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!

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Jon,
Our policy actually is derived from scouting policy since several of us are former scout leaders and the lead teacher is an Eagle Scout. We adhere to the two adult, two student rule for the team and will close down if anyone needs to leave that would violate this minimum. We, of course, cannot transport students in our private vehicles, even with parent permission, for insurance rules in our district.

[JesseK]

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.

This is awful news Al. Facebook isn't just notorious for tracking every movement on the web, but those who mine Facebook's data could develop some pretty nasty algorithms that could get them a denied loan later:
If it's free on the internet then you're not the customer; rather, you're the product

I do use Facebook, randomly, though I have some pretty strict privacy settings. This county is so politically charged my personal policies are 'if I don't know your parents, then we can't be friends on Facebook until after you graduate'. Seems to work OK so far.

[JamesBrown]

It is interesting to see the diferent opinions on the topic. It is also interesting that a lot of the people who seem to be against a ban are older mentors. Not sure of the cause or significance but it is worth noting.

To throw in my $.02 I never add active students on Facebook, also my privacy settings are extremely strict. I made this decision based on what my friends and family who are teachers or otherwise work with students that age have done, I have had these settings since back when I was a camp counselor. Quite frankly students have no need to view my facebook profile, (I keep my profile work appropriate based on what I learned at RPI). Also students have no need to message me on Facebook and I have no need to message them that way. I regularly give students and their parents(on my team and others that need software and electrical help) my business card that includes my email and cell phone.

I agree with Don and others that banning inappropriate contact is the ideal, however that just isn't practical. I think it is very important to set out guidelines for what you can and can't talk about, i.e. when I was a counselor it was always considered inappropriate to discuss what happened over the weekend and/or any interaction between counselors that happens outside of camp. I do my best to keep the same policy with robotics students. While I may tell them that I went home to visit family or something simmilar I never share details. I will happily be friends with students once they are in college but it is important not to blur the line when they are in HS, especially since I am only 4 or 5 years older than the oldest students. These types of interactions are considered by many to be inappropriate but are for the most part harmless often happen with good intentions and can easily be prevented by a good policy with out bans. The real issue comes with more severe in appropriate interactions.

I think it is important to use any and all defenses to prevent truely inappropriate interactions and/or anything that could be interpreted in that way. I agree with Al that the scouting policy covers the bases and does it well. While I hated the policy as a scout (I can't even tell you how many times my dad and I had to sit around after meetings and events when I was SPL to wait for parents as not to break the 2 to 2 rule) it just makes sense, I know that it is easy to say well I know that person nothing is going to happen honestly you never really know the person 100% all the time when abuse is exposed people come out saying they never expected it. It is way easier to be safe than sorry.

As for some tips on how you can use social media appropriately, create team facebook and twitter accounts that can be accessed by multiple team leaders (students and or mentors). Keep all content appropriate and professional, ensure that students understand that as the public sees it anything on that account is the official opinion of the team. This will also allow the team to update members via social media without 1-1 interaction between leaders and students. Phones calls are more accepted by parents these days as they are more familiar. I am not against texting as it is a valuable tool but I think they should only be sent out as blasts, the same message goes to every one and only at appropriate times. If a school department has a strict phone policy ask to have a voice mail box set up for the team and have the messages forward to mentors, that way there is no direct contact but students can still quickly contact mentors.