"Just don't do it" Ouch!

From the Red Tape Chronicles, Teachers, Students and Facebook, a Toxic Mix
(http://redtape.msnbc.com/2010/10/the-headlines-conjure-up-every-parents-nightmare-teachers-fired-for-flirting-on-facebook-with-students-the-new-york-post-r.html)

“If it were me, and I were a teacher, I’d say just don't do it,” she said. “Don’t engage in social networking with students at all. The name says it all. It’s about social networking. Social. Those are not the kinds of relationships that teachers are supposed to have with students. ... A wise district says to teachers that they should never engage in peer-like activity with students -- ever. Every interaction between students and teacher should be professional.” 

Granted the article is related to k-12 teaching and learning but wow does that strike a chord!What is important is the last sentance of the quote, interaction should in deed be professional. However, what the is being said is that we should not have social interaction between students and teachers, which goes againts some of the pedagogical and sociological theories necessary for engagment and knowledge acquisition. Facebook and others provide greater access to interaction and support, collaboration and cooperative learning, things that may not happen during a normal face to face school day at the k-12 level (Anderson, 2009). Social networking has the potential to open up doors of new learning but professionalism does come into place and net-equitte for student and teachers needs to be taught and enforced. A middle school teacher I know was bombarded with requests from students (and parents) to join her Facebook page, while you won't see college day regrettable photos, you are likely to see things that maybe you don't want to share with some. The answer for her was to create a Facebook page specifically for students and parents. This takes additional time and effort of the teacher, but then it can be focused less on the personal aspects and more on appropriate interaction.

Social networking is not going to dwindle away, it is every where one turns, and appeals to the younger student population. The appeal of and use of applications such as Facebook may in fact increase the level of interaction and learning from others. What more, the students are more comfortable in this setting then in classrooms and learning platforms because they also use them in every day life (Shroeder & Greenbowe, 2009).

Facebook is a tool, it is in how we use it that is important. Limiting the opportunities for social interaction among teachers and students, and collaboration outside classroom walls, inhibits learning opportunities. The kids/students are going to do it and if we want to reach them, then we need to exploit the potential as much as possible, not run from it.


referenced materials:
Anderson, T. (2009) Social Netwrking in Education. A draft paper to STRIDE hanbook for The Indian Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)

Schroeder, J., and Greenbowe, T. (2009) The chemistry of facebook: Using social networking to create an online community for the organic chemistry labratory. Innovate 5(4).