Would you add a student on Facebook?

rainbowtrout

Armelodie wrote: »

Are these students you see in pubs overage? if not why hav'nt you reported them?:p Is that not being complicit in a crime?

All jokes aside I suppose I agree with some of the rest of your points though esp if students 'grow up' and/or return as teachers and you hook up on face book....those cases are few and far between though really, and even then do teachers automatically let other teacher colleagues view their FB page ..

FB for real friends and family only...other people (students/work colleagues) set up an alter ego 'clean' FB page and keep it boring

no of course they're not overage in most cases. There are one or two places in town known for serving underage as there are in most towns. I avoid those pubs. However that doesn't stop them drinking in other pubs. I'm not about to spend my evening reporting underage drinking- their parents know they're out drinking and the publicans are serving them; I think at that point it's not my job to interfere. my job as teacher does not extend to that of bouncer.

My staff are quite young as it goes and a lot of us socialise together and are friends outside school so I don't have any problem being friends with any of them on FB.

I don't see why people have two FB pages anyway. I don't believe in appeasing people by accepting them so i don't insult them. Just don't add them.

Seamo87

Keep your personal life seperate from your work, especially when working with children. Naive to think otherwise, don't take any risks.

Art Teacher

There is no validity to the claims being made here that teachers who use facebook with students are unprofessional or inappropriate.

Any claims made here are militated against by the fact that the boards.ie environment openly characterizes teachers as prostitutes who “pimp their wares" under the supervision of a "pornstar".
Facebook as a learning environment has in my opinion a lot of imperfections, but it is a safer environment than boards.ie for students and indeed for teachers.
Here is a link to internet safety programme for students sponsored by the government, on facebook. I highly recommend it. http://www.scoilnet.ie/sow_sid2011.shtm

Disclaimer
This thread here, as most threads on boards.ie appear readily on search engines of Irish webpages for years after active posting has ceased. The validity of claims made against teachers on boards.ie are made in a cyber sexual environment which does not represent validity from any registered teacher in Ireland.

implausible

Ah, in fairness Art Teacher, I think you're getting worked up about this and feeling personally insulted. This is a thread discussing the merits of adding a student on Facebook. Some people think it's ok; some people don't. You are the only poster to use the word 'sexual' and seem to think that posters are implying huge impropriety on your part. This is not the case.

At present, there are no regulations governing the use of Facebook by teachers, so in the meantime, it's up to the individual teacher whether they are comfortable adding students/ex-students or not. I'm not, but that doesn't imply that someone who is, is doing something terrible.

Lord TSC

There is no validity to the claims being made here that teachers who use facebook with students are unprofessional or inappropriate.

I don't think people are saying "any teachers who adds students on facebook are doing inappropriate things". I think people are saying by adding a student, you open yourself up to a claim from a troublesome student that you are, even if you aren't.

I, personally, don't know why you'd take the risk of creating a channel where a student can say private, inappropriate messages are being sent....

Current students: absolutely not, never

Past students: Possibly, depends on their maturity

Art Teacher

Facebook is a much better environment to teach in than boards. The teacher has much more control over students, and outside interference than on boards.

ElleEm

I started this thread to discuss adding students on personal Facebook pages- not ones specific for course content.
Obviously a teaching FB page would not (I hope!) include personal info but your own personal page would.

implausible

Art Teacher wrote: »

Facebook is a much better environment to teach in than boards. The teacher has much more control over students, and outside interference than on boards.

Never thought of it for teaching really - simpler version of a website I suppose. How you could use Boards for teaching is beyond me - is it even allowed? You can't compare the two - Boards is an anonymous internet forum for discussion and information, where Facebook is a social network for sharing photos and personal details and reconnecting with people -apples and oranges imo.

Art Teacher

Boards.ie is used for teaching in so far as teachers definitely do give instruction and guidance to anonymous students on board. is it allowed? I don't know, but there is evidence of successful anonymous teaching going on, particularly in the Leaving Cert forum where this post originated from.

Fizzical

Art Teacher wrote: »

Facebook is a much better environment to teach in than boards. The teacher has much more control over students, and outside interference than on boards.

Art Teacher, can you only invite friends to a teaching group? Do you know if you can add others who are not your friends?

Art Teacher

You can't add non friends to a teaching group in Facebook, Fizzical.
Its a fairly local environment.

implausible

Art Teacher wrote: »

Boards.ie is used for teaching in so far as teachers definitely do give instruction and guidance to anonymous students on board. is it allowed? I don't know, but there is evidence of successful anonymous teaching going on, particularly in the Leaving Cert forum where this post originated from.

I would give lots of English advice on boards to Leaving Certs, but I wouldn't call it teaching! I thought you meant using it in the classroom

What I meant by it being allowed was that admin wouldn't allow you to set up a forum for your school/class and get all your students to join up.

LadyLee112

I am a Primary School teacher so this issue is not as much a problem for me, however some children in 6th class have asked me in person if I was on Facebook. I told them I wasnt to protect myself. I also have my profile blocked so people I do not know can not find me on facebook- as in I cannot be found in a public search so only those I am friends with can see me.

I think this is both important to protect my own privacy from students and also, more importantly, to ensure prospective employers will not be able to find me on FB. I am currently applying for jobs and have been WARNED by principals to delete my FB as schools are now looking people up on FB to see what type of charactor they are! BEWARE teachers!!

Also to add I am now friends with some of the teachers I was taught by in secondary school!

gavdown

I'm 26 and just finished a HND course in Inchicore and my teachers are prob closer to my age than most of the students and there was at least two that i got on with personally but I wudnt have the balls to add them onto facebook because even i think it might effect some boundary.

I would like to add them on but then if they add me on and then others see it and they want to be added on i could just picture it spiraling out of there control