Tena Crews

Sarah,

There are other products you can use such as Ning. Or, you can simply use the discussion board. The key is to have a place students can to go get information and share information in a safe environment.

Kimberly Langer

Another suggestion I have is creating a separate Facebook page for your students only. That way you can keep your personal life personal but allow them to feel connected to you.

Tena Crews

Kimberly,

Correct. That is what I did. I set up a private group just for my class. Thanks for bringing this up in the forum.

Rhonda Lewis

I have not used facebook, but I have thought about it. I am more familiar with Adobe Connect or Iconnect. These are great tools to use in an online environment.

Tena Crews

Rhonda,

We all find the tools that work for us and use them to the best of our/their ability. It's good to branch out sometimes and try new things too.

Katherine Sanger

Hi Sarah,

Personally, I don't use Facebook for my classes; I find it awkward, and there are plenty of other services out there that seem much more capable of handling what I need. I can see how it might make it a good way to connect, and I do allow my students to friend me (they're all in college, and I do watch what I post anyway). That has helped me in the past; when a student vanished from the online course, I was able to find out that she'd been affected by an earthquake in her area that knocked out her internet access because she also had vanished from FB and, when everything came back, she quickly reappeared there to reassure her friends things were okay. That also let me know that she was able to log in. Sneaky. :)

I can see how, if the class was longer, setting up a "group" might be helpful to allow students to connect, but currently I teach five week classes, and I think that setting up groups for that might not be worthwhile. Has anyone else tried FB groups?

Thanks,
Kate

Tena Crews

Katherine and Sarah,

We all have our personal feelings about social media. I'm glad you two continued the conversation. Thank you.

William Huber

Sarah,

I think I might be a little concerned about having students friend me with all the problems we see regarding the student instructor relationships. It seems as this can open up an opportunity that I personally do not want to be involved with. I also know teachers that give students their cell number and get text messages. Again I just think it's better not to even open this up. I play the game of better safe then sorry. Lots of times the instructor does not even need to do anything and it only takes one student to suggest that something was said for it to come back on you. Sorry just personal opinion on the matter.

William Huber

Tena Crews

William and Sarah,

This is one area in which we all have to do what makes us feel comfortable. Consistent and timely communication is the key no matter how you do it.

Gwenda Hawk

Sarah-
At the online school where I teach, there is a policy that does not allow instructors to "friend" students on Facebook or other social media.

Given a policy like this, I don't think that a Facebook page would work well in my situation. Additionally, the school already provides a plethora of "connection" opportunities in our online classroom. I have a hard enough time getting students to participate in the required and appropriate way (especially a way that can be tracked by the university, should communication be inappropriate).

The students who are already participating in the class would likely be the ones to also participate in a Facebook group page. At some point, tech tools "overload" would occur, at least from my perspective.

Good luck to you!
-Gwenda

Tena Crews

Gwenda,

Each institution has its own regulations. It is important to follow these guidelines and find appropriate technologies to meet your needs.

Dr. Tena B. Crews