Moral Spaces in MySpace: Preservice Teachers' Perspectives about Ethical Issues in Social Networking

Source: Journal of Research on Technology in Education, Volume 42 No. 1, Fall 2009.

MySpace and Facebook are innovative digital communication tools that surpass traditional means of social interaction. However, in some instances in which educators have used these tools, public reactions to them have resulted in sanctions.

With the notion that traditional ideas of privacy and teacher conduct are not yet defined in online worlds, the researchers developed a case-based reasoning intervention to support more informed decisions by preservice teachers. The case-based coursework led students to perceive a need for more definitive guidelines about their participation in social networking spaces.

The findings have professional development implications for educators and educational institutions that wish to harness the positive potential of social networking tools without risking professional status.