E-Professionalism is extremely important in today’s society, particularly to the current generation of college students. When she composed her article on E-Professionalism in January 2010, Dr. Bradt noted that she is one of 350 million Facebook users. Now just eleven months later, that number has increased to over 500 million. Facebook is at the forefront of a massive culture shift that has literally changed the lives of people across the world. As Armistead Grandstaff and others have responded, Facebook has both positive and negative effects on the lives of its users. That being said, I think we should take heed to the precautions offered by Dr. Bradt and others in our cyber-conduct.
Armistead referenced an occasion in which his friend’s online comments resulted in turmoil in the workplace. I also have a friend who was recently fired from his job because of an inappropriate comment he made on Facebook. I have to admit this seemed a little drastic when my friend first told me about the ordeal, but our conversation was followed only a few days later by a new corporate-wide policy released in my workplace, outlining specific actions that are not to be taken regarding online referencing of the company in association to its employees’ personal lives (i.e. we are not allowed to list this company as our “employer” on social networking sites such as Facebook). This is clearly a much more serious issue than even I predicted it would become when I joined the social networking culture four years ago.
As part of a city-wide internship program in which I participated this past summer, I attended several workshops on resume-building, professionalism, and workplace etiquette. I was not surprised to find that every one of these workshops included a warning to the 50 or more college students in attendance to carefully manage our Facebook settings and content. We were told that nearly all business employers now search Facebook and Google when screening applicants for new positions. This presents even more intense reasons for college students who will soon be entering the work field to take care presenting ourselves in a positive light online.
In Katrina McFerran’s response, she noted that she does not “friend” her students on Facebook because she would have difficulty separating her evaluation of them in the classroom from her thoughts of them in the personal realm of social networking. While I respect her point of view, I take a different stance on this. I am friends with several of my music therapy professors on Facebook, as well as a member of the Facebook group for music therapists in my state. Although I must admit that I never expected to dialogue with my post-secondary educators such an informal way, in my experience the teacher-student relationship that I have with my professors is not compromised by our friendship on Facebook. All in all, I have noticed a significant shift in the teacher-student relational paradigm, even in my own college years. When I began my freshman year of college in 2004, I would never have expected professors to list their cell phone numbers on the syllabus. Today nearly all of my professors list their cell phone numbers on the syllabus, and one teacher even suggested at the beginning of the semester that we text her if we are going to be late to class! This type of informal communication is becoming common practice, and while I can see the potential danger in the cultivation of inappropriate relationships between teachers and students, I think that if we strive to maintain integrity and appropriateness in these relationships, they can do no harm. Perhaps on the contrary, professors may find in the future that they can contribute to even healthier professional development as each of their pupils makes the transition from student to colleague.
E-Professionalism is extremely important in today’s society, particularly to the current generation of college students. When she composed her article on E-Professionalism in January 2010, Dr. Bradt noted that she is one of 350 million Facebook users. Now just eleven months later, that number has increased to over 500 million. Facebook is at the forefront of a massive culture shift that has literally changed the lives of people across the world. As Armistead Grandstaff and others have responded, Facebook has both positive and negative effects on the lives of its users. That being said, I think we should take heed to the precautions offered by Dr. Bradt and others in our cyber-conduct.
Armistead referenced an occasion in which his friend’s online comments resulted in turmoil in the workplace. I also have a friend who was recently fired from his job because of an inappropriate comment he made on Facebook. I have to admit this seemed a little drastic when my friend first told me about the ordeal, but our conversation was followed only a few days later by a new corporate-wide policy released in my workplace, outlining specific actions that are not to be taken regarding online referencing of the company in association to its employees’ personal lives (i.e. we are not allowed to list this company as our “employer” on social networking sites such as Facebook). This is clearly a much more serious issue than even I predicted it would become when I joined the social networking culture four years ago.
As part of a city-wide internship program in which I participated this past summer, I attended several workshops on resume-building, professionalism, and workplace etiquette. I was not surprised to find that every one of these workshops included a warning to the 50 or more college students in attendance to carefully manage our Facebook settings and content. We were told that nearly all business employers now search Facebook and Google when screening applicants for new positions. This presents even more intense reasons for college students who will soon be entering the work field to take care presenting ourselves in a positive light online.
In Katrina McFerran’s response, she noted that she does not “friend” her students on Facebook because she would have difficulty separating her evaluation of them in the classroom from her thoughts of them in the personal realm of social networking. While I respect her point of view, I take a different stance on this. I am friends with several of my music therapy professors on Facebook, as well as a member of the Facebook group for music therapists in my state. Although I must admit that I never expected to dialogue with my post-secondary educators such an informal way, in my experience the teacher-student relationship that I have with my professors is not compromised by our friendship on Facebook. All in all, I have noticed a significant shift in the teacher-student relational paradigm, even in my own college years. When I began my freshman year of college in 2004, I would never have expected professors to list their cell phone numbers on the syllabus. Today nearly all of my professors list their cell phone numbers on the syllabus, and one teacher even suggested at the beginning of the semester that we text her if we are going to be late to class! This type of informal communication is becoming common practice, and while I can see the potential danger in the cultivation of inappropriate relationships between teachers and students, I think that if we strive to maintain integrity and appropriateness in these relationships, they can do no harm. Perhaps on the contrary, professors may find in the future that they can contribute to even healthier professional development as each of their pupils makes the transition from student to colleague.