Bragging about a weekend with pals is perfect for Facebook—unless those friends include students and their parents.
"There are so many other ways to be interacting with kids," says Joe Donzelli, public information officer for Lee County Public Schools in Florida. "We don't think on that level friending students on Facebook is appropriate and professional."
Photo: Ableimages
New guidelines from school districts, teachers unions, and principals are flying into email boxes and in written memos this fall to let educators know that connections between teachers and students over social media may not be a good idea.
While many librarians and teachers encourage students to create blogs, wikis, podcasts, and digital film for school projects—and even give IM handles and email addresses where students can reach them—connections on Facebook, MySpace, and even Twitter is causing administrators to worry whether personal details on a teacher's social media page could upset or confuse students-or their parents.
Lee County is just one of many districts that distributed new guidelines the week of August 16—just before K-12 schools went back into session on August 23. While the guidelines have yet to be finalized by the school board, Donzelli says he sees few changes being made.
Although educators aren't directly forbidden from being friends, or connecting with students through social media, they're strongly advised against doing so. One of the main reasons is that any post, Tweet, or comment by an educator on a social network site must be archived, according to Florida's laws on public records, Donzelli adds.
"Anything and everything you create as part of your government job is public record," says Donzelli. "And you're required to archive it for three years."
Those educators who strongly believe students should be able to connect to them through email, IM, or Facebook, are advised to install privacy settings to restrict what students can see, says Aurora Meyer, an
Aurora Meyer, an online community coordinator for the Missouri State Teachers Association.
online community coordinator for the Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA), which has crafted a series of podcasts offering guidelines for social networking boundaries between students and their teachers.
"My advice, no matter what the platform, is to be aware of what the privacy settings are and the image you're portraying to students and former parents," says Meyer. "It's one thing to say Facebook is bad. But if parents use it, and your students are using it, then maybe we can find a way to use it appropriately."
While MSTA doesn't ban its union members from setting up social media accounts, Meyer says educators should always check with their principals first as some have set strict rules about whether teachers can link to students online. She believes the key is to walk that nuanced point between staying connected and remaining professional.
However, Lee County's Donzelli says there's been an outpouring of support from around the country for the guidelines his county has created, a clear sign that schools have longed hoped to keep teachers and students unconnected through social media.
"As much as you try to separate the personal and professional, things can bleed through," he says. "If you follow our guidelines that's great. If you choose not to, you do so at your own peril. What you post today could come back to harm you tomorrow."
I think social media sites should allow educators to have
a separate "professional" account. As a public librarian,
I love having the ability to interact with my students and
it gives me a window into their world-- what their
interests are, etc. It has also been a great opportunity
for me to educate them about social media and the
consequences of being online (ex: do you really want a
bikini picture as your profile pic?).
Posted by kate on September 1, 2010 09:58:38AM
I agree with kate. I find that most of the time I'm on facebook it's to share an article, link, or book that I believe will be of interest. I've also found myself conducting reference interviews and steering people toward appropriate resources. To me it's part of my job.
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