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Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 52(3) November 2008doi:10.1598/JAAL.52.3.7 © 2008 International Reading Association (pp. 245–247)

“I Gave Up MySpace for Lent”:

New Teachers and Social

Networking SitesWilliam Kist

Digital Literacies

“I gave up MySpace for Lent,” said Ellen (all names are pseudonyms), one of the preservice teachers in my class. I did a double-take, not out of reaction to her religious self-denial, but because I was surprised to hear that she still had a MySpace page. She was in the middle of student teaching, and we had talked in class about all the dire warnings from the Ohio Department of Education and even the Ohio Education Association’s saying that teachers shouldn’t take part in MySpace, Facebook, or other social networking sites (Associated Press, 2007).

“Actually, I gave both MySpace and Facebook up for Lent,” Ellen continued as we began our seminar. “It’s been so weird not to be on them. I am totally out of the loop as to who is dating whom. One of my friends had a baby, and I didn’t even know it. Between that and student teaching all day, I feel very isolated.” Before long, I had one of those teachable moments as Ellen and her peer preser-vice teachers began to discuss the implications of banning teachers’ participation in social networking sites.

Just as we stand on the brink of what may, in the next decade or so, be the first real evolution of public schools in close to 100 years, we are telling teachers, “You can’t participate in Web 2.0 because it’s too dangerous.” One of my gradu-ates, a second-year teacher with whom I’ve been working since he graduated (Kist, 2007), told me recently that he is not doing any blog projects with his class because he is afraid that one objectionable student comment on a blog could end his career. Principals are googling for information on undergrads before they are allowed into their buildings for student teaching. It seems that this fear factor inherent in the social networking aspects of Web 2.0 is certainly one of the major “potholes” referred to by O’Brien and Scharber (2008) in the opening column for this volume year’s Digital Literacies department, and it’s a legitimate fear for those educators who are the most vulnerable—early career teachers.

Of course, aspects of this fear factor are not new; hysterical fears of new media have been well documented, with humans having expressed fear about every new medium to come along including film and television (Kist, 2008), comic books (Hajdu, 2008), and even print (Resnick, 1991). But this may be the first time that teachers have been banned from using a technological medium in their personal lives.

Since Ellen’s Lent declaration, I have been interviewing my preservice teachers about their participation in these sites and how they feel about the warnings, which, for the most part, they are ignoring. All preservice teach-ers were interviewed during the spring of 2008, at which time they all appeared to be in their early to mid-20s. My preservice teachers’ participation in

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and linked from their sites, ensuring there was noth-ing that could be potentially embarrassing. “It’s kind of like if a student called me on my cellphone,” said Ellen. “I would be upset because that is my personal number, but I am not going to get rid of my cellphone because I am a teacher.”

There are other protections that the preservice teachers have put in place. Miranda, for example, changed her name to a random combination of nick-names so that it’s impossible to search her name. “I also encourage any of my friends that want to create photo albums with pictures of me in them to make them private,” she says, “so I know that no one can be looking at them without my knowing about it, whether or not the picture is actually tagged to me.” She went on to say that some of these tactics may only be wishful thinking, because she wants to keep her sites “so badly.” Many preservice teachers also commented that they would never add their future students as “friends” (even though some stated they are aware of teachers who regularly do so) and that there is a way to bar those under 18 from viewing one’s site.

Some preservice teachers admitted that they will continue to participate in social networking sites once they begin teaching but said that they will greatly trim the content that is present on their sites. One preservice teacher already had a close encounter: “I had a professor approach me about my Facebook ac-count. She was looking at my photos from spring break expecting to see a lot of alcohol and felt re-freshed to see clean pictures and people having fun without alcohol.”

Classroom ApplicationsFor an upcoming book, I have been studying teach-ers’ uses of Web 2.0 technologies and have found that there are a variety of approaches. Some teachers live in a kind of filterless bliss and rely heavily on lengthy permission slips/release forms that parents must sign at the beginning of each school year. Other teach-ers limit students to so-called “safe” sites, such as YouthTwitter.com, and religiously monitor the com-ments that are made by students. One kindergarten teacher has set up a classroom blog but does all the typing for her very young students as they discuss the

social networking sites seemed limited to Facebook, MySpace, and various blogging sites (such as Blogspot). Their comments tended toward two major categories: the benefits (and rights) of participating and ways of participating safely.

The Benefits (and Rights) of ParticipatingMost preservice teachers reported feeling completely cut off from their friends and family when not par-ticipating in social networking sites. “I’ll continue to keep my profiles,” said Paul, “because they both offer a lot in the way of contact and information gathering. They provide groups where you can meet people with similar interests.”

Ned said, “I actually have two MySpace pages—one for my music and a personal page. I have these personal pages for many different reasons; however, the main reason is for organizational purposes. One, they allow me to keep in touch with friends and fam-ily more easily. Also, I am able to organize events and plan my schedule more easily.”

“It’s become an extension of our expression of self,” said Ellen. “We all judge people by what their profiles are like. For people in their late teens to mid-20s, it’s just become a part of everyday life.”

Some preservice teachers were defiant about los-ing their right to participate in social networking sites. “I have and will continue to use these sites to stay in contact with my friends and family,” said Amy. She went on to question why society is so frightened of teachers having genuine relationships with students (as mentors and friends). “Developing a trust in their teachers and having a genuine relationship with a teacher helps a student to get the best education he or she can, because it helps the teacher to understand the individual student and his or her needs. If we forget that basic principle of education, it’s all a lost cause.”

The Ways of Participating SafelyMany preservice teachers were vehement that they could participate in social networking sites with com-plete confidence in their privacy. And if a student or parent found their site, my students protected them-selves by carefully monitoring the content posted to

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ReferencesAssociated Press. (2007, November 11). “Ohio teachers warned

against using MySpace, other web sites.” Retrieved May 22, 2008, from www.ohio.com/news/break_news/11195031 .html

Hajdu, D. (2008). The ten-cent plague: The great comic-book scare and how it changed America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Kist, W. (2007). Basement new literacies: Dialogue with a first-year teacher. English Journal, 97(1), 43–48.

Kist, W. (2008). Film and video in classroom: Back to the future. In J. Flood, S.B. Heath, & D. Lapp (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching literacy through the communicative and visual arts (Vol. 2, pp. 521–527). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

O’Brien, D., & Scharber, C. (2008). Digital literacies go to school: Potholes and possibilities. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(1), 66–68.

Resnick, D.P. (1991). Historical perspectives on literacy and schooling. In S.R. Graubard (Ed.), Literacy: An overview by fourteen experts (pp. 15–32). New York: Hill and Wang.

ResourcesClassroom 2.0. www.classroom20.comKist, W. (in press). The Writing on the screen [Working title].

Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New tools, new schools.

Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education.

Kist teaches at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA and blogs at williamkist.com; e-mail wkist@kent.edu.

The department editors welcome reader comments. David O’Brien and Cassandra Scharber teach at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, USA; e-mail dobrien@umn.edu and scha0809@umn.edu.

chicks that have hatched in their classroom, creating a kind of online language experience. Other teach-ers, some due to constraints of their districts, set up Intranets within their districts or classrooms so that the social networking seems free and unfiltered but actually takes place in a completely off line environ-ment. Finally, the most restricted teachers are only able to involve their students in social networking simulations, either using paper or via proxy com-ments made by the teacher or others outside of class and then reported on to the class or viewed via a pro-jector display.

Closing DownAs my preservice teachers came to graduation, it seemed that a few of them suddenly caved in to the pressure, admitting that they had completely disman-tled their Facebook and MySpace sites. One preser-vice teacher said she had printed out all of her Xanga (a social networking site featuring blogs using various media) entries before closing down her site. So much for a paperless society! I felt sorry for these preservice teachers who had dropped this new, valued form of expression from their personal lives. Let’s just hope the fear factor doesn’t keep them from new ways of teaching and learning in the classroom that may use these very Web 2.0 technologies, whatever that “class-room” may be in the future.