Should educators and students "friend" each other online?

Dr. Sameer Hinduja: Not at all. "Online communication tends to lead to candid sharing of world views and self-disclosure...Then you think of a teenager on a very vulnerable, lonely night, dropping you a message; and (the educator) wanting to encourage them, it could be read the wrong way...In this sort of society, we've got to be all about propriety...


Dr. Justin Patchin:  Maybe.  "The key in any environment to the way teachers interact with students is boundaries...If you have a social networking page that is completely professional — where you separate out your friends from your students — then I think it's completely appropriate.  But it's all about boundaries.  To assume that teachers are automatically going to be crossing those boundaries is unfair, I think, to most teachers..."



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