Thursday, August 04, 2011

MSTA spokeswoman: Facebook Law is vague

Great timing.

Now that Sen. Jane Cunningham's bill banning teacher/student Facebook communication has become law, an MSTA spokeswoman criticizes the law.

Why was there no criticism from MSTA or MNEA before the bill was passed or before it was signed into law?

The following passage is from an article in the Nevada Daily Mail:

MSTA spokeswoman Aurora Meyer said Tuesday from Columbia that Facebook, the new Blackboard network and texting have become students' preferred methods of communication. "The law is vague," Meyer said, explaining that exactly what it prohibits is unclear.

"We feel they're lumping a lot of things together and throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There's a lot of gray areas with social networking like teachers using Facebook chat to help students cope with homework questions.

"I know a teacher who was having a Facebook conversation and realized the student was not being herself. Something was wrong. The teacher got in touch with a counselor and got into the middle of a situation she wouldn't have known about if she hadn't been having that conversation.

"We ask teachers to be mentors and counselors and this will inhibit their ability to do that."

No comments: