Mind Reader Dave- A hit!

In my last post I mentioned the responsibility of educators to alert students to the dangers of online sources being erroneous or, worse, deliberately misleading.  Of course there is also the wider issue of the hazards posed by posting our personal information online, through the use of online banking, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc.

Whilst we are all getting pretty used to the fact that we can have virtual 'friendships', business relationships as well as updating friends (whether virtual or actual), acquaintances and the like with practically our every move (cue photos of my dinner), we don't seem to be quite as good at realising that what we choose to post online is NEVER really deleted and can come back and cause us real problems.  With this in mind, I recently ran a seminar debate with my students entitled:- 'How useful is social media for the purposes of employment?'.  Students were arbitrarily divided into 'pro' social network and 'anti' social network groups and given a week to research the topic.

The results were interesting.  All participants seemed to view social network from the position of recruitment (as in, is it right that employers view Facebook profiles when making decisions to interview?), rather than from the perspective of the individual posting things on to social networking sites that may be deemed as inappropriate when in employment (or otherwise!).  Also missing was any consideration of the advantages or disadvantages of using social media in an employment context (i.e., for liaising with work colleagues or educational purposes).  I think this says a lot about our current attitude to social media.  The focus is not upon the responsibility of the individual to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner whilst online, but rather upon the rights of the individual to behave improperly without an employer using this in 'judgement' as to their suitability for a given role.

As can often happen, the debate became a bit tangential, with passionate arguments about the freedom of the individual to express themselves and the equity of some having access to things like the internet and some less fortunate not having this luxury but in all, I felt it summed up how we tend not to take ownership of things we post online in the same way as we would in person, or say, writing a letter.  I wanted to make these students see that what we post online can, and sometimes will be used against us and we must approach any dealings we have online with this very much in mind.  So, I used 'Dave' the 'mind reader'.  This is a Youtube clip shown to us during our recent ICT module which I felt summed up being careful online beautifully.  Basically, mind reader Dave can tell you anything about yourself- he can even tell you your BANK DETAILS.

It was an absolute hit with the students.  An excellent way of driving this point home.  I'm not going to spoil it- watch it here for yourself.  Prepare to be amazed.........