E-mails and the internet: Hazards to your career?

Technology can be a wonderful tool when utilized correctly and for its intended purpose.

Utilized incorrectly, technology can cause you serious professional problems, and possibly end your teaching career.

As a teacher, when you use the school's email system, you should do so with the understanding that email is not private correspondence. Do not send an email that you do not want read by persons other than the addressee because there is a very good chance it may be read by others with access to the system. The following observations are worth your time to ponder.

• The school's email system is the property of the school district. Not only can the school district regulate its usage, but there is no legitimate expectation of privacy for you when you use the system. If administration or technical employees read your email, you have no recourse. Therefore, send emails always knowing that unwanted eyes have access to what you are sending.
• The school's Internet system should be used only for education-related purposes. There is almost always a record of the sites that have been visited on your computer even if you delete the history. Schools have become very sophisticated in recovering the history of sites visited, and the authority for ultimate deletion is usually reserved for the operator of the entire system, not the operator of a particular computer. If you choose to visit inappropriate Web sites, your job, as well as your license, may be in severe jeopardy. Teachers have been recommended for termination and have had complaints filed against them with the Board of Educational Examiners where there has been evidence of visiting pornographic Web sites on school computers. As a rule of thumb: Don't visit a site or view material that you wouldn't want shown to the board of education because that is exactly who will see it in a termination hearing. When asked, as a witness, what the educational value is in those kinds of images, the teacher is usually hard pressed to intelligently answer. It is also inadvisable to visit "neutral" sites for purely personal purposes (i.e., balance checkbook on-line, personal on-line shopping, etc.). This will cause problems involving conducting personal business during working hours.
• You must be diligent in "policing" students who use the Internet while under your supervision. Districts are holding teachers responsible (sometimes unreasonably and sometimes not) for student visits to inappropriate Web sites. You must be particularly careful if students have access to your computer. If you don't have passwords to access individual computers on your system, you should insist they be installed and utilized. This is the best way to keep unauthorized users off your computer. You should also attempt to position your monitor so that you can see it from all points in your classroom. This will discourage inappropriate use by students.

Please remember that you should only access the Internet for appropriate educational purposes and try to ensure that your students do the same while under your supervision. Secondly, send every email with the thought it is subject to viewing by anyone with access to the system, and particularly the system administrator.

If you have additional questions, contact your UniServ unit office.

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