Comments on: Teachers Using Social Networks to Connect with Students?

By: Alicia

Alicia — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:29:09 +0000

Hi Mrs. feldman,
I couldn’t agree with you more that social networking has tremendous application and potential in the classroom. Of course, this is only possible if it is done correctly. Facebook and MySpace may be too risky of holding environments, so I suggest a more education-specific approach. Designed by teachers, FatClass (www.fatclass.com) allows educators to create “FatClasses” around the subjects they teach. They can share files, communicate through blogs, post forums and add each other as network friends. However, there are some limits and controls to help keep everything more manageable. I believe they will even be offering tweeting and sms. Just an idea…

By: Alicia

Alicia — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:28:44 +0000

Hi Mrs. feldman,
I couldn’t agree with you more that social networking has tremendous application and potential in the classroom. Of course, this is only possible if it is done correctly. Facebook and MySpace may be too risky of holding environments, so I suggest a more education-specific approach. Designed by teachers, FatClass allows educators to create “FatClasses” around the subjects they teach. They can share files, communicate through blogs, post forums and add each other as network friends. However, there are some limits and controls to help keep everything more manageable. I believe they will even be offering tweeting and sms. Just an idea…

By: Bill Fricker

Bill Fricker — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:24:45 +0000

The issue of using social networking with students needs to be affirmatively answered for more than teacher preference. Today’s students need to know how to use social networking and how to link it to further education, career development and lifelong general interest.
Educators took more than one generation to debate use of calculators. This seems to be a good parallel as there were pros and cons involved in the eventual adoption of calculators.
How can we expect tomorrow’s productivity to come from an irrational denial of collaborative tools? And by the way, social networking will likely survive without educators’ specific endorsement. Should our system force students to go beyond schools to get the skills and tools they will need?

By: Randy Turner

Randy Turner — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:30:19 +0000

We are expecting another attempt to pass the law in Missouri. The CNN article quoted me accurately, but it was incorrect in other ways. As far as I have been able to determine, the 11 instances of inappropriate teacher/student relationships mentioned in the article had nothing whatsoever to do with social networking sites. The original bill also had no mention of the sites. That came in committee after the St. Louis-area incident in which a woman pretending to be a teenaged boy started a relationship with one of her daughter’s former friends. Then when she “broke up” with the friend, the girl committed suicide and MySpace became a convenient scapegoat.

By: chris

chris — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:12:29 +0000

it is the pupils and parents who abuse the teachers and not the other way round!!sexual abuse by teachers alway ocured even before the computer age! so this shouldnt even be enterd into the equation This is similar to the giving of the home number to pupils so they can contact you any time.. this time its the computer not the phone!! since it was improper then it is improper now!

By: Leigh Newton

Leigh Newton — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 19:10:10 +0000

Education departments around the world need to maintain some balance on such issues. A gut response that bans such interactions is naive and simplistic. It