"Friending" Students

After teaching the same group of students for two years, we developed very strong connections with one another. It didn't take long for all my students to learn I had a Facebook page, and to subsequently make comments about my "funny hair" in my profile picture. As their teacher, I preferred not to be my students' online friend, despite several class discussions surrounding the many uses of Facebook. While it's true that I have given out my cell phone number to some of my students--and yes, they did call and text on occasion--it seems like giving out my Facebook is more taboo. It's as if my online identity is more restricted than my actual self because I would never withhold my cell number or my time from a student. Now that I resigned from my job in June to spend the year in India, the question of friending former students on Facebook becomes more interesting. After all they are no longer my students. An interesting side note: I am friends with my former high school technology teacher. For the past two weeks a friend request from a former student has been sitting in my request section. This brings up the larger issue of how teachers and students should interact in the digital age. How soon is too soon to be Facebook friends? Should teachers ever be Facebook friends with students?

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