"Social media is the devil's own work... don't even go there!" said an experienced head teacher of a secondary school giving advice to students on their last day of a PGCE, "...as a teacher, my advice is stay away from it completely or you might find yourself at least very embarrassed or at worst, deeply compromised."
I looked at the faces of the hundred-odd students and could see that not all of them were convinced. First of all, the advice was coming from someone who admitted she'd never used it herself - and I could also see some of the students felt a little patronised by the simplistic nature of it.
I meet a lot of students who've been advised by their tutors to 'be very careful with social media'- and that is good advice. As most young teachers will instantly recognise, engaging with pupils and students on any social media platform immediately confuses the boundary between a professional and a personal relationship. Social media are social networks - you know you don't have a primarily social relationship with pupils and students, you have a professional one - so meeting them in any social space naturally presents you with a challenge.
Even if you accept this head teacher's advice and steer clear of any social media platform, you will be challenged by other circumstances and contexts that will test your judgement about where that boundary lies.
In my view, someone warning you in rather alarmist terms, to steer clear of what is an ill-defined boundary anyway doesn't actually help you to negotiate that boundary if and when you do stumble across it - as you inevitably will.
Just think what it's like for teachers who live and work in rural communities where the pupils and students they teach - their 'clients' if you like - may also be the children of their neighbours and friends.
My advice is go ahead and use social media as much or as little as you like. You are an adult after all. Just remember that you also have the accountability of an adult - and a professional person.
Alan Newland worked as a teacher, teacher-trainer and headteacher in London for over 20 years and then for a decade with the DfE and the GTC. He now lectures on teaching and runs the award-winning social media network newteacherstalk. You can follow him on Twitter at @newteacherstalk.
You may be interested in his course in ‘The Foundations of Professionalism in Teaching’ – a 3-module course with over 4.5 hours of HD quality video presentations, additional course reading and materials, self assessment exercises and completion certificates.
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