If a student and instructor were to be connected through social media, I feel that the utmost care must be taken and there must be no fraternization on any level. It must be held to purely academic standards and topics.
I would use facebook for personal post and have students as friends, but for a discussion tool to discuss certain topics discussed in the classroom.
I definitely believ that social media is now a tool to use in engaging younger students. There world has become centered around posts, status updates and technology. Although I teach sociology and psychology classes and one subject I teach about is interpersonal relationships. I always have concerns because with so much technology and media I feel some students have forgot the basics of how to interact with other people face to face and we dont want to fully disregard that in class rooms. Students need to physically work together to learn good eye contact, reading body language, being presentable for interviews, etc...
I am not sure on this matter. With all the new social media outlets there could be good or bad effects. I would rather not use this new technology.
Our campus does not allow this either. Is there a trend to change this?
I do believe that students and instructors should be connected on social media with the proviso that the instructor "keeps it real". -That is, the student/instructor relationship is based upon and exists within an academic and, for the instructor, a professional framework. Very often sensitive social lines are crossed regardless of the best of intentions. It is the responsibility of the instructor to specify and maintain the protocol and propriety of the social exchange.
Yes and No. I believe that instructors should have two accounts one professional and one personal. the hardest part is keeping them separate. Making sure you don't "friend" students on your personal account or personal friends on your "professional account". That being said, when I can't contact my students by phone or the usual methods I can go to Facebook or Twitter and find them in very short order. So Facebook has actually helped me with retention of students as well as keeping them up to date on what is going on in class.
As I said the hard part is keeping the two separated and not friending yourself between the two accounts.
Absolutely not while you are the instructor, and they are your students. Nor for quite awhile after that time.
I have "friended" a few former students from the past, some of which I have regretted and, subsequently, defriended. I have no desire to see/read what they do in their free time. It's simply none of my business, and I prefer to think of my students as simply my students, not in the roles they take on with their friends and in their personal lives.
However, I thoroughly enjoy being "friends" with a few stellar scholars which I previously taught. It's rewarding to see them as grown-ups, parents, professionals (many are teachers), and peers. I believe it all depends on the age and maturity level. Many of my students didn't seek/find me on FB until they were approaching or in their 30's.
There are plusses and minuses to both. Instructors who connect with students on social media outlets do connect and relate with them by 'speaking their language' in a sense.
However, it does seem like every day the news carries a story of a teacher who crosses the line using social media in a variety of ways. While this is obviously an error on the part of the individual not the technology, it does begat the question of if the medium was not available, would these issues occur.
Sad to say, it does seem like the use of social media outlets have to very carefully used and any school or institution would be wise to have very specific guidelines created and established for any use of social media between instructor and student.
It is hard when you teach in an environment with students of varying ages (which I do) to consider social media being that valuable. This is because it is viewed differently by the different generations. It is also a concern when access to computers, money for ISP's and bandwith problems or even availability (rural areas) still is a huge problem to overcome. Jumping into social media use threatens to make outsiders of the poor when it comes to collaborative education. There is also the major problem privacy which is still important to many. Much of social media is public and can be problematic because it is public
Our school is strict about teacher and student interaction out of class. I think just advise what sites to look up material would be a great asset.
I think that the students and instructors should be connected on only those social media sites which are created by the college. They can post their comments on the site. Other than this I would never befriend my student on FB while I am teaching them in that semester.
this all of my students they say fackbook is out i think it is just the age of the people you teach
The primary concern is maintaining a persona as an instructor more than a "friend" in the sense of social media.
An instructor can set up an alternative "instructor" account, but the student will still accecpt (or more likely deny) friend requests on their personal account.
Students do not want instructors viewing their personal posts, and I don' blame them.
For graduates in the same field, one may be linkedin or "friends" on a professional level. As an instructor and collegue they could be sharing professional content, however often on the same platform people share personal photos and stories that they may not want shared with their collegues. Some social platforms are more professional than others
The challenge then is to connect and get content in front of students in a platform that they check everyday, and this usually falls into the FB and Twitter platform which also cross the line into personal territory. Linkedin is great for sharing professional content, but the challenge is to get students to use it regularly.
My college institution has a fraternization policy that prevents instructors from becoming facebook friends with students. Our campus does, however, have instagram!
Students are familiar with social media networking. I feel that students will participate more by checking blogs, twitter, face book, while online using there personal media outlets. I can see that monitoring postings could become a chore.
I agree with Stephen. Social media is a great way to share information and photos of their food (work), however, the fine line between the personal lives and professional lives can be confusing. Social outlets like Facebook is an example of this. Yet, soical outlets like Linkin is a great example of a professional site for this purpose
I feel students and instructors should connect on professional social networks such as linkedin, but should not be connected through facebook or intagram because then you can begin to blur the line of student and instructor.
I have never subscribed to social media such as Facebook because I'm not sure how to separate family/friends/students. Frankly, I want to remain private and professional to my students and don't want them seeing pictures or posts from my friends and family. Am I the only one who feels this way? It seems like it. All my colleagues Facebook and I constantly hear students comment about private pictures or posts they have seen on their professors's FB page.
I believe that social media like Facebook can be useful in the classroom. It may be helpful to use other websites than Fascebook. Our school has our own social media website. It may be that the instructors can find a way to share information and utilize this website to engage the student while using technology during class.
One can post a blog about a particular subject and include hype links to other information such as web pages, pictures or Youtube videos.
