on edu-blogs and blogs in the non-profit world I see a lot of evangelizing about open source. Some of the reasoning has to do with the way that budgets tend to work in these environments. In this case for example the security license for the school's computers had expired and so they were unprotected. On the other hand reading experiences of places going open source, I understand it's not easy.

The suggestions you put up about blogging are solid. But I can't help thinking about the "permanent record" thing and the accumulation of garbage in garbage out. There's stuff on all of our "permanent records" we didn't put there, it's not ours. Not all of it is like the malware on the teacher's computer but some of it is exactly like that. Things like comments on a blog are tricky too.

I have a feeling that the Internet is going to change our ideas about "permanent records." In the meantime steering clear of the hazards isn't always easy. And it isn't only an individual's job. Of course we should avoid the obvious hazards, but there are hidden ones out there too.

[Miguel Guhlin]

I agree with both of you! However, isn't it dangerous to apply Scoble's wisdom and observations to education settings? While some education administrators (supes) are working to apply business principles to K-12 education, the reality is that they are being selective about messing with education culture...they may be trying to bring about change with business principles but without full commitment to transforming the education culture.

Simply, if blogging hasn't quite caught on in business, it's less likely to catch on as a transplant from business to K-12 education.

What are your thoughts?

Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net
http://www.mguhlin.net

[Christian]

I'm going to thank all of you for adding your voices/ideas, and pushing my brain as well.

I'm going to tackle Miguel's question in particular.

Scoble's blogging ideas -- while focused in the business world -- is hardly limited to that context. He's not talking about for-profit strategies, per se, but 'blog smart' tactics regardless of your setting. He's pushing people to value the exchange of ideas, rather than the tradition of experts handing off their headlines. To this I say that there is tremendous overlap for education. For all of life/society, really.

It's not about 'business' but about 'conversation'. The vast majority of teachers and students who will blog will create limited value for audiences in the long-term. Perhaps the 'process' alone allows a high degree of accomplishment, but ultimately you face the fact that the blog enters a public conversation...and that it's not just a matter of type/publish/read/comment. The nuances are far more dynamic. And for this, I say that Scoble offers the best challenge to those in all fields who are going to 'go there'.

The technology of blogging is only the first question. The purpose of blogging is far more valuable. And the ultimate development of one's tone/voice and ability to be part of something larger, a constellation of global voices, is what makes it ultimately valuable on both sides.

Blogging by CEO's hasn't caught on. But blogging by people who 'happen' to be in business -- and have real lives -- has certainly caught on. A matter of what realm their blogging from, perhaps.

Thanks, Miguel! Cheers, Christian

[Chris Craft]

A new discussion on this topic is going on through my blog, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

http://opensource.christophercraft.com/?p=119

Yours,

Chris Craft