Teachers warned against accepting students as Facebook friends

ONLINE CAUTION: Muirden Senior College student Eliza, left, with English teacher lauren Fisher. Picture: CHRIS MANGAN Source: The Advertiser

STUDENTS are trying to add their teachers as Facebook friends in what experts say is an extension of the way they show their admiration for those in charge of the state's classrooms.

But SA Primary Principals Association president Steve Portlock warned teachers against accepting the innocent request, most likely to come from upper primary school and lower secondary students.

"It's a bit of continuation of what we've always seen, like being invited by your students to birthday parties. While it's a nice thought teachers need to be really careful about accepting offers," he said.

"The best thing is just to gracefully decline any friend requests as you would anything else."

Several teachers told The Advertiser they are bombarded with Facebook friend requests from admiring students and some have slightly altered the name that appears on their online profile so students have more difficulty searching for them.

Deakin University communications and social media lecturer Ross Monaghan said that while sites such as Facebook had minimal educational benefits, others were more useful.

Muirden Senior College is one of a growing number of schools using the Wikispaces social networking website so the school's Year 11 and 12 students can interact with teachers after hours.

Principal Barbara Harding said the site allowed teachers to post links and share resources with students, as well as respond to any school-related questions they had from home "almost instantly".

"Where it really comes in handy is if you've got a student at home who suddenly comes up with a great idea for an assignment, a question about an essay, they can ask that and get a very quick response," she said.

An Education Department spokeswoman said a cyber-safety policy was launched last year, outlining the need for teachers to ensure their online identities, including Facebook profiles, met the responsibilities of various industry codes of conduct.

Guidelines also ensure teachers keep within expected professional boundaries when dealing with students - letters, emails and text messages of a personal nature are considered as violations.

The spokeswoman said "teachers and students can . . . share ideas and learning outside school hours through online education forums".

M Y C O M M E N T S :

Interactive learning is such a good way to learn especially with the current advance technologies. Young generation tend to be more attracted to the uses advance equipment to study rather than normal teaching method in class. In this case, Facebook had been widely used by all generation as a way to communicate. Adding teachers as friends might lose some respect to them because we will treat them like our other friends despite the fact that they are our teacher. But, I think it is good in such a way that the students will be more comfortable to ask question or sharing their problems in terms of education.