One of the questions which was raised at Technology Enhanced Learning Working Group last term about anxieties – or whether we should be anxious – about the use of social media by students, staff and students and staff together.
On the whole, most members of the working group would much prefer to allow and to expect our staff and students to use their common sense in evaluating what they ought or ought not to be doing and behaving. Obviously, our colleagues working in FE have different issues because they are working with under eighteens and there are online safety issues involved with this group.
A draft set of basic guidelines was produced by SSSL e-learning co-ordinator Mike Teague and circulated by the TELWG to University Learning & Teaching Committee which Schools may use if they wish or need to.
As some extra background information on this hot potato of a topic, here are some links you might wish to check out specifically about the issue of Facebook ‘friending’.
- Some tips on careful creating friend lists
- A personal view by someone who thinks you shouldn’t be friends with your students (though she may be more focussed on schools than universities)
- A more positive discussion about the staff-student relationship
- A similar, if less emotional post, echoing those latter sentiments
There are also, if you would like, some guidelines on netiquette more generally.