Do you think teachers should have Facebook pages? Why or why not?
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In this course, students will discover, evaluate and utilize new technologies to create educational materials. Focus will be on Web 2.0 tools and the read/write web.
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About Me
- Amy Slate
- B.A. in French Education, Drew University; M.Ed in Educational Technology, Lesley University; Ed.D candidate in Curriculum and Teaching, Boston University. Teaching certifications in CT and MA, French K-12 and Instructional Technology K-12. All-around funny, smart chick.
12 comments:
Teachers should be allowed to have facebook pages but should certainly keep much of their personal life out of the reach of their students. To remedy this they can create a facebook for professional usage or limit their profile if they are to share their information with students. If they are able to model adult usage of facebook then they can also show students from a young age how to behave professionally and maturely on social networking sites. Unfortunately, some teachers engage in questionable behaviors and if pictures, comments, attitudes, and ideas are within reach of children, they are likely to follow this form of role modeling as well which is to the detriment of our students.
I think high school teachers should be allowed to have facebook, but they should make it private to prevent students from friending them or looking at their info. A scandal at my high school happened when a photo of a teacher drinking spread like wildfire and the teacher was asked to leave afterwards! I don't understand on what grounds they could make that poor teacher leave for something the teacher couldn't control, but high school students are definitely very immature. In college though, I have friended TAs, who feel like my teachers, and of course I see their info and partying photos, but I'm a mature adult and realize that they're people too. I much rather see them as real people who I can socialize with (via facebook, maybe not go to a party with) than a book nerd who posts only educational resources. Facebook is a personal site where you're allowed to show anything about yourself that you want the public to see. If a teacher wants to make an educational facebook page, that is cool too. My college astronomy professor just made a page for his class (including new students and alumni) and it's awesome because we can all contribute by posting articles we've read or facts we've learned about. It's not just him posting, it's all of us students too, so the info is usually exciting, funny and educational.
Teachers should be about to have facebook. Just like everyone else, teachers want the chance to be able to keep in touch with friends and family. Facebook has become bigger than just social media and they should have the chance to utilize this application. I think the privacy settings on facebook do a good job in allowing teachers to have profiles without the issue of students accessing them. Although many students and teachers are friends on facebook, I think there should be some boundaries. There are some things in a teacher's personal life that students do not need and should not need to know.
Teachers should be about to have facebook. Just like everyone else, teachers want the chance to be able to keep in touch with friends and family. Facebook has become bigger than just social media and they should have the chance to utilize this application. I think the privacy settings on facebook do a good job in allowing teachers to have profiles without the issue of students accessing them. Although many students and teachers are friends on facebook, I think there should be some boundaries. There are some things in a teacher's personal life that students do not need and should not need to know.
Teachers of course should be allowed to have Facebook pages but should have discretion in what they post and have posted on their pages. Teachers are held to a higher regard by their students and if anything detrimental is posted could cause a rift between the student teacher relationship and could affect the work place. Teachers should be friends with students when the academic relationship has ended. I personally am friends with a few teachers from high school and its nice once and a while to catch up with them.
Teachers should be allowed to have facebook pages. They are just like us and should be able to use social media for personal reasons. However, just like any other person, they should be mindful of their privacy, what they post, and who they friend. It might be a bit unfair, but I do think teachers need to be more careful than most with what they share with the online world. Since they are teachers and relationships with students need to be appropriate, I personally do not think teachers should friend their students until they have graduated high school. If needed, teachers can make separate accounts or groups if they want to communicate with their students through facebook.
Teachers, or anyone in any other profession, should not be restricted in what type of social media they can engage in. I believe that people should have the freedom to do what they want, and that an occupation should not impose on someone’s liberties. I am sure that the employer (the school) is just trying to make sure the environment remains professional and that there are no controversies, but that is why they hire qualified candidates who will be smart in and outside of the classroom. This can make the student-teacher relationship difficult (if the student wants to friend the teacher), but I believe if you are qualified to obtain a job where you think this may be an issue, you will be able to handle it appropriately, whether you do not friend the student at all, friend them after they are no longer your student, or friend all your students immediately to use FB as a way to better connect to your students and have an additional educational resource.
I think that teachers should be allowed to have a Facebook page. They are normal people who have normal lives like the rest of us. It makes sense that they would have profiles on social media sites just like the rest of us. However, because teachers are role models for their students, they should be cautious about what they decide to show other people on their profiles, especially if they add students and parents as friends. Teachers can change their privacy settings or create a private Facebook account if they want to keep certain information from being shared with students, parents, or co-workers. Teachers have the right to have Facebook accounts because they want to stay up to date with what is happening with their friends and families. If they are careful about what they post, they shouldn't be forbidden to have Facebook pages.
I believe that teachers should be able to have Facebook pages. Everyone uses social networking, not just students. It is only fair that teachers have the same right to socially connect with others through Facebook and the digital world. I think that if the teacher is comfortable, they can accept/add their students as "friends" but with a limited view. Then, teachers can use Facebook to collaborate with their students through groups, messages, and etc. Since students spend a lot of time on Facebook and social networking sites, why not use it to their advantage for educational purposes? Teachers can post images and videos that may benefit the student's learning in class. But there are definitely limits. A teacher should not be able to access their students profiles or find out personal information about their students. If teachers did that, they could end up judging them based on their profiles rather than academic performance.
I don't think teachers should or should not have Facebook pages. It is up to the individual teacher to decide whether she/he wants to have one. I do think if a teacher decides to have a Facebook, they should be mindful about what information can be seen by students if a student were to find them on Facebook. They should make sure that they adjust their privacy settings so that any inappropriate personal pictures and information cannot be viewed by students. However, I think after a teacher is no longer the student's teacher, it is okay for them to accept their students friend requests and stay in touch with them on Facebook if they wish to. I remember a few of my high school teachers saying that they have a Facebook and that they will not accept student's friend requests until after they graduate because they wanted to be able to stay in touch with their past students.
Any teacher becoming FB-friends with his or her students is taking a risk that could lead to the loss of his or her job.
In the "olden" days, teachers had to be careful which bars they went to, which pharmacies they had their prescriptions filled in, and in general how they were perceived by the public. Teachers were aware that at any moment, they might meet up with the parents of their students, the administrators of their buildings, or with students themselves. Gay educators often closeted themselves for this reason, single educators would drive to the next community for dates, and some kinds of behavior (being drunk in public, for example) were just off limits. That was the reality of being employed by the public as a caretaker and role model of its children.
Fast forward to today, and you find that the social media world is simply an extension of that older social environment. Any inappropriate behavior or language that is --whether inadvertently or not-- left on the public side of FB could be viewed by children, parents, or administrators. It may seem unfair, but it is the price of the trust that is being placed in teachers as caretakers of the young.
FB-using teachers should be careful not to write, post, connect to, or "like" anything that they would not defend on the front page of the local paper. Because that is where it might end up one day.
Teachers should definitely have facebook pages for their own private use; however, facebook is not necessarily the most appropriate tool for a student-teacher relationship. Teachers should maintain their own profiles that are effectively separate from the online lives of their students. All communication can easily be facilitated through other forms of online communication such as email. One's professional life should not be combined with their personal life especially in the online world because these are two realms that have always remained separate.
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