June 5, 2006
Should Professors Use Facebook?
A blog post we stumbled on a while back, by a graduate student, warned other students that professors have started creating accounts on Facebook, the social-networking Web site so popular with students these days: "If a student misses class and says ‘I had a doctor’s appointment,’ I’ve seen professors that get on Facebook, read the kid’s wall and see that he was invited to a party the night before, and the kid was absent because he was actually hung over."
Are professors using Facebook for this purpose? Should professors enter this online social space for any reason? Join the discussion.
Posted on Monday June 5, 2006 | Permalink |Comments
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As a librarian (with faculty status), there’s been quite a bit of discussion on how we librarians should be reaching out to student users on Facebook, to show how ‘approachable’ we are and how we are into the new tech. Lots of librarians and libraries are now showing up on Facebook and MySpace, but I wonder if the students we are trying to reach will just go somewhere else. I know as a student I would have considered it odd if faculty started hanging out in the student union or something.
On the other hand, students should realize that what they post online is for the most part freely available and if they choose to ditch class and post the reason why on their blog, they’re going to have to face the consequences.
— Samantha Jun 5, 05:53 PM #
i’ve been an active member of facebook for over a year and i’ve never used it to bust a student.
i use facebook to better learn the names of my students (especially in large lecture courses), to better understand the shows they watch and music they listen to, and to keep up with what’s going on all over campus.
i’m sure profs – not to mention grad students – use facebook as a means to police their students and i think this is an unfair and irresponsible use of the medium.
— david silver Jun 5, 10:06 PM #
I’m an engineering faculty member at a Big 10 university. Be assured there is little interest by faculty in monitoring students this way. Who has the time?
— David Lange Jun 6, 11:01 AM #
I have not yet fallen under the spell of websites like Facebook or MySpace. I realize that what I put online is available to the public and who knows who is reading what I wrote and what they will do with it.
This practice of faculty monitoring students is further proof that nothing is sacred, not even “privacy.”
I do not agree with using the information against the student unless it violates laws and regulations, but I do agree with Samantha that using sites like these is a way to connect with one’s students. Find out what motivates students and use it constructively to engage them in class.
— Ruth Jun 6, 11:19 AM #
I “claimed” my name on Facebook after reading that students had made up parody pages for faculty and administration at a few schools. I rarely visit the site because I find it silly and, at times, sad (especially when students so openly flaunt drug use and promiscuity).
I’m fine with students being held accountable for information they post on the WORLD WIDE WEB. Maybe catching heat for proclaiming their love of Ambien or Adderall (there are plenty of clubs on Facebook dedicated to abusing those) will make them realize how foolish they’re being for putting this information out there.
Better they learn this now than to have it come back to haunt them when they’re seniors trying to find jobs. I heard a story about a firm using student interns to look up applicants on Facebook.
— Claire Jun 6, 11:45 AM #
I joined our local Facebook a couple of months ago. I’m an old faculty person, and it’s been fun. We are a small school, and I’ve found that I can be a little more free than in other faculty-student contexts about what I say about myself and them. They seem to think it’s sort of cool that some profs are on. I get to know them better, and of course, I’ve found out a ton of stuff, all of which I keep to myself (though it is a little sad sometimes to see what some of my favorite students do with their spare time). Never heard of 98% of the music listed!
— John W Jun 6, 12:38 PM #
Got a Facebook account (and MySpace and a lot of others) in order to speak intelligently in doing presentations about social computing, Web 2.0 etc.
And it’s interesting – I can look at my 2 college-aged sons’ sites (“Dad, I’ll let you be my ‘friend’ but NEVER post a message to my wall!”) and I really enjoy keeping up with some students who have graduated.
Of course, I only have 42 friends – sad in the Facebook world – and I only check about once a week, but I’m there.
I can’t imagine taking the time to check on a current student as suggested, but I will say that about 75% of the photos posted show kids drinking booze. They have more to fear from the campus police, potential employers and those parents who are academics (or who know that alumni can get accounts).
— Ken R. Jun 6, 11:17 PM #
Ah the joy of Ireland – we do not have mandatory attendance for class, so if they are hung over, they stay home, and if they are hung over all year, they fail. We also don’t have campus police. And since our end of year exams are marked anonymously, and the students can appeal results to externs, it is very hard to ‘get’ students just for posting drunk pictures on Bebo.
That said, I do have a Bebo page, and played with it to see what you could do with
it as a Web 2.0 tool. It does help me to understand my students (They seem to have more fun than I did!). I think there are clear differences between ‘Beboers’ and ‘Blackboarders’, with a minority who move easily between both spaces. As a historian, I can bring it into lectures to talk about changing views on ‘public’ and ‘private’ space since the 1700’s.
— Mike Cosgrave Jun 7, 03:41 AM #
Not sure if this is a right place… We have growing electronic newsletter mailing list, and I’m desperate to find decent, reasonably priced software or shareware for list management and distribution. We’ve been using Outlook and ACT and they’re not working well. I was found at www.glocksoft.com/em/ bulk email software for sending newsletter. Are there other good options to help save my sanity? Does anyone know of any good hosting company that can handle bulk email? We need to send newsletters to about 900 customers without the hassle of restrictions. Thanks!
— Nail Jun 15, 10:25 AM #