IN in the present day’s digital age, social media platforms play a significant function in the lives of our society. In Malaysia, media has turn into an vital software for us to purchase, create and disseminate information and knowledge.
With roughly 26.8 million customers, or 78.5% of the inhabitants, Malaysians use social media to talk, join with others and take part in and form their world group (Meltwater Social Media Statistics for Malaysia, 2023).
As individuals spend extra time on-line, whether or not for work, college or social interplay, further consideration is required to handle points equivalent to disinformation, deep fakes, information privacy and learners’ digital well-being.
The Education Ministry has established tips relating to the suitable use of social media platforms by lecturers since 2017. Teachers have been suggested to adhere to these tips diligently, and it has been emphasised that strict measures might be carried out ought to there be any breach.
The National Parent-Teacher Association has disclosed that they obtain at the very least one criticism day by day from dad and mom relating to their youngsters being featured as content material on lecturers’ social media.
Ensuring the safety of learners’ information and privacy is essential throughout the training sector. Education expertise functions in the Southeast Asia area gather information on college students, together with location and studying actions.
The swap to on-line studying throughout Covid-19 uncovered youngsters’s information, but lower than one in three nations assure information privacy in training by regulation or coverage (United Nations (UN) Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation Global Education Monitoring Report, 2023).
Given the profound significance of expertise and social media instruments in the sphere of training, lecturers and fogeys should exhibit proficiency in their utilisation.
While social media can pose privacy dangers, they are often managed with knowledgeable utilization. There can be an enormous upside the place social media could be a useful gizmo for modelling digital citizenship. Teachers can utilise social media to:
Share greatest instructing and studying practices. By discussing greatest practices and pedagogies, colleges can be part of the net training group and make hyperlinks with different colleges.
Provide an genuine viewers for his or her college students’ work. Simple posts exhibiting youngsters’s work could immediate discussions at residence and strengthen the hyperlink between studying in school and residential.
Cultivate digital citizenship and values amongst college students, and construct extra related college communities. Many colleges spotlight their college values inside their posts, and lecturers look out for good examples to share.
According to the Common Sense Education (2022), there are three questions you must ask earlier than posting something out of your classroom or college on social media:
1. Is there something in this submit that personally identifies me or my college students?
2. Do I’ve specific permission to submit it? You often want parental consent to share scholar info. Refer to the social media tips and privacy coverage in your college to find out how info is protected, collected and used.
3. Is what I’m posting furthering the training of my college students or different learners? Let dad and mom know if college students want to talk with individuals outdoors your class (different lessons, specialists and authors).
Schools ought to get hold of parental consent earlier than posting pictures of youngsters on social media. Additionally, it’s advisable to ask learners, whereas taking a photograph, if they’re comfy with it being shared on the college’s social media platform. Full names shouldn’t be included alongside the pictures. Some colleges go the additional mile by blurring the faces of the kids as an extra safeguarding measure.
Another major concern for colleges when establishing a social media presence is the potential for destructive feedback on the college’s web page. The key lies in making considerate decisions relating to the settings.
With the privacy settings function, college lecturers can resolve who’s allowed to comply with them, ship posts or feedback, react to movies, participate in a duet and ship them messages. They are additionally ready to keep away from undesirable content material from being downloaded, create and edit a block listing, arrange a direct messaging button for folks to voice issues and arrange a code of conduct which lecturers and fogeys should comply with.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child launched General Comment No. 25 in February 2021, highlighting the extension of youngsters’s rights to the digital sphere. This landmark doc underscores the significance of defending youngsters’s dignity and making certain their equal rights in bodily and digital environments.
Similarly in Malaysia, measures to handle on-line dangers embody the Personal Data Protection Act 2010, in which the first function is to oversee and regulate private information processing, emphasising safety and prevention of misuse in business contexts.
Furthermore, elevating consciousness concerning the potential dangers related to information and privacy is important. It is essential to determine gaps in the present practices of faculties to make sure the digital security of learners whereas empowering lecturers and residents, together with dad and mom, with media and knowledge literacy competencies. This will make the instructing and studying course of extra resistant to exterior challenges and threats, and contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.
The author is a media and knowledge literacy researcher, educator and coach. She is at the moment pursuing her PhD at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang. Comments: [email protected]
