Five Ways to Make Facebook Work for Teachers |
posted by: Steph | July 26, 2010, 05:38 PM |
Facebook poses an interesting conundrum for educators: to have or not to have a Facebook profile? First and foremost, educators must follow the regulations and guidelines of their specific school district. For some educators, Facebook will be strictly off limits, but for those whose districts permit teachers to use Facebook, here are a few easy tips to make the social networking site work for you:
As Facebook celebrates hitting the 500 million member mark, educators should start using the social networking mega-site for more than just “friending” old classmates. Facebook can be a tool to assist teachers and improve the educational experience of America’s students.
email to friend
Print
comment
Permalink
Comments (4)
In the future...
written by Grace, Vermont, November 16, 2010
I would love to use Facebook as a form of communication for my classes. I think that it could be a fun way to share a lot of information and help students with assignments outside of school. The only problem with it would be making student-teacher relations more casual, which might not be a good thing. I think that since there are going to be more and more young teachers in the high schools the way we think about student-teacher relationships will change slightly.
...
written by Danielle, via Facebook, July 28, 2010
I don't think it should be any of their business, that's like saying teachers can't have a personal life. As long as you have everything completely private and don't allow the parents of one of your students or even students as a friend you should have no problems. I totally agree with Roger on this one as well.
...
written by Roger, via Facebook, July 28, 2010
I know some districts are trying to enforce a no Facebook policy - I also don't think it can stand up in court since your employer cannot dictate what you do outside of the workplace. It would be an abridgment of free speech. I DO understand how they can hold your JOB liable for the CONTENT of your FB page - but not participation. It's like saying - you can't go to certain stores or you can't belong to certain clubs....it just won't hold up.
Additionally, I have a FB group page for one of my classes and it has been quite valuable for blogging, posting useful media and info and quickly messaging students.
Create teacher pages written by Mark Moran, New York, July 27, 2010
Teachers can be bolder than this. They can create their own classroom pages and suggest their students and parents "Like" the page (until recently this was the "Become a Fan" functionality). Then teachers can use this page to post classroom & school-related links and hold virtual "office hours" safely - all communications are public. Schools themselves should also have these pages, and use them to communicate with parents and students off-hours; in many districts, virtually all students use Facebook every day. See this article for instances where schools have used Facebook to help students cope with tragedy: http://www.findingdulcinea.com...eact-.html
|