What does it mean to have too much exposure in the digital world? Dan, Tom, and I take on this topic in Episode 15 of Digital Campus. In a discussion that focuses largely on sites such as Facebook, we examine the current culture of self-exposure that seems to be taking root in the digital environment and what the consequences may be for students, teachers, and the general public. During the news round-up section of the podcast, we also take a look at the new release of Leopard and the not-so-new release of Vista. So, when you have a chance, give it a listen and let us know what you think.
And while we’re on the subject of Facebook, there is a group within the larger Facebook community called “Faculty Ethics on Facebook.” [This link works if you are a Facebook member.] Among the items put forward by this group are a set of proposed guidelines for faculty members who (like me) use Facebook as a way to communicate with students. The current draft reads:
1. Keeping official course activities in other online tools.
2. Never requiring students to participate in Facebook or having Facebook influence a course grade. An exception is for social research projects that use Facebook and make their connection to a course explicit.
3. Not friending students unless they request the connection.
4. Accepting friend requests from all students (unless the instructor makes the decision not to friend students at all).
5. Not looking at student profiles unless the faculty member has been friended by the student and even then using Facebook information judiciously and for educational purposes.
6. Faculty members should avoid association with groups with sexual content or political views that might offend certain students or compromise the student to teacher relationship.
7. Taking extreme care with privacy settings and faculty profile content to limit profiles to information relevant to educational purposes. A broad variety of information may be appropriate, however, given the area of expertise / subject, the local customs of an instructor’s school, and the dynamics of his or her classroom. Content should be placed thoughtfully and periodically reconsidered to maintain this educational standard.
8. Exercising appropriate discretion when using Facebook for personal communications (with friends, colleagues, other students, etc.) with the knowledge that faculty behavior on Facebook may be used as a model by our students.
While I think it is a very good idea to begin a discussion of possible guidelines for ethical use of this tool by faculty members, it seems to me that there are some problems with the current draft. I have my own views on these potential problems, but would be very interested to hear from you what you think.
Be careful Mills… I had some serious problems upgrading to Leopard. If you decide to do it soon, I would recommend an archive install rather than the upgrade install. The upgrade install did not work well at all, and I got several error messages. The archive install worked perfectly on the three different machines I installed it on. Those Facebook ethics for faculty members are interesting but I think they are a little too strict. I too see importance to the discussion about faculty ethics on social networking sites, especially when it comes to groups/postings/communications with a political undertone. I have an issue with the idea that faculty members should not access the profile’s of students who have not “friended” them. By creating a Facebook profile that can be viewed by anyone on a specific network, the student is making a conscious decision to allow others, whoever they may be, to access their information. Facebook now offers users the ability to hide their profiles from anyone who they are not friends with. If a student is concerned about faculty members accessing their profiles, they should take the initiative to limit their profiles to friends only.
I polled by students on this issue via WebCT this semester. Some liked the idea of my having a Facebook account, because they said that that was the site that they visited most often every day. Big surprise, Mills, I know. I’ve read your other post. :p Anyway, others really did not like the idea at all, because they considered that their private space. Still others reported that some of their professors *required* them to have a Facebook account, which I found very strange indeed.
Long story short, I decided to dodge this can of worms and not get an account. For professional networking there is LinkedIn anyway, though suprisingly few historians seem to use it. (Why surrender the “professional” label to business people? Why not make use of this tool?)
Since then, my 11th-grade son has shown me how he has taken the plunge and got an account. The last thing in the world he wants is for me to have one. He considers it a major social faux pas to be friending parents and teachers. If I understood him right, it is more or less the equivalent of taking your mother to the school prom.