Navigating social networks with your students
In my last blog I discussed my steps towards joining Facebook (which, by the way, I have joined and love! I’ve even received a “monkey poop” gift from an anthropology colleague, but I digress…). One part of that discussion was the idea of personal versus professional space online, and I wondered how I would navigate Facebook with my students.
It turns out that the personal/professional dilemma has been frequently discussed (such as this post which asks, “should we keep professional and personal separate in social networking?” ). There is also practical information posted on how to keep your personal and professional life separate on Facebook and on professional profile personal privacy, among others.
But as educators, are we doing more harm than good if we try to completely hide our personal online presence from our students? And if students don’t see us navigating the online world, how can we teach them the best ways to do it?
This wonderful article (Footprints in the Digital Age, by Will Richardson) touches on this subject. It reminds us that students are “doing all sorts of things with online tools that, for the most part, we’re not teaching them anything about.” And that “one of the biggest challenges educators face right now is figuring out how to help students create, navigate, and grow the powerful, individualized networks of learning that bloom on the Web and helping them do this effectively, ethically, and safely.” Another article on social network sites (by Danah Boyd) provides the following humorous but probably true observation: “Utterly confused, the vast majority of educators are playing ostrich, burying their heads in the sand and hoping that the moral panics and chaos that surround the social technologies will just disappear.”
So what’s an educator to do? Will Richardson and Danah Boyd propose some ways to help educators build their personal online learning network and to prepare them for interacting with students about online issues, including:
- Use your real name for online participation
- Read blogs related to your passion or subject area
- Participate in blogging by commenting on interesting posts
- Create profiles for online sites popular with your students (such as Facebook), and “keep your profile public and responsible, but not lame” (hmmm, but how do you know if it’s lame?)
- And finally, remember that “the more present you are, the more opportunity you have to influence” your students.
Are these things too much to ask? What do you think? Are you an ostrich with your head in the sand, or someone who is ready to jump in and help our students (and ourselves) navigate towards the future?
– Gail E. Krovitz, Ph.D. –
Senior Academic Trainer & Consultant