Teacher's tough Facebook-privacy call

An elementary school teacher in Charlotte, N.C., faces the possibility of being fired for her comments about students in Facebook, the Charlotte Observer reports. Among the activities listed "teaching chitlins in the ghetto of Charlotte." Her lawyer told the Observer that she thought the comment could only be seen by her Facebook friends. So either she didn't fully understand how to use the site's privacy features or a "friend" made her comments public. In any case, her story "is now part of a national debate that pits teachers' right to free expression against how communities expect them to behave," according to the Observer. Though this is more about judgment and discretion than technology, it does point to where technology does have impact: the invisible audiences of the social Web, as mentioned by social media research danah boyd in a 2006 interview. This story makes clear that it isn't just online kids who need to be thinking about who sees what they upload to the social Web.