Social Media and the Classroom

          I think that blended and online coursework is wonderful, and I think that even in a digital forum, student-teacher and student-student interaction is a vital component of learning, but I don’t see any reason that those types of interactions shouldn’t be reserved for the learning platforms.  Online class sites can provide discussion boards, message boards, text chats, voice chats, and many additional forms of media sharing and online collaboration, and I have yet to hear of any reason that one of those options wouldn’t be equally as effective at disseminating information or facilitating interactions between students as non-educational social media.  Maybe someday someone will change my mind, but for now, I don’t want to be my students’ friend, Facebook or otherwise, I want to be their mentor.  Yes, I want my students to approach me with questions, but I don’t want them to rely on my constant virtual presence.  If I do my job, then they can use their knowledge and skills without me.

Furthermore, when students are completing my coursework, I want them to be focused on it.  I understand that distractions are inevitable and that most of my students consider themselves to be effective multitaskers, but I don’t see any reason to exacerbate this behavior by encouraging, or even requiring, students to use social media to stay abreast of coursework or to complete class activities.   I think that combining social media with classwork is at least as likely to provide a distraction from the classwork as it is to keep students engaged during out-of-class hours.

Speaking of out-of-class hours, I feel that the boundary between home and school is beneficial, and should be respected.  Students should not be constantly on-call.  This is stressful enough for a doctor, so how could it be appropriate for a teenager?  Students have a right to know when they are off-duty.  If they have participated in class and then completed their homework, then they should have the opportunity not to think about me or my class for a while.  I don’t need to be popping up in their feed all evening or all weekend.

I expect my students to take the class as seriously as I do.  Although at times some students do not meet that expectation, I respect the members of my class enough to assume they are responsible, capable students and then adapt my strategies for particular individuals that need more hand-holding.  My students are in high school, so even the youngest are only a few years from voting age and leaving home, and they have all been doing the education thing for a while now.  Because I take my class seriously, I keep my professional life and my personal life separate, and I want my students to do the same.  Yes, I am all for making a personal connection and connecting my content material to their personal interests, but I don’t feel like I have to become an active component of their private lives in order to do it.