Tuesday 25 October 2011

When It Comes To Facebook What Are The Student/Teacher Boundaries






Facebook is a place to connect with friends and family. Personally I find it weird when I meet someone briefly and see a friendship invitation the next day. Its intention isn’t for random strangers to interact, it’s not Lavalife or Meet Me in TO. So when it comes to teachers being friends with students what should the policy be? I don’t think I would want my teachers to have access to my Facebook page, it’s a place where I have conversations with my friends and talk about how much I’m dreading doing this week’s homework. That being said there are some ways that teachers having access to students on Facebook have been beneficial:



-A teacher stopped a campus shooting at a University



-It has prevented bullying



-Has stopped some teen suicides



A survey done of high school students and their parents showed that parents do not find it appropriate for students to interact with their teacher via social media, while 61% of students believe they should be able to. I don’t think being friends with a teacher on Facebook is appropriate but there are other social media tools such as LinkedIn and Twitter that can be good connections for students to make via their teachers. The Ontario College of Teachers website has designed a handbook and video to educate teachers on proper conduct with students on social media sites.



Do you think it's appropriate for teachers to be friends with students on Facebook?

No comments:

Post a Comment