Saturday, March 2, 2013
Teachers, Students and Social Networks
Of the articles included in last week's readings, I found the one titled "Facebook or Faceblock: Cautionary Tales Exploring the Rise of Social Networking within Tertiary Education" to be especially interesting. In it, author Peter Duffy describes both the pitfalls and advantages of integrating social media into the classroom. The term itself, "social networking," helps to indicate the intention of such sites. Although some social networks like LinkedIn were designed with the intention of networking for a career minded user base, sites such as Facebook and MySpace were not. Their designers honed in on the desire of individuals to stay connected with friends and family, hence the term "social." Adapting a tool that, from the outset, was primarily designed for communication among friends is a challenging proposition. It has been proven time and time again that social networks, especially Facebook, can be utilized for positive endeavors beyond keeping friends connected. One only needs to look at the way in which Facebook is being used to raise awareness and funding for the relief of natural disaster victims around the world to understand the positive impact of social networks when used responsibly. On the other hand, one can also see the negative aspects of social networking by reading the jaw dropping news stories about teachers friending students, such as those mentioned in NBC News columnists Bob Sullivan's October 22, 2010 article "Teachers, students and Facebook, A Toxic Mix." Sullivan gives several examples of teachers who had their careers destroyed as they opened their personal lives to students via Facebook. I find it amazing what some of the teachers posted on Facebook. I also find it unsettling that the teachers in the article demonstrated such an unconscionable lack of self control that they would post the material, knowing that it would be read by impressionable youth. I wonder if they ever stopped to consider how detrimental their actions were to themselves, their students, their schools, and their families. Social networks can be powerful instructional tools, but I think that Facebook in particular is primarily a truly social tool and using it as a means of communication between students and teachers can be risky. To address the issue, many school districts are forbidding teachers from friending students on social networks, much like the New York City School District did in Spring 2012. However, I do think that it is important to teach young people the responsible use of social networks, and there are other alternatives aside from Facebook. Tools such as Twiducate, Teachade, and Edmodo serve to teach the proper use of social networks while providing a safe environment for both students and teachers.
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There is an interesting trend of teachers and other professionals looking for an alternative way to communicate with each other, especially since sites like Facebook are dangerous to job security. Here's an article on the topic from HuffPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/08/teachers-gravitate-to-soc_n_2433747.html
ReplyDeleteI think it's only a matter of time before more teachers and professionals in the public sphere switch to more secure ways of communicating with their friends, family and co-workers. I agree that sometimes I am appalled what "professionals" put on their Facebooks, and I'm not surprised that there are negative consequences to their actions. Gone are the days that "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." We have to protect ourselves.
As an information professional, it is our responsibility to bring sites like Edmodo to the attention of teachers. I personally love Edmodo, and I use another site, www.engrade.com, for all of my grading. Edublogs is also useful when a teacher wants to incorporate blogging into his or her curriculum. It is also in our realm of responsibility to caution educators or other constituents about the risks and rewards of new software and technology like Facebook, Snapchat, and even oldies like email. The "I didn't know" defense doesn't do much good once something has happened, and we can take it upon ourselves to inform others.
Hey Will,
ReplyDeleteI read the same article and found it to be very informative. It is amazing to see how students use social media as ways of communication and updates. I think this would be a great tool to use in education if one could set up parameters to guide the students during their use. I really get a kick out of how this class (discussion and readings) have opened my eyes to what was going on in front of me in a classroom and education setting.
This article made me remember when I was in high school and how it was not a big deal at all to not talk on the phone or worry about what others were doing-now students and adults post every movement of their life. Good work this week on your post
Chris
Good post. I have said before I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I think it can be a wonderful tool when used properly and has great potential for spreading information. However users must apply common sense. I do not feel it is appropriate for students and teachers to be friends on Facebook. If I were a teacher I would never dream of friending a student because I would want my privacy and there should be boundaries between students and teachers. People should also adopt a policy of not posting things that they would not say or share with anyone in person and create privacy setting and group settings to control their information. Teachers and other adults need to model appropriate behavior on social networking sites as well. We can talk to young people about what is appropriate and not appropriate. Unfortunately social media is sometimes the public restroom wall of the 21st century. Kids have always spread rumors and gossip and written notes or scrawled bad things about their peers or teachers on the wall. This could be public, but it was still somewhat contained and did not spread quite as quickly. Now rumor and gossip can be dispersed in a flash. Technology is a tool and not inherently good or bad, it is the way it is use that can be positive or negative. We should all approach our use of it with a healthy dose of caution.
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