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Should Teachers Friend Their Students?
I got my August copy of Learning & Leading from ISTE (the International Society for Technology in Education) this week. There was an interesting counterpoint on the question of whether teachers should "friend" their students.
Marsha Redd says "yes." She's a library media specialist in a Michigan school. Jeannine Ortiz says "no." She's an English language arts teacher in New York.
The arguments are familiar. I published my own pieces about what's good and what's bad about social networking in school. Some people say it's become normal social behavior - no different than acknowledging your students when you see them at the mall. Other's feel it's somehow inappropriate (and they throw in that teachers ought to be allowed to have a private life).
I side with Marsha in most ways. I don't think there's anything inherently inappropriate in friending your students on a social network. (Like Marsha, I never actually initiate that relationship, I just respond when they friend me.) Social networking is just a medium. We talk constantly about extending learning beyond the classroom and this is just part of that.
Conversely, I do have a life of my own. How do I reconcile that? I do it partly by maintaining separate social networks. Students (and their parents) friend me on MySpace, and I friend them back. My life on Facebook is my own, more or less. So far no students have tried to friend me there. But about a third of my students have friended me on MySpace.
The state of West Virginia may soon make the situation even less of a problem. They're working on their own closed social network for educators and students. Despite stereotypes about the state, West Virginia is leading the nation in the use of educational technology. Their model for social networks may make dealing with this issue a little simpler.
It's an issue that's likely to hang around.