Introduction of SNSs into collegiate courses has become an integral part of man college level courses. Instructors recognize and seek to leverage the affordances of particular SNSs like Facebook and Twitter ( Wang et al., 2012; Tang and Hew, 2017). Beyond classroom use Greenhow et al. (2020) and others (Greenhalgh and Koehler, 2017; Macia and Garcia, 2016) highlight the particular role of SNSs in teacher learning, networking, and professional development. I would recommend these SNSs as sites for learning if not for the real interpersonal concerns they pose for teachers and learners. I would greatly caution educators on integrating these technologies into their collegiate courses. I make this recommendation based off of the attention Fang et al. (2014) bring to the issues. The authors point out the personal and social dynamics of using SNSs in course work. First, the pervasive nature of technology and social media make it easy for us to blur the lines between our personal and professional online personas, meaning that the ways that students use SNSs personally may not be appropriate for professional use, such as sharing private/personal information. Secondly, the issues that occur in online spaces may carry over into the learning environment and negatively affect learning. Educators lay a pivotal role in the interpersonal interactions in the classroom and course overall. They often act as discussion moderators and referees to keep language and tone in check. They also model professional behavior for students who are engaging in their prospective fields. Fang et al. Point out how these roles can be complicated by the two issues above. First teachers may not always be aware of what has transpired online, There are privacy settings that block teachers from view. Secondly, teachers may model behavior for students, however the stark distinction between work and personal online lives has become dangerously faint.
Hi Madison,
Wow! These are really thoughtful initial posts. You’ve raised important, research-based points. Let’s say we have an instructor in a university setting who teaches adults in a teacher education program. Although not in social work, as in Fang et al. (2014), this instructor seeks to prepare her students for teacher professional development roles, that is, they will be training teachers (the clients) to integrate technology in a variety of settings. Based on the research she has been reading, the instructor seeks to introduce her adult students to the pros and cons of social media as a tool for professional teacher learning and networking, but be thoughtful and informed about it. What is one strategy she could take to accomplish her objective while mitigating at least one of the issues you raise? (I pointed Selin to Walster’s (optional) article – which may also be relevant to you: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1v5rvsm2net4z3/Walster_2017.pdf?dl=0)
I look forward to your thoughts!
Chris
Hi Madison, I think you raised really important points about the potential challenges of SNSs in college level education. I particularly like how you address these challenges in terms of students’ learning experiences. Your arguments about interpersonal concerns of using SNSs and how SNSs create blur between students and teacher’ personal and professional online personas really important. From the learning perspective, I believe that building positive interpersonal relationships are critical to build a supportive learning community and to have sense of ownership and agency for students in learning environment. As you said, teachers’ role and students’ participation in these SNSs are might be complicated in such platforms. The interactions through SNSs might disrupt teachers’ roles in terms of moderating classroom discussions and providing individual feedback to students’ ideas. It would be also challenging for teachers to set boundaries in virtual settings, since it leads to more superficial relationships between teacher and students.
Madison___You pointed to a number of issues posed by integrating SNSs in college level classes. Like Selin, I also found the point you made about blurring the lines between the personal/professional online personas to be extremely important. In general, the rise of SNSs has made the lines between professional and personal lives to become less unclear. Prior to social media, I think it was easier for people to keep their professional and personal lives separate, however, with the massive explosion of social media site usage, theses two areas of life are increasingly meshing with one another. Personal and professional social media accounts are not isolated from one another as employers, colleagues, peers, and anyone interested can always search social media platforms and find not only professional accounts but also personal accounts. As such, it is important for pre-service teachers and other emerging professionals being educated at the college level to understand that the unclarity and blurriness of the lines between their personal and professional lives with regards to SNSs, to be aware of the professional implications that can come from their personal social media accounts, to gain insights into what/how/when they should be using SNSs professionally and personally in light of their legal obligations and professional responsibilities as a teacher, to understand the extent to which their personal and professional identities on SNSs overlap with one another, to learn the professional behaviors, expectations, restrictions, and obligations they have when using SNSs professionally and personally, and to learn to leverage SNSs in both their professional and personal lives to facilitate and engage in learning communities, create supportive social networks, maintain collaborative relationships, and build a cohesive online identity. In this way, I wonder if these are things that should be taught more explicitly, carefully, and intentionally in higher education settings. I mentioned in my post to Selin that the points that have been raised by both of you here reminded me of a discussion that I had with some of the elementary education interns in my field instruction group following a teachers and the law convocation that they attended a few weeks ago. During this convocation, all the interns were given an outline of how they should and should not be using their social media accounts in both their personal and professional lives, what they should/should not post, and when/when not to interact with parents and students on social media platforms. As such, they left feeling really pessimistic, overwhelmed, and confused about how and to what extent they should be using social media professionally and personally. This experience leaves me wondering if (and severely doubting that) a two hour convocation on the legal obligations of teachers that spent 20-30 minutes brushing on topics regarding social media is really sufficient for preservice teachers to gain a critical understanding of how/when/why SNSs can(/not)/should(/not)/may(/not) be used in their professional and personal lives. Rather, if preservice teachers were given more experiences in college to learn not only about the blurriness between their professional/private lives on social media and their legal obligations regarding social media usage in their professions, but also offered ample and explicit opportunities to explore, engage in, and experience how SNSs can be used (and misused) in facilitating learning experiences (amongst students and learners in the classroom and professional learning communities amongst colleagues), how SNSs can be leveraged to build collaborative connections with other educators, how SNSs can be used to share resources amongst the larger teacher community, and how to build cohesive professional and personal identities on SNSs, I think that preservice teachers would be more prepared to critically, carefully, and ethically engage in and facilitate learning on SNSs. There is no question that doing this kind of social media integration into the classroom would be cause for many concerns; however, the increasing rise and use of SNSs in both our professional and personal lives require us to do more to prepare preservice teachers to navigate and leverage social media to facilitate learning (whether this be using SNSs in their own learning, development, and collaboration professionally or using SNSs to create learning opportunities amongst learners in their classrooms).
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