As with many things in nature, with every positive technological innovation, there must be a negative response. Such is the case with internet social networking tools such as MySpace and Facebook. I started a Facebook page some time ago with the hope of reconnecting with old college and high school friends. I have to admit, it’s been fun learning what my acquaintances are up to and how much their children resemble their parents. As an active member of the Mount St. Mary’s Alumni Association, I have personally seen an increase in alumni participation through the use of these social networking sites. However, my euphoria came to a quick end when I received my first friend request from one of my 8th grade students. It was then that I realized the web is not necessarily a private community. Of course, I denied the student’s friend request and spoke to him the following day about the inappropriateness of teacher/student communication on the web. With every reason I stated for the inappropriateness of such behavior, he countered with a well thought argument as to the benefit of students being able to contact their teachers via the web. Needless to say, he didn’t win the argument. However, he offered some pretty compelling arguments. The following three links offer some outstanding arguments regarding the major pros and cons to teachers and online communication:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/04/27/AR2008042702213.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/12/studentsteachers.online/index.html
http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/content/2009/mar/02/see-you-after-class-teachers-facebook/news/
Is the risk worth the benefit?
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