Recently, there has been a lot of talk in the news about teacher-student friendships on social networking sites, particularly Facebook. In fact, this summer Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed a bill prohibiting most teacher-student communication on social networking sites like Facebook.
On one hand, some parents, teachers, administrators, and politicians believe that when students and teachers connect through social sites like Facebook it crosses the line into personal space and gives way for inappropriate behavior. On the other hand, some feel that social sites help facilitate teacher-student communication and can be a powerful tool for teachers. I sympathize with both sides of the argument.
Last year, when I was working at a middle school, many of my students requested me on Facebook. This was a big dilemma for me. At first I didn’t know what to do, so I ignored their requests while I made the decision to accept or decline. I wanted to accept my students’ friendship requests because it would be nice to keep in touch, but I didn’t feel comfortable hitting “confirm” because I felt it was an invasion of my privacy. I didn’t necessarily want to have full access to my students’ private life either. I decided to ask other teachers about their protocol.
Most middle school teachers I spoke to don’t add their students to Facebook, while at the high school level do. Some teachers accept friendship requests as a way of establishing a rapport with their students, although many share only limited access to their profile. Others use Facebook as a way to remind students about assignments, post supplemental references on class-related topics, or engage students in discussions. These teachers rave about how effective social networking can be since students already spend a great deal of time on Facebook. In fact, one teacher told me that students who feel uncomfortable participating in classroom discussions are often the most active participators on Facebook discussions.
In the end, I decided to decline my students’ friendship requests on Facebook. I simply didn’t have any school-related purpose for adding them to my profile since I was teaching Physical Education at the time. Plus, I just didn’t feel comfortable sharing my private life with students. After talking to other teachers about the benefits of networking with students on Facebook, it reaffirmed my belief that social media sites are useful tools in education and teachers should take advantage of them. The question is how do we take advantage of this free, useful technology while maintaining boundaries?
One option is to create a Facebook fan page. It’s completely separate from your profile page and open to the public. Another option, which I recently discovered, is to join a social networking site designed specifically for teachers, students, and parents like Edmodo.com. Edmodo is similar to Facebook, but tailored to the needs of teachers. There are several other sites that also provide powerful classroom tools, social networking, and promote digital literacy. symbalooedu.com is an organizing and sharing tool; wecollaborize.com provides discussion forums; edublogs.org is a blog host that isn’t blocked by school filters; schooltube.com is a great way to share videos; teachertube.com is another video sharing site; and moodle.org is a learning management system.
While adding students to your Facebook profile is up to you, hopefully you’ll be able to make use of some of the great digital tools that can help enhance the classroom experience.
Karla is currently enrolled in the MAT@USC with aspirations to teach in California after graduation. The MAT@USC is preparing Karla to earn her California teaching credential.
