Web 2.0 is changing the way that pupils relate to teachers at schools in the form of RateMyTeachers. Will this dynamic also apply in the world of work?
Ratemyteachers is a community site where pupils and parents can rate teachers on a variety of criteria from clarity to coolness. What I think is more significant than the ratings is the fact that the rating process is actually going on. It raises several questions:
- Will it fundamentally alter the balance of power so that the credibility and authority of teachers is reduced further after the bashing the profession takes from the media?
- Will it actually help identify teachers who are undperforming, or more positively give credit to teachers who are under-recognised?
- Will it mean that teachers will be more inclined to do what’s popular rather than what’s educationally right for their classes?
- Are people savvy enough to take the comments with a pinch of salt or will they get used literally as a means of promotion/ recruitment? Presumably teachers that have taken a load of flak at one school will find it pretty hard to move onto another if their performance has been put in the public domain?
- And then the question is whether RateMyTeachers will transfer into the corporate world as RateMyBoss or RateMyTrainer. If so, would this be a good thing?
Given the effect of the microscope of press/ blogging community on the performance of England football managers, I doubt this level of scrutiny is actually long term helpful to the people being managed. However, possibly those firms that do not have a formal 360 feedback process might bring forward plans to do so, rather than have it imposed by a public website.
Throughout the whole arena of Web 2.0, a balance will evolve between people’s desire to comment and what is actually helpful information sustaining good performance. It remains to be seen which twists and turns we experience before reaching the new equilibrium.
