This article proposed that teachers need to jump into the digital space that students are living in these days, including Facebook, Bebo, and MySpace. It is suggested that not only do teachers needs to be aware of the digital world their students are exploring with these social networking sites, but they have a special role in monitoring these sites to stem the growing evidence of cyberbullying.
What do you think?
FindArticles - Teachers urged: join Facebook INTERNET: CYBERBULLYING
Sunday Herald, The, Oct 14, 2007, by Adam Forrest
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4 comments:
As long as teachers use MySpace, Facebook, etc., as a professional tool rather than a social network, then I think it is a great idea. I have both MySpace and FaceBook accounts, used mostly for social reasons, and one of my husband's students found my site and proceeded to share it with all her friends. Of course there is nothing on the site inappropriate for students, but I immediately became uncomfortable with how students could find out about our lives outside of work. I agree that teachers should set up accounts to use for the sole purpose of communicating school-related issues with their students and nothing more. What better way to get through to students than speak their language?
I agree that teachers should know how to communicate with their students in their language, but too much familiarity with students can be dangerous. Teachers need to avoid becoming too friendly with students and risk losing credibility as an authority figure. Kristin is right, use it for school-related information and nothing more.
Sometimes, when I am very weary of technology, I wonder what would happen if we just put more energy into being authentic and genuine in our f2f work as educators. Wouldn't we be able to have excellent understanding of students if we had far fewer students in every classroom across America?
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