Should teachers and students be friends on social Media
Should teachers and students be friends on social media? would be it good for students to stay connected with their teachers on social networking sites? Social media is used by both teachers and students but should they be friends on social networks?
People are using social media to communicate more than ever before, and almost everyone has a Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn account. However, there may be limits to who one can interact with, such as teachers and their students. Teachers and students alike may now engage with anybody, anywhere, due to social media. This form of engagement has both advantages and disadvantages.
The benefit of students on being connected on social media with teachers
The following is a practical benefit of having a teacher on social media: among the students, there are those who, for whatever reason, are hesitant to raise questions during the session. This is sometimes due to shyness on the part of the student, who is embarrassed to ask inquiries in public. The second reason is that some students require additional time to study the information, and queries regarding the subject occur after their classes.
Furthermore, if the student is concerned about disturbing the teacher with a phone call, the text message on the Internet appears to be less intrusive. The teacher can respond to this communication whenever it is convenient for them. Practical experience with this strategy has shown that students are more likely to contact their teacher via the Internet, are better at completing their assignments and have a positive impact on their academic performance.
A social networking site is beneficial to both students and teachers. The creation of collective chats allows teachers to optimise after-school work with students, prepare them for competitions, conduct practical exam preparation in the form of testing, and transfer important exam preparation information, as the social network serves as both a communication and a file exchange platform.
The disadvantages student-teacher relationship
However, teachers and students may have direct, unsupervised communication outside of the classroom through social media, which creates hazards and may lead to misconduct. Keeping the two domains separate helps students learn to discern between personal and professional interactions, as well as the behaviours associated with each; this is especially crucial when dealing with adolescents, as the borders can easily be blurred.
The teacher-student relationship can be altered by chatting on Facebook, sharing photographs on Snapchat, or tweeting about live occurrences. Both the student and the teacher gain insight into each other’s personal life when they have access to personal content. Interaction on social media can unwittingly violate professional boundaries. It’s possible that private discussions about personal issues or family activities will arise.
Students who were given cell phones by their school to increase contact with teachers scored better academically, but they also talked to their teachers about personal concerns more frequently. That can turn into a relationship, emotions can become involved, and the situation can spiral out of control.
Haieqa Iftikhar is the Intern at STUDENTINN SOLUTIIONS.