Friends with teachers online: To be or not to be?

For all those who are shy to walk up to their teachers in a class of 60 students and tell her, `Ma'am you're looking very pretty today', Facebook comes to the rescue. With the student-teacher bond moving out of the classroom and onto the online medium, students are increasingly becoming `friendly' with their teachers. While most teachers welcome the change, others are slightly more hesitant and would rather befriend the ex-students.
BREAKING THE ICE
Dhruv Bhalla, a class XII student at Study Hall, sought Facebook to play ice breaker between him and his teachers at his new school.“I changed schools last year, and to get to know the teachers better, added most of them on Facebook.Even though the communication over the net was limited to formal greetings, it really helped me in building a bond with them and they even started recognising me in school pretty early ,“ says Dhruv, adding, “My principal from my previous school is also on my friend list, and he's very friendly with all of us, commenting and liking our pictures just like our friends.“ A few teachers believe that social media friendships with students eases out their job. “I am friends with most of my students on FB. It's a part of my approach towards teaching ­ to be as friendly with students as possible. This way , they become more comfortable with us, discussing issues which they otherwise wouldn't.Particularly when it comes to introvert students who don't interact much in class, I feel FB helps us in connecting better with them,“ says Shradha Bhasin, a teacher at a GD Goenka school.
HOMEWORK: ACCEPT FRIEND REQUEST
Radhika Sharma*, a class XI stu dent, tells us that often teachers take the initiative on online forums. “A teacher at our school recently made an account on Facebook and sent friend requests to current as well as past students.Initially we were apprehensive of accepting the request since he's known to make unnecessary comments, but when he insisted in class that we do, we all accepted. He frequently comments and likes our posts,“ says Radhika.
ONLINE CLASSES
For Richa Raghuvanshi, lecturer at Amity University , Facebook is an effective medium to communicate important information to her students.“We all know how active students these days are on social media, so Facebook and Whatsapp are sureshot tools to reach out to them.When I'm the coordinator of a batch of 80-100 students, it is not possible to reach out to each one of them personally . So I've made an FB group where I post important notes and it's worked for me,“ says Richa.
WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?
Aashrita Dass, vice principal of La Martiniere Girls College, believes in limited communication online with her students. “Most teachers from the school are friends with the students on Facebook and we don't see any harm in that. However, we don't encourage any unnecessary communication between students and teachers online. We don't interfere much in their lives, and they don't interfere in ours,“ says Aashrita.
Shreya Sahni, a class XII student at La Martiniere Girls College, believes that teachers know how to conduct themselves when interacting with students on Facebook. “Some are very formal, others are quite friendly online.They will drop a message to wish you for your exam, or ask how the studies are going. So it's actually nice to be in touch like that. And once, when you pass out of school, that's how you take the association forward,“ says Shreya.
STAYING IN TOUCH WITH EX STUDENTS
For others, Facebook is an effective way to stay in touch with ex-students. “I'm not friends with my current pupils on Facebook, but I'm in touch with most of my former students online. I accept requests from passouts and it's nice to chitchat with them about what they're doing. It also feels nice knowing that even after leaving school, students remember you and care to reach out,“ says Anugya Masih, a teacher at Loreto Convent.
Neerja Sinha, lecturer at Avadh Girls' Degree College, shares a similar sentiment. “I accept requests from students once they pass out. Otherwise, I don't see the need for them or even us to interfere in each other's personal lives.And if you accept requests of a select few current students, others start asking `Ma'am humaari kyun nahi accept kari',“ says Neerja.
Priyanka Singh, a former student of Loreto Convent, stays in touch with her teachers through Facebook. “I was a very shy kid in school, one who wouldn't talk much. But as I left, I befriended all my teachers on social media because I wanted to stay in touch with them.Now we interact quite a bit on Facebook, with them liking or commenting on my posts,“ says Priyanka.