From October 2009 archived blog
By Holly B. Smith
While it was created in 2004 for college students, Facebook now has a reported 175 million members worldwide (ljworld.com). As more and more teachers are “friended” by students on Facebook, there is a growing concern that a teacher’s personal life cannot be separated from the professional persona of the classroom. The question becomes should a teacher be a friend of a student?
Facebook is, after all, a social website for which a vast majority of the time is spent browsing pictures or profiles, according to a 2007 user survey by Compete.com. Both teachers and students go to find friends, talk, look at and post pictures, and occasionally use applications. There is no question that a teacher has the right to free speech and can exercise it on Facebook. A teacher can say what she wants and comment on anything she’d like because she isn’t in the classroom but on her own private time. Still, knowing that a picture posted is worth a thousand words, or in the case of so many a picture is worth a job (try searching the phrase “teacher loses job over Facebook”), why do teachers grant total access of their personal lives and thoughts to students?
One assistant superintendent in West Vancouver uses Facebook to push out information to a generation that lives primarily online and, for whatever reason, does not check the school’s website for pertinent information (digitaljournal). Another teacher in California has this to say about letting his students see his Facebook account, “For myself, and I think all teachers, we can use this site to be a model for what it is to be a happy adult.” (ljworld.com) It is also a good way to keep in tune with your students and what is going on in their lives outside the classroom. Within Facebook, a teacher may tap into some new ways to connect with students by using current, pop culture issues in lessons.
In many cases, teachers become social network friends with their students to be accepted or seem more approachable. However, a recent abstract presented at the International Communication Association in 2008 hypothesized that students make judgments on a teacher’s Facebook profile and these judgments can lead to diminished perception of teacher competence and credibility. (This was a study of college students, but the outcome is useful here as well.) A teacher may make repeated grammar mistakes or use profanity on a Facebook page which changes the way a student views him in the classroom. Even seemingly harmless, sarcastic comments about your town, your school, or your profession can have lasting and unconstructive effects.
In the same way that you can keep up with your students, students can keep up with what you do and say if they are granted access to your Facebook page. High school or college friends can tag you in old photographs that may not paint you in the best light with your students. Friends post something to your wall and it’s there for all who have access to see. Even someone making a comment to your status that contains obscenity can stay up hours or days until you see it and remove it, and can be perceived as acceptance of the language or behavior. And, think of the endless video links sent to you for personal viewing that students can find. And watch. And resend.
Giving students access to your private life also blurs the line between teacher and student. You may have Facebook exchanges that you normally wouldn’t have at school or in the classroom. You may share a funny story or joke and appears more intimate than you intended. In Missouri, education lawyer Jim Keith gave talks in 2008 to state teachers explaining that many inappropriate relationships between students and teachers begin on the friendship level.
“As an educator, there is a line of demarcation between you and your student. It’s a line that you cannot come close to, let alone step over. You’ve got to establish it from Day One and say I’m not your buddy; I’m not your friend; I’m just you’re teacher.” (cnn.com)
If your school provides a way for you to connect with your students on the school site, utilize it. Take the time create more than a cookie cutter page. Have your students invest in the page by designing it themselves. Post funny things you heard your students say. Post pictures of your students. Hide bonus question answers on the page to incentivize your students to pay attention to the site. Have a weekly trivia question that requires a textbook for the answer. With your networking connected to the school’s site, everything is kept at a safe and more professional level.
If you still believe that Facebook is the better way to reach your students, try creating a group page for your students with you as the administrator. You can hold homework discussions, post notes from classes, give reminders of upcoming tests, and allow for students to chat. However, you should monitor this with the same stringency you use in the classroom because it is an extension of your classroom. Your page should clearly state the rules for using the page. Any student violating the code of conduct should be disciplined in the same manner you would discipline them in the classroom.
If you are determined to let students into your Facebook world, make use of all of the privacy features it offers. Set up your account so that you approve of all new friends. Be diligent in checking what is on your page and be quick to delete what you don’t want on there. Even with these measures, you should also be prepared for an unwanted picture or comment to find its way to your students. Yes, there is free speech. But, consider this: a person who exercises free speech by making a derogatory comment about her boss in a crowded elevator cannot be surprised when it gets back to her boss. You may have a private Facebook Friend List, but it is still a populated community.
When Sunnyvale High School teacher, Kris Williams, was asked her feelings on allowing current students to become Facebook friends, she shared, “No, I do not have current students as Facebook friends. I have been to several training sessions on internet safety/protocol, and based on what I know it just does not seem very wise to open myself up like that. I would rather have established boundaries between my personal life and my professional life. Sometimes the two overlap, but not on Facebook. The internet is a scary place, and there are too many unknowns out there for me to be comfortable with that vulnerability.“
As a teacher and a Facebook member, the pros and cons of being a Facebook friend of your students must be carefully reviewed. In the end, it is better to treat all the avenues that lead to your personal life as what they are - personal.
- Bogert, Rachel. (March 7, 2009). Face it, kids: Parents, teachers on Facebook. Retrieved from http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/mar/07
- Freiert, Max. (September 14, 2007). 14 Million People Interacted with Facebook Applications in August. Retrieved from http://www.compete.com
- Moran, Andrew. (September 9, 2009). Kids, parents ‘uncomfortable’ with teachers on Facebook. Retrieved from http://www.digitaljournal.com/print/article/278969
- Simon, Mallory. (August 13, 2008). Online student-teacher friendships can be tricky. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/12/studentsteachers.online
- Barber, Laurie. and Pearce, Kevin. "The Effects of Instructor Facebook Participation on Student Perceptions of Teacher Credibility and Teacher Attractiveness" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, TBA, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 21, 2008
- (K. Williams, personal communication, October 6, 2009).
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