Kristen Perez used to avoid friending her students on Facebook. Only after graduation would they be rewarded with access to their professor’s profile.
It was one way to separate her personal and professional lives, but now, if she gets a Facebook friend request from a familiar face in her class, she’s likely to accept.
She doesn’t see the harm. She posts like a pro. There’s no incriminating information on her end – just a steady stream of photos of her two daughters whose smiling faces also brighten her office at Briar Cliff University.
So, if her students want to be inundated with these sweet family pics, who is she to stop them?
“Overall, social media has just changed so much. Facebook, for example, my students are friends with their parents and grandparents. There’s not that separation that there used to be. Your ‘friends’ aren’t just your friends anymore. Maybe it’s your boss or, in my case, your professor,” she said. “It’s kind of nonissue for me now.”
People are also reading…
Within the Sioux City Community School District, teachers, coaches and club advisers frequently use social media to stay in touch with parents and students through Facebook groups or pages, but a hard line is drawn on other interactions. A blanket policy states: “Staff must never use personal social media to engage, friend, or otherwise establish a relationship with students.”
At the college level, social media use is largely left up to the preference of each professor.
Perez, who chairs the digital media department at Briar Cliff, can’t get away from it. She frequently relies on Facebook and Twitter as a teaching tool. This school year, she’s hoping to venture into Instagram and Snapchat, going where the students are.
Those ages 18 to 29 have always been the most likely users of social media by a considerable margin. Today, 90 percent of young adults use social media, compared with 12 percent in 2005, according to the Pew Research Center.
Perez’s students might be “digital natives,” but that doesn’t necessarily mean they know how to properly use the technology they’ve grown up with.
Encouraging them to use online platforms more professionally, every year, she assigns a Twitter scavenger hunt in her social media class. Students are given a list of seven to 10 things that they need to write about in 140 characters or less and post to Twitter using #bcumcom407.
“They’re graded not only on if they’re posting but the quality of their posts,” she said.
As part of his homework, @tylerjmcghee tweeted, “Briar Cliff Women's Volleyball is the true definition of a team #bcumcom407,” with a photo of the yellow-shirted players huddled on the court.
@BeckmannDillon tweeted, “Blueberry Wafflecone and Strawberry Cheesecake are @TheeDesignator's fav things about BCU #bcumcom407,” with a video of @TheeDesignator, also known as Desi Beckmann, saying, "My favorite thing about Briar Cliff is that they have four different kinds of ice cream every day so I can get my ice cream fix seven days a week."
One student pushed the bounds of propriety with a picture of a toilet and a snarky caption that declared the porcelain bowl the “most beautiful spot at BCU, because some times you just need to take a load off.”
In most cases, that tweet wouldn’t fly in a professional setting unless you’re working for BuzzFeed or a plumber.
After students posted their content to Twitter, Perez reviewed everything by searching for #bcumcom407 and led class a discussion, talking about what makes a good tweet, covering everything from capitalization and punctuation to typos and blurry photos.
If they learn nothing else from class, let it be this: “If you wouldn’t want you grandma to see it, then you probably shouldn’t post it.”
