Kathryn Linder used to accept Facebook friend requests from her students, until the Suffolk University official considered the repercussions of blending her social and professional lives.
Linder, assistant director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Suffolk in Boston, activated Facebook’s most stringent privacy settings when she realized students could see her profile page and various posts, comments, videos, and photos.
“Eventually all they could see was my name and eMail address, so it didn’t seem purposeful to accept friend invitations anymore,” said Linder, who published a list of suggestions for how instructors should interact with their students on social media sites. “It’s important to keep in mind that it is the instructor’s responsibility, not the student’s, to create and enforce appropriate boundaries for social networking in the classroom and out.”…Read More