She said
Social networks are awesome. It's great for connecting with friends and family that you don't always see. It's also great for just maintaining friendships from day to day.
But it doesn't come with an etiquette manual, and the details of "when to friend" are never clear. One problem that is faced in schools is when is it OK to add your teacher as a friend on Facebook.
For high school and elementary school, I think the golden rule is do not friend. Teachers, your 15-year-old students do not need to see your sloppy drunk pictures. This rule can also be applied to friends of siblings more than four years younger than you. It's kind of like friending the kids you used to babysit: really not a good idea until they're old enough to be in the bar, too.
University is a bit of a different story. I've had profs put invites to Facebook friend them on their syllabi. I had an English prof who let us watch his homemade rap videos during class. And for some reason, neither situation seemed weird at the time. I've actually kept in touch with the rapping English prof through Facebook and he's been a great reference and friend as I've made my way through my university career. So I don't see anything wrong with Facebook friendships between university students and university professors. Everyone is an adult. The posting pictures from parties really stops being a craze after high school, so there are fewer drunk Facebook pictures for everyone to see anyway.
So to summarize: do not friend your high school students. The age and maturity difference is just too much. But it's OK for friendships between university students and professors to exist. In fact, I recommend them. They are great for networking and honestly, when you know your prof reads your news feed, you're going to self-censor your posts. It's kind of like when your boss follows you on Twitter.
He said
Teachers and students probably should be Facebook friends just because a lot of schooling can be done online.
Classes can be organized into groups on the social network and students can ask questions through the site if, for instance, they are doing homework or writing an essay and need some clarification on something. From my little knowledge of Facebook, I believe they would need to be friends in order for them to part of the same group. That could be wrong.
The teacher wouldn't have to be the only one who provided answers to these questions. An over-achieving student could pipe in with an answer, and the teacher could simply oversee the conversation to make sure answers are provided correctly. Kind of like how Wikipedia entries are moderated by Big Brother.
Teachers can use Facebook as a tool. If that's where the kids are these days, then teachers may as well try to incorporate a virtual classroom into that network.
There are also some invisible lines that shouldn't be crossed by teachers or students. As I'm not a teacher, I may see that line differently, but my grandpa and one of my best friend's fathers were high school teachers, so I've picked up a bit about what these indiscretions are through them.
A Facebook friendship should probably only be used for educational purposes. I haven't taught anything before, but I have been a coach, and I think the roles are pretty similar in their interaction with students or players.
To be a coach there is a training session so you can have a card that says you're allowed and qualified. There is also a part of that session devoted to telling you how not to put yourself in a bad situation with one of your players. Don't ever be alone with them and never drive them home, is basically what you need to know.
Facebook is a social network so there are lots of people who can oversee what is happening, but I'm sure there will soon be, if there isn't already, training and guidelines for teachers to follow when dealing with students on social media. It should be deemed a good tool for school.
