personal vs professional behavior
In my Adolescent Psychology class yesterday, John advised the class to eliminate their Facebook accounts for fear of students or colleagues gaining access to personal information that might be considered inappropriate. Facebook is one example of many public sites a teacher might be using that students have access to. The teacher I have volunteered for uses Facebook as a means of keeping in touch with her students and sharing media related to the theater projects they are working on. While creating a blog might be a safer choice for this teacher, I wonder what everyone else thinks about the casual nature of this social interaction and whether there is a clear line between professional and personal relationships.
Lana
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Day 16 Thursday July 24
Q & A period *blog readback due – hand it in to Leanna
Day 17 Friday July 25
Eportfolio sharing & honouring
Here is a space for us to continue to explore issues related to education. With limited class time, a blog can allow us freedom to think and write when we are able and ready. A blog can also help us create and explore with a community of learners. Looking forward to the dialogue!
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Day 16 Thursday July 24
Q & A period *blog readback due – hand it in to Leanna
Day 17 Friday July 25
Eportfolio sharing & honouring
“If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything.” Win Borden
9 comments:
I believe that websites like Facebook certainly provide an opportunity to extend communicative abilities for all individuals; however, in the context of a teacher-student relationship, I find that the content and purpose of such a resource should adhere to the same expectations of a 'physical classroom.' Adopting this type of technology as a medium for helping your students is, in my opinion a great idea, but I would argue that allowing students to become a part of your personal 'network' is an interaction that can not only hinder their ability to learn (because they will begin to recognize and misinterpret you from what you have on your Facebook page), but will also put your authority, professionalism and relationships with colleagues at risk. I believe that it is important for students to be aware of some of your personal interests in order to be relatable and respected, but allowing access to your personal life in an educationally unrelated environment may lead to several consequences. I agree that the line between this is a little hazy in that you want to be personable and authoritative, but I believe that in being a good teacher, you are able to incorporate your interests and personal life into your instruction to help individuals understand the material. So, basically, I think Facebook is fine, as long as you set-up a separate page for your classes and refrain from allowing students to become involved in your social life, because essentially, these mediums have become a part of them.
Geordy
Great topic and so relevant to all technological communications! These TOOLS of communication are just that - tools - their effectiveness is dependent on how we utilize them. We all need to consider how we use these tools.
The concern for many educators who don't use these sites such as Facebook, blogs, chatrooms, online gaming, wikis is that they don't understand the technology enough to realize the potentials. You need to really know Facebook well to know how to use it effectively so that your personal life continues to be appropriate and you need to know how to set up a student section that is effective as a learning tool.
One more thing about this topic is about our responsibility as educators to talk about and guide our students in how to communicate appropriately and effectively with techological tools. Talk and listen to them about the fine line of personal and too personal; talk and listen about how do they mean to represent themselves; talk and listen about the purpose of these tools, etc. Listening is critical in these discussions when guiding them.
I think that the example teacher is just about crossing the line, if not over it.
It would be fairly easy for a teacher to carry a Facebook account that was only for class use (ie. no personal "friends"). This would prevent the students from getting too familiar with their personal life. However, I am positive that the students would not be doing this, and that would give the teacher access to all of their personal details that they care to share online. I, for one, wouldn't want to have the school district search my hard drive and find some of the students pictures on there (some people have fairly... risque... profile pictures, among others), or links to conversations about who did what last weekend.
As for "whether there is a clear line between professional and personal relationships" - I think we all have to realize that it's impossible to successfully teach a class with a virtual plastic bubble separating you from the students... some sort of connection is required. I don't know of any hard and fast rule that defines when professional becomes personal - I think there are shades of gray.
I was just thinking how complicated it can become, especially when outside of the classroom - sports, school clubs, etc. Very different dynamics can occur.
Just my 2 cents.
Donal
I agree with Geordy. Websites like Facebook, and blog sites open the communicative doors for students, especially those who don't like to speak up in class. They can offer a means for students to state their opinions without the immediate fear of being called upon or other students staring at them. I even had a Shakespeare professor at UVic mark students participation on their blogs and comments (much like this class . . . ). I think this opens a greater question of the use of technology in the classroom. I believe that with the new "Generation M" kids should have a balanced media diet and teachers shouldn't be afraid of technology. It helps teachers bridge the gap. There are many values in using technology: students are learning to analyze complex systems with many interacting variables (like in video games), to master new interfaces (websites), to maintain extensive social networks (Facebook), both virtually and in real-life, etc. Thus, I believe that the use of technology is necessary, we as teachers, just have to be careful about what means we use and assess and manage possible problems surrounding them.
Everyone who has commented so far on this topic has been bang-on when raising concerns about facebook. At what point in the teacher/student relationship does familiarity and professional acquaintanceship become too personal? I believe that strong bonds between a teacher and their students can be a fantastic avenue to pursue positive scholastic and personal growth for students. Like Donal I also believe that setting up a facebook account dedicated to your professional self is a step in the right direction. As the adults in the student/teacher complex it rests on our shoulders to ensure that private and professional lives are respected by all parties. Facebook can be a tool or trouble depending on the hands at the keyboard. The optimist in me hopes that for all teachers it will be nothing but a positive social networking resource and not used as a device to advance inappropriate relationships such as those we are seeing in the USA right now.
That being said, I reflect that my favorite and most respected teachers were also the ones that I knew the best outside the classroom. Conversely in my own career I hope to be able to emulate these examples by drawing on certain aspects of my personal life to help kids relate to me as a fellow human being and not just see me as a homework slinging, detention giving robot.
I also agree with Geordy. I think having a facebook or social networking page that students can access has the potential of leading to confusion of the student/teacher relationship. Therefore, while I would hope to foster positive communicative relationships with my students I would be very careful in the manner in which I did this.
Therefore, the suggestion of creating a professional facebook profile in order to communicate with your students seems like an excellent one. Guidelines and rules regarding the nature of discussions and information/photo sharing could be established as a class to ensure that appropriate and effective communication occurred. I also liked the suggestion of using a blog site as an alternative to facebook. Blog sites, such as the one we are using in class, have a more professional feel to them and there is more of an emphasis on information sharing than on personal messaging, profiles, and pictures. I think that creating a blog site and using it with a class would encourage students to embrace new forms of communication and get them excited about participating in an online learning community.
I'm totally agree with Brian and Jeff. There is no reason why a professional Facebook page can't be created and used for outside of classroom discussion on topics that are important to students. It may give them an outlet to discuss what's going on in their school or even a place to talk discuss any questions that have arisen out of class.
If you have a professional Facebook page, create a group that the students can join (and you don't have to add them as friends in order for them to join)...reading their comments may actually help us understands our students better. The key thing to remember is that we need to keep personal talk out of it. Answer questions or give your thoughts about what happened in class, not about the weekend and it will be okay. We shouldn't be totally afraid to incorporate this type of media or use it as an educational tool. I think the more we know about media technology and how to use it properly, the more effective we'll be as teachers in the long run.
But those are just my thoughts...
Sabrina
Just a side note on this whole Facebook discussion...
I feel that we are all thinking that our high-school students are mature enough to handle using Facebook at all. In actuality, Facebook has been used as an incredibly powerful bullying tool, especially for high-school girls. A friend of mine who teaches at a private school in Vancouver has told me some terrible stories where photos have been uploaded onto Facebook (via camera phones at school) for other girls to comment on and gossip about at school. Instead of trying to incorporate Facebook into a school environment, even in a positive way such as a classroom group etc., maybe using a more limited blogging site for classroom discussion would help to eliminate the temptation to blend personal accounts with school ones.
A great idea would be to find a blogging site without photo capabilities (does this exist?) Just an idea.
No, I haven’t heard of a blogging site without photo capabilities.
I wanted to respond to this post just because it seems to me that technology-based issues have been a pretty hot topic in our class discussions and on this blog.
I don’t think teachers should let the amazing possibilities of web-based learning pass them by for fear of problems. Teachers and students should just be aware and responsible.
I found this article from last September interesting because it presents a well-rounded picture of the benefits and possible pitfalls of blogs and Facebook. I especially appreciated the link it contains to the blog of a math teacher from Winnipeg that has international recognition. It gave me some ideas of what a teacher’s blog could include. I think this math teacher has a good point when he says that school is a good place for students to learn how to be safe online. Having a class blog with clear guidelines offers students a good opportunity to practice good internet ethics. Does anybody know of high school teachers in Victoria who have class blogs?
The article from last September interestingly has a bit of information on issues relating to dress habits of students, which I know has also been brought up in class discussions.
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