There are hundreds if not thousands of posts online about how teachers use or misuse Facebook. I am not a huge fan of Facebook myself; my personal opinion of the tool have flip- flopped more times than I would like to admit, but I have found it to be an easy way to keep in touch with friends who are not overly connected in other ways and with other tools.
I have recently found it a very cool tool to stay in touch with former students. You see, in the international school circuit, teachers and students lead very transient lives. We come in and out of each there lives very quickly. I have found Facebook to be great tool for not only keeping tabs on former students, but as a place I can continue to teach and learn from them
I am firm believer that we are now at a time and place where learning is happening everywhere, and both students and teachers must take advantage of the connections we make, no matter how fleeting. If I find and teach a student who is a talented writer and enthusiastic blogger in six grade, I want to be able to continue working with her for years to come.If I find students who are compassionate caretakers of the earth and active with social issues, I want them to remain active members of my network.
I guess what I am trying to say is that if we are too scared to connect with student using social media, then we are denying ourselves a crucial segment of our learning networks. I love having former students who I follow on Twitter. They sometimes leave the most insightful comments. Just today I had two great connections with former students through Facebook.
Before I share the stories, let me explain my student Facebook policy. I do not friend any current students on my Facebook profile. I have in the past, however, when moving on from a school, friended a few students who I really trusted and connected with on deeper level. There are only about five of these students with whom I stay in touch. One is now a twenty something year old women who I taught six years ago in The Bronx, and who I visited last time I was in NYC. The others were in 8th grade when I was in Malaysia and recently graduated. One recently sent me this request:
I love the fact that she trusted me enough to ask me for my advice. We have stayed in touch through blogs and Facebook since she was in eighth grade. She is a kind and brilliant young lady. She is a valuable member of my network.
My more current policy, looks like this: I have created a Mr. Raisdana fan page which I share with all students current former etc..This way, tehy cannot see my personal content, and I cannot see theirs. I use this site to share homework, articles, and try to instigate conversations between my current students and the kids I taught last year in Doha. My current kids are still a bit shy and quiet, but my students in Doha have been active staying in touch. Sometimes it is just silly catching up:
But it can also be a great tool to continue teaching kids:
So as you can see, Facebook and social media do not have to be something to be scared about. All social media is about building relationships based on openness and trust. There is no reason why we can’t create and foster long lasting teacher/learner relationships with our students. You are not going to stay in touch with every student you ever teach, but wouldn’t it be great to stay in touch with the ones who really got what you were teaching? To be able to advize, teach, and learn from them as they grow up and become adults. Life long learning, means life long relationships.
I want to thank my students for everything they have taught me and invite them to leave a comment and join the conversation.
I think it’s so funny that we’re both thinking about the same thing at the same time. One of the profs. at Athabasca was just debating whether or not it was appropriate to comment on a student’s tweets on postmodernism. I commend him for “jumping out from behind the blind” and commenting directly to her. I think you offer a great model and inspiration for those who are just beginning to connect with their students in a digital (and lifelong) way!
Thanks, and I’ll be linking to this post from our closed Athabasca forum.
Hey Mr. Raisdana, I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 Course and have been required to read your post. I also think that people shouldn’t be scared of using a social network, like Facebook. If you use it correctly it is a great means of communication, and like you said a great way to keep up with people you don’t see all the time. I know some of my very best friends at school are from different countries and if not for Facebook I would have had no contact at all with them over the summer. I’ve also had classes where teachers used a blog or other form of network to post information or assignments. It’s really helpful because if you miss a class you can go to the site and look up what you missed.
I really loved your quote “There are no goodbyes in the digital age”. It’s very true! Facebook gets a lot of bad publicity for privacy issues and what-not, but there are so many other productive things that can come out of it! I do agree, that it is a bad idea to have current students as Facebook friends, but it’s such a great way of keeping up with them in the future, or even conecting with thier parents! If used properly, Facebook, and other social media sites, can really have a lot of benefits!
Carey Dekle
EDM310
University of South Alabama
Excellent post Jabiz and excellent examples. There is no better way to model digital citizenship than to get right in there and join our students in their digital arena. I love the differences you are making with your students beyond the classroom, beyond your year (or more with them). Not only do your examples model digital citizenship, but they also exemplify life long learning. Awesome!!
Ann
I definitely agree, I really enjoyed you teaching mer last year, and now thanks to facebook and blogging you don’t have to stop. I can still learn from you and stay in touch. Like you said, “there are no goodbyes in the digital age.”