I recently introduced a colleague to twitter. She is going to a conference and I was trying to get her enthused about all the active discussion that occurs during a conference on social media if you know where to look. I showed her my twitter stream and her comment was
You have lots of photos of hands
The recent photos on my twitter page
Which is quite right, but it bugged me for some reason that I can’t quite put my finger on.
I share things going on in my classroom (especially on twitter, and sometimes on my blog) with the hope of giving other people ideas about what to use in their teaching and learning programs. I like seeing snapshots of things happening in other peoples classrooms to – it gives me ideas.
But I deliberately make a choice to not include my students faces when I can help it. Sometimes I ask, other times I don’t. I guess I don’t exactly always know where these images will end up. Some students/families in my school have not given permission for photos of their student to be taken or used. Some student clamour to be in photos, others shrink from the camera.
So in terms of digital citizenship, it is perhaps a good idea to not show the faces of my students. But am I dehumanising them by only showing their hands? Am I only telling part of the story? Am I playing it too safe?
ibpossum takes on tech 
I also take photos of hands, unless I have students permission, and will ask before putting onto any social media. They sign a digital content form in the beginning of the year, which gives us permission to use their photo in certain contexts. I need to double-check if Twitter is covered. If in doubt, keep the hands. Students are usually happy to consent, I would say “#BFC630NZ photo topic this week is X, do you mind if I share this photo?”
Thanks – It really made me think about whether this is a school or personal thing. Will def stick to hands for now… and hope people trust the students aren’t crying in the background 🙂