Facebook in the Classroom? Oh, My!

Last week, our group debated the prospect of opening Facebook inside the district for students to communicate with their teachers if they choose to do so. To the surprise of all, it turned into a lively discussion with excellent points being presented on both sides.

Proponents point out that students and teachers are already on Facebook, but teachers who have chosen to work with students here are forced to do so at home and on their own time. If we opened this up to staff, teachers would be able to use school time to do tutoring or answer questions posed by their students.

Opponents insist that while the possibilities for abuse exist, teachers would either have to have two accounts (one personal and the other professional) or monitor their own activity on their page as it would be viewed by students. The monitoring that would be necessary would diminish the value of Facebook as a personal activity.

Many teachers have already seen the value of connecting with their students in this manner and are already assisting their students and others in the arena the students feel most comfortable with. So the real question for these instructors is really whether school districts want to embrace the potential Facebook presents as an instructional tool.

In order to participate from school, a teacher would have to be "friends" with a school account that could monitor student/teacher activity on the teacher's account. If this initial guideline were met, the teacher could then use their Facebook account at school to communicate with students. If the teacher chose not to participate in this manner, then Facebook would still be off-limits during the school day.

This whole controversy brings to mind the argument many years ago of allowing calculators in the classroom. Our district has already moved to allowing cell phones in school and even in the classroom at the teacher's discretion. I see this as a move in the right direction and the logical next step in integrating technology in the classroom. I would be very interested in your comments on whether you think this would be a good move or one that should be put on hold until more controls are in place.