Although I have created a Facebook fan page for our school's engineering program, I don't use it regularly to communicate with students.

I did send a pair of e-mails to my engineering students yesterday, which you can see if you're interested by clicking the link on my name.

According to BEBCO policy, BCPS employees are not permitted to text, email, tweet or friend students. Even if the content of the message is purely school related. For my classes I have a distribution list of parent email addresses, and communicate only with parents.

I wonder if any teachers are FB friends with their students. I'm not, personally.

chemmaster: What's BEBCO? Does BCPS stand for Baltimore City or County?

County Teacher: Personally, I've friended students on facebook after they'd graduated but never while they are my student. Current students may become fans of the engineering program page, but that does not involve "friending" nor access to personal information.

I have a Facebook account I set up to serve solely for teacher/parents/student interaction and am connected to most of my students through it. I used it to communicate school closing information, midterm re-scheduling, and last-minute review questions this week, as I have done in the past. Last year, when we lost the nearly-two weeks due to snow, it was the only way for me to communicate the class content. External assessment dates don't change even if we have weather emergencies so it was vital.

I'm hopeful (and pretty sure) that BCPS stands for Baltimore County, not the city, since I teach in the city. It's too bad, but a lot of districts are pretty obtuse about that sort of policy. Social networking and online communication is an important part of 21st century communication, and teaching students the necessary modeling of such communication before they go into college and the wider world seems an important lesson, along with the convenience and efficiency of delivering important information. Beyond e-mail and facebooking (and, by the way, it's not my policy to be 'friends' with my current students on the FB identity I use for friends and family, just the one I set up for teaching), I even find texting vital as a communication tool for my capacity as a coach. Most students don't look at e-mail, even seniors.

@epiph-Like

Everything you say is true.Truly, the kids are ahead of the system.There are so many great ways we could use technology. As a system,we are in the dark ages still.

@nick

BEBCO stands for Board of Education of Baltimore County, and BCPS is Baltimore County. Sorry for the confusion.

My sociology class is currently using facebook as a discussion point in class for many issues relating to interaction, social change and the nature of the emerging cybernetic society. It is a serious issue to be framing within social science learning discussions. Zuckerberg's whole point is the evangelism of some type of open society. This may lead to unintended consequences. There are also a whole host of issues when adult educators confuse professional responsibilities with private roles and behavior, or vice versa on the part of the children.

This deserves more discussion.