Students use Facebook to learn about teachers

Facebook has recently reached the 300 million member milestone. Members range from old to young, parent to child, and teacher to student.

A growing trend among students today is to friend request their teachers on Facebook, thus raising questions and concerns about this interaction outside the school, on the computer.

Lee Robinson, English teacher and department chair at Lincoln County High School said she joined Facebook because it is a "fabulous way to connect and reconnect with high school, college and current friends."

Being friends with students on Facebook should raise no skepticism, she said.

Many students who accept or request their teachers on Facebook do not do it to gain an edge in the classroom, said 16-year-old sophomore Taylor Fernandes, current student and Facebook friend of Mrs. Robinson.

"I want to know who is teaching me," she said.

Another student at Lincoln County High School, Montana Dawkins, a 16-year-old junior, when asked if she thought that she received special treatment because of such friendships, disagreed. At least, no more than other students who are Facebook friends.

Montana said if she is treated differently, it is because she is on a "more personal level" with her teachers.

Faith Hutton, a 16-year-old junior, doesn't have a Facebook account.

"I don't think teachers treat those students differently. It is probably easier to get in contact with a student via Facebook as opposed to other ways such as e-mail or telephone, but I doubt that it changes the way a teacher treats his or her students."

Moreover, the students believe that Facebook helps teachers teach. Mrs. Robinson agreed.

"With so much on a teacher's plate it becomes all too easy for a teacher to teach a brain and not a person."

She went on to say that keeping in touch with students outside of class helps keep it on a personal level, therefore the student/teacher Facebook relationship should yield no worries.

Jennifer Dandron is a junior at Lincoln County High School.