One current hot topic in education is whether or not teachers should be friends with their students on Facebook. What is your opinion? Give at least two benefits and two possible dangers of using Facebook with students. What guidelines should be in place?
How would I respond to this post? Read below to find out:
Many tools in life are wonderful when used properly and a huge danger when used improperly. Take cars, for example. They are extremely convenient when used correctly, but take lives when used incorrectly. Computers are great resources but can be used incorrectly and cause problems as well. I feel Facebook also falls into this category.
I think teachers can use Facebook with their students as long as they are careful to do so in a responsible manner. Obviously, teachers could not post inappropriate things (and probably shouldn't anyway). Teachers would need to maintain an extremely high standard of conduct.
Benefits? Well, for one, students could easily get in touch with their teachers at any time for help in classes. Furthermore, if students are having personal problems, and they get serious enough, teachers could let the counselors and/or parents know. Furthermore, teachers would serve as possible role models for students.
Dangers? For one, people other than you can post on your Facebook, causing issues with guilt by association. Some people also feel that getting on a personal level with one's students is quite dangerous and could be considered inappropriate.
Guidelines? Teachers should either have a seperate Facebook for school and personal use or have an extremely limited filter on what students can see. Schools would need to set extremely stringent standards of conduct on how teachers can communicate with students online.
All in all, communication of this sort is a wonderful resource if and only if it is used correctly.
I think this is a great idea and a great topic to bring up. I don't think a lot of people that want to be teachers think about this issue. I have thought about it a lot and have decided that when I become a teacher, I will make a separate account for my students. Not that I would be posting inappropriate things on my personal page, but my students do not need to know what is going on in my personal life and what my friends or family post on my wall.
ReplyDeleteHey Isaac!
ReplyDeleteI love this post, perhaps because you did break from the mold and went the opinion route directly. Generally, we want students to bring in their own thoughts and ideas about the blog post prompts, but most of the time that only happens superficially. You managed to dig past that and I'm glad. Anyway, creating the Facebook page for EDM310 was actually my Final Project for this class, and there have been good and bad things about it. It does make it easier for you students to get in touch with the lab assistants, but it's also sort of developed into a cop-out for some people to have excuses not to come into lab.
Have a great Thanksgiving! (Watch out for cranberry sauce!)