Mentor - Student Interactions Online

[Jon236]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Interesting twist now that many schools require students to have Facebook accounts and use such for posting school work, coordinating team research and generating homework assignments.
For WildStang, we maintain our own forum but have private sections for the subteams where mentors and students can interact in 'public'. i.e. the forums that are closed to non-WildStang members are open to all adults, parents, and teachers. Private interactions ( face to face or electronically) between student and adult are not allowed.

By simply making electronic communication non-private (by using e-lists, say to the Programming Team), the issues of inappropriate conversations go away. In Scouts, adults need to have another scout present. The same should apply to use of social media. This simply makes sense. Don't ban communication; just let the sun shine in!