School benefits of facebook

Facebook should be utilized in schools by teachers and students. If Facebook was integrated into schools, it would provide an effective means for teachers and their students to communicate outside of the classroom. Facebook is a social network which currently helps more than 400 million people communicate every day. Unfortunately, there are people who are opposed to utilizing Facebook in this manner. Many opposed hold positions in which they are responsible for deciding the use of Facebook outside the classroom. Simply a lack of knowledge and misunderstanding are the reason behind their opposition.

Therefore, I am going to debate the advantages of using Facebook as an effective means of communication between teacher and student. It is my intention that if there is anyone opposed who reads this essay, their opinion will be changed. Learning is a complicated process because everyone learns differently. For this reason teachers should do everything possible to help their students succeed. Facebook would be the perfect asset if only there weren’t so many misconceptions of it. One of the first misconceptions concerning Facebook is that it is unprofessional. This issue only exists because Facebook has a largely diverse society.

When a professional businessman has an account on Facebook he will probably only post professional information and when he responds to others he will more than likely use a professional tone. However, a college student may have a different preference as to what they place on their account. Less than desirable photos from parties, improper language such as slang or profanity, and other such behavior may be what that Facebook user wants on their account. That doesn’t make Facebook as a whole unprofessional it only means that some of its users may be unprofessional.

A perfect example of the unique prejudice that Facebook is suffering from is, what if colleges were suffering the same misconception? Colleges have highly educated professors and very professional faculties. However they also are known to possess immature college students that are notorious for their parties. What if colleges were rejected by school systems because they were accused of being too unprofessional because they had a few unprofessional students? This would cause so many problems that the government would have to get involved.

Another misconception that is holding back Facebook is the potential for an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and a student. Although school administrators should be very reluctant to anything involving a teacher and a student having an inappropriate relationship, many of them and even some parents would be hypocrites if they were denying Facebook for this reason. Hypothetically, it is possible for a teacher and a student to share inappropriate photos or have conversations of an inappropriate nature on Facebook. However that can be done anywhere, especially in a school building.

In classrooms teachers are allowed to lock their doors while students are in the room. That by itself has more potential problems than Facebook. However school administrators and even some parents support activities that have an even higher potential for inappropriate conduct. Anytime a student and a teacher are alone in the school whether it’s due to academics or extracurricular activities there is potential for trouble which is supported by administration. Anytime a parent agrees to let a teacher drive their kid home that’s potential for trouble that the parent agreed to.

This is why anyone agreeing to these common events at schools, but disagreeing with Facebook because of the potential for inappropriate relationships is a hypocrite. As a matter of fact, Facebook has a lower risk than all of those activities. Facebook is used when away from the other person compared to driving someone home and being shoulder to shoulder. Also there may not be any proof even if there is suspicion; however with Facebook anything sent can be retrieved by the authorities even if it was deleted. Last but not least bullying which has been an increasing problem everywhere, is also a concern with Facebook in schools.

However people aren’t worried that the teachers will be bullying the students. People are concerned about the vice-versa, students bullying the teachers. A teacher may have everything about their personal life on their Facebook account including personal information that could be sensitive to their professional career. For example, a teacher’s dog just died and the teacher posts their feelings on Facebook. A student sees the post and on the next school day starts making jokes about dogs until the teacher is emotionally unable to teach. A simple solution to this is making a separate account just for teaching.

This way only a teacher’s school appropriate material is viewable by students. Also with all of the bullying that has taken place on Facebook, having teachers online and able to deal with issues immediately might not be a bad idea. Unfortunately numerous children have killed themselves because they were being bullied. It is too late when authorities go through Facebook accounts for information after they’re dead. However if teachers were on Facebook with students, they would have an easier job of pinpointing bullying and swiftly dealing with it. Maybe if there was a better connection between teachers and students, bullying would permanently.

There are many great reasons to integrate Facebook into schools for teachers and students. Communication would probably be the biggest asset. Teachers would have the ability to put school work and virtually anything beneficial to the learning on a Facebook page for the entire class to see. Students would be able to ask question and receive speedy responses. It would give kids who are afraid to ask questions in class, kids who forget their assignments, and even parents a way to instantly connect to the teacher. Even bullying could be better prevented. Overall I believe the decision to let teachers use Facebook should be made.