Summer 2008--Dateline Bridgewater:
After two solid years of cajoling, NP finally got me to sign up for Facebook. Even though I teach aspects of new media in my theory course, I've been reticent to get into either MySpace or Facebook. It seemed to me like going to a club where all my students would hang out--"who's the creepy old guy?", y'know?
But ok--I'm in. And frankly I owe NP a thank-you for allowing me some pretty fast-moving reconnecting. To whit, here are a few of the folks I've reconnected with just this week:
DD went to another high school in Tucson, but we became friends through our church youth group ("Does Facebook have an OSLC page?" I find myself wondering). Actually, among DD's hijinks in HS was to dress up like a substitute teacher and pop up in the halls of RHS, just to say hey. Can you imagine this happening post-Columbine?....
SJ was in my "sister section" of my frosh dorm @ GAC. We were also in the alternative "CII" curriculum track together, which meant we got to go to a monastery in North Dakota, puzzle over Plato's Cave ad nauseam, and such. I just found out she's a newlywed!....
IE lived down the hall from me during my "semester abroad" @ UEA. The look is markedly different (a function of living in Sweden?), but the mischievous grin is absolutely the same. Does he still do the arm-flail when "Ride on Time" comes on?....
MFC & I were @ IU together those first years of CMCL, w/ offices in The Attic of what we subsequently learned was a literally diseased building. After getting her MA, she's been in China for eight years teaching EFL....And looking to go back to grad school for that come the fall (after the Olympics?)....
These were all folks that, for a time, were an integral part of my everyday life. At least at this early stage, it feels like Facebook is a reunion machine. As a professor, though, joining Facebook has allowed me to stumble on a philosophical / pedagogical question: Should professors and students be (Facebook) friends? I'd be curious to know your thoughts!
Monday, July 7, 2008
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I've been avoiding Facebook for the very reason you mention: I just feel uncomfortable with the prospect that studnets will want to "friend" me (let alone "poke" me!). In fact, a lot of my students have expressed to me their own disinterest in having profs on their turf. It's like hanging out in the dorm or the frat/sorority house to them, I think. I suppose, though, now that Facebook is wide open, those misgivings will dissipate -- at least a little. I guess the rule of thumb will have to come via Hill Street Blues: "Let's be careful out there."
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