Social Networking

After reading several articles on social networking in relation to education, I recognize the value of using social networking to communicate with students for course related communication. However, I do not know if I would classify that value as a “great advantage”. An advantage in some aspects, yes, but not one that comes without great complications and adds more work to a teacher’s already heavy load.

In Harriet L. Schwartz’s article “Facebook: the new classroom commons?” she shares her own experience as a teacher that uses Facebook, twitter and she even goes so far as to be accessible via text messaging for her students. She goes on to elaborate about the convenience of social networking and how it has strengthened her relationships with her students, finally settling on the validity of using social networking as an additional platform for teaching. She concludes, “So perhaps for students, Facebook truly is an extension of the classroom in which all kinds of connections take place, some routine and some substantial.”

Drawing from our Character course, “being human” and building personal relationship counts for a lot with high school students. Yet, after spending eight hours a day with students I think I am going to want to limit my after-hours interactions and maintain a level of privacy. I think Stephanie makes an excellent point in her post stating that students if given the chance, could invade your private life and as a teacher you could run the risk of “…spend[ing] my evenings and weekends answering questions as they pop onto my Facebook screen”.

If I were to employ social networking in all of it’s glory, I would definitely want to take some severe precautions, such as setting up a class-only Facebook group just as we have for our Orange Cohort group. This of course would give me much more control and the ability to monitor comments. I can imagine myself utilizing this source in my future classrooms as a means to remind students of due-dates and assessments and clarify information, but for me that’s where I feel the line needs to be drawn. I agree with Shannon’s post that states, “Face to face conversations will happen with students regardless of technology. Teachers need appropriate boundaries with their students”. I am much more interested in having a real relationship with students as opposed to cultivating a cyber dialogue.

As far as teachers being held to a different standard in regards to social networking, I mostly cannot believe the stupidity demonstrated by some of the teachers in the articles we read. Accepting students as friends and then complaining about their bad behavior online or engaging in lewd interactions with them is a lack of common sense and is just begging for outside attention and discipline (Have you googled your teacher lately?). Natalie Munroe should have used better professional judgment if she wanted to blog about the stressful realities of being a teacher, or at least published the blog under another name without her picture. It isn’t as if these teachers did not know the professional expectations of TSPC beforehand.

Just as teachers need to use the “golden rule” if you will, in regards to students, I believe that every kid deserves the right to have schools be a safe and secure place free from cyber-bullying from peers. As a teacher I will certainly be on the lookout for bullying of all types at my school, I think that we have the power to regulate and minimize what occurs and it is sad to me that so many teachers have ignored problems, citing that the bullying occurred off-campus so they do not feel it is their responsibility. Unfortunately, it is our responsibility. As we are learning in our Character course, teachers are responsible for teaching morals and life-skills, which include being a kind human who does not berate others, to the point in some cases, where several students have commit suicide. So while some critics might think being made fun of is only a rite of passage, with the multiplying new mediums of how one can bully, I will be on the lookout to make sure my classroom is the most secure environment that it can possibly be.