One of the thoughts that bounced around the noggin this weekend was about how the new term is going to bring a whole host of new people back to campus and schools in general. This is nothing new, It’s happened for more than a century (at least the September return), but as we enter the newest semester, there are more things for new and old teachers/instructors to deal with – Protecting one’s image. I’m not just talking about reputation, I’m talking literally about the image because sadly, the same technology that has made digital storytelling so accessible, has also made the creation of slander and propaganda easier as well.
The latest case is a teacher in the US who has had a video of her cut in an unflattering manner posted to Youtube for over a year. Google has yet to remove it (I guess, there is no advertiser to please there… some evil marks for the big G – maybe they should look into the “Think before you post” campaign) to protect her, but with any luck, if more people start to speak up, this kind of thing can be limited, if not eliminated. Digital technology has made voyeurism far too easy and there should be a level of responsibility taken on the part of the companies that commonly host material to make effort to protect people and not just corporations.
So what can be done to protect yourself? I can’t really say – there are HD cameras that are the size of your had that can be hiding in the upper rows of your lecture hall (the most likely place in post secondary to be recorded) or anywhere in the audience at an assembly. I don’t know if it’s right to ban these – as some people may have a legitimate reason for using a recording. But what I can suggest is that if you are worried, know that anything can be edited together to misrepresent, so at the very least, don’t give the “baddies” any good raw material from which to start from. This means:
- dress appropriately for the function, or if in doubt, a little more formal and conservative
- watch what you say – you don’t want to get clipped together to say something you never did
- be yourself
If you follow these ideas (granted, they are off the top of my head, but I’ve shared these with TAs and Grad students who were nervous about being in front of the class in the past), even if you are subjected to this manner of abuse, it will be obvious what your role was and what they have done to manipulate the record.
I’ve started a new category for this kind of thing as I think it’s going to become an increasingly sensitive issues for teachers and instructors at all levels.
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