Interesting discussion on the Oz Teachers list on teachers “befriending” students on sites like MySpace and Facebook.

I have copied a summary here for your interest:

Some think it is okay to include students as friends but are very circumspect; others think that it is crossing the line between private and professional lives, particularly with current students; others set up particular pages for particular purposes; others think it has no place in their lives.

Most people said that if they got a request from a student to be a ‘friend’ they took care to “let them down” lightly but some said they just ignored the request. It was suggested that if a student asks to be your friend, that you befriend their parents instead. Some said they would agree to a student asking them, but would never ask a student.  Others asked if the young people even want us in this place, and if it is our role or responsibility to be available to students 24/7 in this manner.  It was asked whether we take the time to consider the time and management aspects of setting up a page, even for a specific purpose.

There was general agreement that we should not condone breaching the T&C of 13+ and that if this was known to have occurred, it could become a teachable moment on Internet safety.  It was agreed that Internet safety and ethics need to be taught explicitly, and information needs to be sent to parents about their responsibilities in this.  Ignoring breaches was seen as a breach of professionalism. However, if we do have FB pages that students can access, then we need to model the appropriate behaviour as part of that explicit teaching.

There was advice about the legal aspects of digital duty-of-care, and some schools do, indeed, have policies about appropriate out-of-school interactions with students. Others asked for examples of these policies, particularly relating to interactions in the Web 2.0 environment..

Some suggested that to be online with a students in this environment was like being alone in a classroom with them, although others thought that it was making any interactions more visible. There was concern about inappropriate posts being made either by students or your other friends, or being made to the students, and the students being able to access inappropriate material by going to your friends’ accounts.  (It is this aspect that means that these sites -and most Web 2.0 tools – are blocked to students in most government schools, at least, in Australia.)

Someone suggested that it can work both ways – if a student is maligning the school or another student, then it shows up on the teacher’s page and the school can deal with it.

There were many, many concerns about privacy and how and where  information you posted might end up.  Someone pointed out that the first thing the media does if they get a sniff of a story is to troll Facebook and MySpace et al to see if the person has a page.

A previous discussion about what would be appropriate for reaching the under-13s for library news etc suggested a ning was a better environment because it could be more easily managed. Even though this also has the 13+ restriction, it was suggested a responsible adult could create additional accounts over which they have control. Reading Clay Shirky’s excellent book ‘Here Comes Everybody’, which explains everything you could possibly want to know about social networks and tools, was also suggested.

And finally, it was suggested that Facebook Group could be established where only the members of the class are invited..  Members of the group do not need to be “friends” with one another in order to be a part of the one group.  A student is the administrator of the group (along with the teacher) and everyone can post resources for our class within the group’s site. Discussions have started on the current assessment pieces which the teacher occasionally logs into to make sure they are heading in the right direction.  Students also post links to resources which can be annotated and due dates are shown in the calendar of both the group and personal pages.

An enriching discussion

Barbara

Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
COOMA NSW 2630
AUSTRALIA

Photo: Facebook Touchgraph http://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/3293404080/