Is Social Media an Appropriate Avenue for Making Practice Public?
I currently serve as the Director of Education Technology in a mid-sized public school district. As such, I feel a keen duty to spend public funds responsibly and in a manner that would be pleasing to the vast majority of those tax-payers who provide for the students in our care.
Because my department is in the business of technology and because technology lives in constant flux, I receive my share of requests for technology purchases: by teachers, by staff members, and even by principals in the schools I serve.
What do you think would happen if I required that all requests for purchases be made with a publicly-viewable account on Twitter or other social network? (Even though school district spending records are already publicly available, I don't think they're frequently reviewed.)
- Do you think requiring openness when making purchase requests would be worthwhile?
- Would it potentially cause more issues than it might alleviate?
- Would it save money?
