I may not be the norm on this but I will accept friend request from students right away. I just do it with certain rules in place. 1. If they send me a private message then I unfriend them. I usually provide a warning the first time it happens. I’ve never had to unfriend a student because of this. 2. If they are still a student and they post something inappropriate or illegal, I report it and unfriend them. I have had to do this multiple times. Now most students who post things like this don’t “friend request” me.
Brett Clark via http://www.educationrethink.com/2012/09/should-you-friend-student.html?showComment=1347973075754#c9207408757295453379
This leads me down another line of thought: What are educators’ obligations (if any) to inform parents that they’ve ‘friended’ their children on a social media site?
See also this comment by JB, from http://bit.ly/TenVLC
I once heard a technology advocate say, “I think every educator should have a strong presence on facebook and I’ll tell you why.” After the administration in the room pulled their chins off the floor he continued with “just as a teacher’s presence in the hall or cafeteria automatically discourages some behaviors, so will their presence on facebook.” His point was if a student knows adults are watching, behaviors change. Pretty simple to me.
I believe this an excellent way of friending students in an appropriate manner. We need to get over the fear that all will go wrong!
Joel Weeks
This question is not going away and I would love to see increased debated/discussion about how to handle it. I teach future teachers and they genuinely want guidance about how to use social media appropriately within the context of the classroom.