Should Teachers Be Friends with Students?

This question should NOT even be a question, 

I believe that teachers shold NOT be friends with students.  Facebook is a social network which means it is not a place that teachers and students shold meet or socialize.  As a social media manager  I reccommend that parents start by managing their children’s social networking to help keep our children safe and protected in cyber space. 

They reaised this question on The View  yesterday and I agree with the ladies on The View  you don’t socialize with your therapist or psychologist and likewise students shold not be allowed to socialize with their teachers on Facebook, Twitter, Linkinden  or any other social network. 

The easist way for this to be resolved is to possibly allow the teachers to create a Facebook Fan Page that will allow the students to like the page but that page should only contain school related material.  This may or may not work but it is just a possibility as to how to offer a way for teachers and students to make a safe connection in today’s cyber world of social media. 

As parents we have to make sure that our children are fully protected in this fast growing social media world that is becoming a new way of living for our children. 

Tips for parents regarding soical media and your child:

Go online to Facebook or Twitter with your child and talk to them about their friends on their page. 

Talk to your child about the adults in their life such as, teachers, coaches, church leaders etc and ask them if any of them are on Facebook, Twitter, or delicious, etc. 

Talk to your children about the videos on You Tube and ask if anybody they know has any videos that are funny or interesting posted on You Tube

Theses tips will help you open a meaningful dialogue with your children about their online activity without making them feel you are invading their private space.

Lastly, as far as kid’s privacy we need to remember that our parents knew our friends and their parnets and as parents we have the right and responsibility to be envolved in our children’s friendships which in this case may be marked by thier social media connections.

It is time that we become soical media parents to keep up with our very social media children. 

As a social media manager I have become keenly aware of the power of soical networking.  As a parent, you need to recognize the social media power and and upgrade to 21st Century parents.