Photo Credit: Allison Long/The Kansas City Star/MCT
Sending too many messages is one way to get blocked by Facebook. John VanPelt, a teacher who lives in Lee's Summit, Mo., recently posted on his newly restored Facebook page about being photographed for this story.
December 27, 2011
Ninon Becquart
It’s no secret that technology, specifically social media, has caused a huge change in the way that we live. Just take the fact that the Fremont Unified School District (FUSD) is telling teachers not to add their students on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace. Social media never existed before, so these boundaries for student-teacher interaction had never been defined in this way. I’m glad that this issue has been brought up, however. It’s an interesting question– how far can student-teacher relationships go?
Certain kinds of interactions are obviously inappropriate and should be illegal, which is why laws exist to protect students from them. But there are also gray areas, such as adding students on Facebook. Several teachers I know have managed to use Facebook as a helpful tool for generating discussion, answering questions about assignments, giving students reminders, and sharing school-related content. I’m friends with a few teachers on Facebook, and have found it to be very convenient for discussing class topics or asking questions that I only realize I need to ask once I get home.
The thing that bothers FUSD, and which I agree can be awkward for students as well, is all of the access that I have to my teachers’ personal lives. I can see their relationship statuses, find pictures of parties and vacations, and read the wall posts that their friends write to them. It’s interesting to realize that my teachers have an outside life and are human beings just like the rest of us, but this view also changes my relationship with them somewhat. Teachers also probably have a different image of me because of the statuses that I choose to put up and the pictures that I choose to upload online.
Should student-teacher relationships be so casual and friendly? Or should students and teachers compartmentalize their private lives in order for teachers to maintain a professional distance? I’m not sure.
It’s great to have a friendship with my teachers and know about them more personally, but we can’t forget that the friendships we have with teachers are different from those that we have with our classmates. Over the next few years, FUSD will have to define how exactly students and teachers can interact online.
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January 29, 2010
Marcy Shieh
The word “tweeting” has achieved as much Internet fame in 2010 as “You’ve Got Mail” did back in 1998.
Twitter has become a fierce staple of America’s cultural consciousness. With only 140 characters per post, politicians, talk show hosts, celebrities, parents and students can have their say about issues ranging from President Barack Obama’s recent State of the Union speech to the release of the iPad. While Twitter is an Internet phenomenon, it has not escaped criticism.
Critics of Twitter argue that Twitter is simply a more minimalistic approach to other social networking sites, such as Facebook. That is true to some extent; Twitter is Facebook, without the self-absorbed profiles, stalkerazzi photos and FarmVille invitations. It is essentially a collection of Facebook status messages, posted at generous servings of five-minute intervals. Anyone can reply, unless the Twitter is set to private.
Twitter is, at heart, a blogging tool that reveals some, but not all. Popular social networking sites, such as Facebook, may promote connections between classmates and co-workers, yet those services have, more or less, exploited the voyeur in each individual.
Although Facebook heightened a sense of intimate knowledge of people I already know, the key to Twitter’s popularity is the increasing number of celebrity accounts.
Celebrity accounts are indicated by a “Verified Account” logo on the top of the sidebar. Some celebrities may use their Twitter account to “connect” with their fans by asking their fans questions–or even vice versa. There is no reason to go in-depth, unless he or she is an overdramatic Disney starlet.
Actor Tom Hanks recently created a Twitter, filled with updates from his upcoming films, Larry Crowne and Toy Story 3. Writer Diablo Cody often types witty one or two-liners on life and pop culture. Film critic Roger Ebert often posts links to photos and new stories that interested him. They are just a few well-known names that dominate the Twitter airwaves and simultaneously reveal a modest part of their limelight soul.
There are reasons why celebrities use Twitter instead of Facebook: It’s fast, easy-to-use and maintains a level of privacy. People don’t have to be an open book. Perhaps less is more.
But Twitter is not just for celebrities. Twitter may not satisfy every inch of curiosity, but for every aspiring poet or writer or serial complainer, Twitter may be just the place to organize sporadic ideas that may seem to be a waste to post on Facebook. While I may not have as many followers as the Larry King, Twitter is perfect for a person like me who is full of random thoughts that are ready to burst.
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