Social Web and Education

Sunday, June 06 2010 -

The relationship between the social web (aka Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc.) and education has almost always been rather tumultuous. Recently a student at a school in my city committed suicide. I happen to know this particular school has a strict policy against teachers being on Facebook or any other social site. The question that has been bothering me lately is why?

In the case of suicide is it almost always telegraphed, sometimes very explicitly. If a teacher happened to be linked to this particular student on a social site wouldn’t they have picked up on those signals? Oh, I’m sure the argument against that is the liability: “Why didn’t you know Johnny was so sad?” Let’s get something straight about that. Teachers are not parents and they should not be held accountable to the life and wellbeing of students. It’s the parents role/job to ensure that Johnny gets counseling if he needs it, etc. However, parents are many times the last to know, and that is where the social web can help. If teachers were allowed that interaction then at least the possibility exists that some warning would have been sounded.

Yes, a teacher could be wrong, could do nothing, could… would… should… we live in a society where everyone is afraid to help one another because they don’t want to be wrong. It’s just plain silly. Step forward, be a role model, take a chance and possibly save someone’s life.

I’ve experienced a person I know fairly well committing suicide. I can tell you it is a hard road. You ask yourself if you should have seen it coming, etc. Had there been a Facebook or Myspace or some such then possibly I would have had the avenues to see it coming. In the end, by coupling together pieces of information spread across many friends we figured out that this guy was a risk, but no individual had the whole of information…

Education in this country is burying its head in the sand, hoping that the social web will go away, not impact the lives of its charges, nor its teachers. That is the wrong approach. Education should be embracing the social web, take it and run. See where it leads you. Allow the social web to spread your learning, not be the inhibitor.