Students-Teachers Friendship on Facebook - Essay Example

Introduction Technology is a basis of good social networking. It is one of the mainly used social networks. Face bookhas improved means of communication as well. Face book as a social site aids in finding long time lost friends for instance old school mates, long lost cousins, friends or neighbors across the streets. It is worth noting that nowadays teens are making friends with everyone whom they find in face book or whoever requests them to be friends without being cautious of the possible harmful implications of such friendship. Teachers are adults charged with the responsibility of guiding young minds towards success in life. They act as role models to their students and whenever they decide to send them a friend request they are most likely to accept. On the other hand, students are most likely to find a teacher’s profile in the process of surfing and send a friend request. However, as adult’s teachers should give some ethical consideration due to some special reasons. A shocking discovery from schools that allow access to face book in schools indicates that about 60-70% of teenagers below the age of fifteen years have access to adult social networks including their teachers’. These children are too young to access these sites bearing in mind the nature of content that is normally posted. This paper will focus on the main reasons as to why teachers should avoid being friends with students in face book. Body Privacy When teachers and students become friends, their privacy is compromised. This is because students will access teachers’ private information and content that is not fit for their consumption. Therefore, teaching and learning becomes a difficult venture as respect is compromised. Harassment If the relationship between the teacher and the student is not good, face book can act as a good ground for harassment and this applies for both students and teachers. Socialization through face book platform can create good environment for teachers and especially male teachers to harass female students sexually for example requesting sexual relationships and this often deteriorates class performance Intimidation Some students might see a teacher’s face book friendship intimidating .As a result they may become hesitant to accept their request for friendship mainly because they would not like their teachers to be privy to their conversations with their peers. At the same time they may fear saying no to a teacher’s friend request for fear that they will offend the teacher and negatively affect the teachers’ treatment of them Age appropriation Since teachers are adults, there may be postings from friends on their face book page regarding their adulthood status that does not concern students, the content in this case would be inappropriate for their students to read or review because it is deemed to compromise teacher’s privacy. Expectations Face book friendship between teachers and students changes the expectations of both parties .A learner who is a friend to teacher on face book will expect to be treated in a special way from the rest by the friend teacher. The teacher may also expect a student to post what regards to class work in their face book walls which would have otherwise be reserved to class work this changes the expectations of everyone thus leading to a misunderstanding Prejudice As much as teachers try not to allow outside knowledge affect their treatment of students, technology will still have subliminal effect. A friendship between students and teachers on face book may compel a teacher to view a student in a whole different way in class than it was before. This creates an environment where students will fully be understood hence meaningful academic performance. Today’s situation where teachers are friends with students on face book is undisputable fact that requires urgent solution. If a teacher hasn’t given this situation some consideration then it is the right time to do so. The simplest resolution is to make a personal guiding principle not to allow face book friendship with students. That way, none of your students will feel offended by rejecting their friend request, and you can’t be put in a position that you may later regret In today’s world, more teachers are crossing boundaries with students. Not a single day ends before we hear a story of a teacher who has sexually molested a student by way of face book friendship. Teachers should put in some thought and recognize their professional roles and realize the risks they open themselves by befriending students. There is a need for them to act as mentors, role models and guides to students. Some scholars argue that teachers have a right to be friends with anyone on face book as they have rights as other human beings and therefore deserve to have a free social environment life. This statement seems almost impossible to agree with bearing in mind the delicate nature of students. It is true that teachers have every right to post pictures, talk about their lives, and do whatever they want in their own social networking but students should not be part of this business. Gail Hawisher and Cynthia Selfe, 1991 asserts “…teachers should not be part of the social networking such as face book friends, email exchanges and any other technological networks which concerns socialization with students”. In Contrast to this philosophical attitude, the information specialists, technologists and others who embrace technology view face book and MySpace as important and inevitable technology especially in the 21st century of learning. Some technologist such as (Fred Kemp, 1998.) argues that regardless of avoiding social networking places, faculties should as well embrace them and encourage students to join them. This interactive environments would not only allow interactions with other students but also would improve their writing and reading skills through postings on the net as well as sharing ideas with face book friend students that will improve their learning .Furthermore, the interaction will help develop foundational basis for those who will study space and technology science. This perspective states current theoretical and rhetorical analysis of social networking sites and exposes the implications of bringing or not bringing the webs to classrooms by looking at how administrators and their subjects together with students misuse of technological devices. However, in as much as teacher-student friendship on face book should be discouraged, teachers should not colonize these spaces but to ensure the best way that will enhance positive, moral and constructive learning. Conclusion The idea of students and teachers being friends on face book has been widely disapproved by many education experts and stakeholders. It has been regarded as the main source of teachers’ abuse on students. It’s vital for all stake holders in the education sector to act swiftly in an effort to stop this menace. Educators should encourage positive use of face book and stay safe. Teens should be encouraged to use face book to uphold good nationality and as a contemporary resource for expertise growth. Technology especially communication on face book has taken substantial amount of the teens’ time through conversations with friends and postings. In this regard, educators should look into ways of integrating face book into the teaching and learning process with a view to improve students’ learning experiences. It can as well be used to share lesson contents and to improve communication between teachers and students. This communication should be guided by professional ethics to control misuse by the parties. Works cited. Gail E Hawisher and Cynthia L Selfe. Global Literacies and the World-Wide Web, Routledge, 2000. Print. John Wiley and Sons. The Rise of the Network Society, Manuel castells, Blackwell publishers, 2010. Print. Jay C. Thomas. Handbook of Clinical Psychology Competencies, Springer publishers, 2009.print Jenifer Fox and Whitney Hoffman. The Differentiated Instruction Book of Lists. Reach and Teach, John Wiley & Sons publishers. 2011. Print. C T Wilke. Babblings of a Burned Out Teacher. Xlibris Corporation, 2011. Print. Charles Wankel. Educating Educators with Social Media. Technologies in Higher Education Series. Emerald Group Publishing, 2011. Print. Read More