Sunday, June 28, 2009
Should Teachers Share Socially with Students
Facebook and MySpace are all the rage. They are a very popular way for people to connect socially with others. Is it appropriate for teachers? I just had to read two articles for my Masters class that are opposite ends of the spectrum on this issue. I have a hard time with one article saying that teachers should not be allowed to open their own Myspace or Facebook page...and some are even being fired over it. On the other side the second article states that educators should be able to "share, blog and flirt" just like the rest of the world. Why do people need to take such extremes? It seems like our society is such a gluttonous place...we can't ever do anything in moderation. Is it possible for teachers like me to still be given the rights of freedom without crossing the line?
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Oh, your kids are SO cute! And I loved your story about "kids day"
ReplyDeleteI have been reading and thinking a bit about the issues of social networking among teachers. A post I read on a listserv recently encouraged us to think about social networking as an extension of any social interaction. If we we met one of our kids in a store, or saw one of the parents of our kids at a soccer game, would be NOT interact with them? Would we not share some personal information? Would our administrators or others have some objection to social interactions in these situations? Probably not...it would, in fact, be rude not to interact with our parents & kids in these social situations out of school.
What does this mean for social networking? Is it just an extension, and an increasing common one, of the interactions as we have in the non-digital world? And, shouldn't educators be trusted to use good judgment in such social interactions--in the "real" or virtual world?
I wonder if we make things more complicated than they need to be by always thinking of technology as something totally "new" or "different," when it does fulfill some of the same purposes (e.g., interaction) that humans have always sought?