Conclusions

I appreciate the benefits that some of the researchers have put forward for the use of Social Networking Sites in schools, but I think the risks outweigh the benefits. I will probably never uses Facebook for any sort of educational purposes. I value my privacy away from school and I don’t want to communicate with my students in this manner. I remember when I first started teaching and my students continually wanted to be my “buddy” on MSN. I have always been very weary of having too much personal contact with students outside of school. Teachers that teach in larger centres may not appreciate this, but I grew up in a community with 1000 people and I taught in two places with similar populations. I ended up doing parent-teacher interviews in the grocery store or on the street corner. If I (or a group of teachers) went to the bar on a Friday or the weekend, you were stared at and the kids would comment on the following Monday. I quickly came to value my privacy when I wasn’t working. I know that other professionals have the same issues, but now that I’m in a larger centre not everyone knows I am a teacher I am more comfortable. I will not have my students as friends on Facebook as there are things on there that I don’t necessarily want my students to see- things (pictures and stories) from university, old boyfriends, etc. that I don’t want to share. I am also very weary of the professionalism of being too close to students and I don’t want to open myself up to any suggestion of impropriety. If students have to email me outside of school, they have to use my official school account. Some teachers are ok with this- I am not, therefore I will never allow my current students to see my profile.

I also cannot watch students 24/7 and the idea of using MySpace or Facebook as a way to complete assignments is not something that appeals to me because of some of the issues that arise between students. Currently our school is experiencing a lot of problems with cell phones, texting and IMing that has been causing issues with bullying and violence. For me to introduce something like a SNS into my classroom would be madness. I know that some teachers do use Facebook for clubs and communication, but I would prefer to use some other way to do this. I have been playing around with Blackboard and I think that I would prefer to use that as an online community for my students.

That's what I think of Social Networking Sites. Now I think that I will go and check my Facebook...
Katie