How does the picture change if the instructor can legitimately think of students as colleagues? This is how I think of my LIS students, because they *are*; I'm not a professor, just another librarian showing them stuff about the field. This makes it a lot easier for me to justify asking them to interact with me online, because online interaction is a major professional tool that I strongly believe they need to know about and use. - D0r0th34

Dorothea, I think that's a very good point. On the other hand, how can you know if your students think of you as a colleague? You may think of them as peers but they may see the power relationship differently. And not necessarily consciously or explicitly. It's also potentially different in a fairly specialized grad course vs. a huge bio101 or psych101 environment. - John Dupuis

@Dorothea - I think you're also coming across the difference between engaging with undergrads and grad students in a professional program. I don't friend my students on facebook, but if they friend me first I'll accept. It's the difference between me "invading" their space and being invited in. Suddenly, after writing that, I feel like a vampire. - Katy S

When I do IL classes, at the end I always mention both that I'm on Fb and that my library has a page. First of all, the students always laugh when I say I'm on Fb, which is ok 'cause I'm probably not too far off many of their father's ages. Needless to say, hardly any students have ever friended me. But a fair number do become fans of our page, which probably means something but I'm not sure what. - John Dupuis

John, I'm explicit about my collegiality beliefs and why I hold them from the very first day of class. I also try to break down the student/instructor wall -- I ask them to use my first name, give them personal as well as work IM, etc. It worked fine with the 11 I taught last year. May be a different story with the 40 signed up this year! - D0r0th34

That said, I don't force any of them to interact with me except in class spaces (this year, I'm doing a Drupal install for 'em). If they want to read my blog or friend me on FF or whatever, fine, but they don't have to. They get to choose who's in their professional network. - D0r0th34

My advisor has been using Facebook groups for her classes for a while now. I don't think there's anything creepy about that, and apparently, she doesn't either. However, I think that "creepy" only comes up in this case because it is possible for male faculty (presumably older) to connect with female students (presumably much younger) through social networks. You never hear about "creepy women." It's usually only men who can be creeps, especially in academia (and society, in general). - Julian

I am proud to have had the chutzpah to bring the typical gender double standard to the conversation. I thought that it had to be mentioned at least somewhere. Perhaps bringing it up will help ease what often operates under the surface. - Julian

It's absolutely fair to say that privilege of all sorts (not just gender) needs to be considered in these matters. I can well imagine being creeped by a male in a position of authority insisting on becoming part of my social network. I can well imagine a person of color being creeped by (white) me insisting on the same thing. So I don't insist, and I make clear that they don't get any brownie points if they do decide to include me. Is there something else I should be doing? - D0r0th34

I'll admit that we normally talk more about creepy men, but there is a weird fascination with creepy female 6-12 teachers in the media. The get treated different than the men, but there is some weird fetishization going on there. More typical in academia is the older female power professor who expects her female grad students (and junior profs) to be superwomen who sacrifice all to the profession. They are thoroughly unpleasant. - Katy S

Yeah, I've run into those, Katy. I haven't since the invention of social networking sites, though, so I don't know if they typically create social-networking boundary issues. - D0r0th34

Not so much - they are more likely to castigate students for using them (because it takes away from research, naturally). The ones I've run into do seem to like to control who their students network with, so I can imagine that online networking could be a threat in that sense. Of course, if they are on these sites they have more opportunities for surveillance. - Katy S

Although...this reminds me of a recent conversation in which a friend noted that she doesn't comment as often as she use to on a professional list. Why? Her diss directorr is also on the list. Whenever she makes many comments, her director will ask her to spend more time on the diss rather than online. Different type of inhibiting behavior - not exactly creepy - but it is there. - Katy S

Hah. Frankly, I wish my husband's diss director would take that much of an interest. However, while I can see your friend's director's point, I'm not sure there's all THAT much to be gained by inhibiting networking behaviors. - D0r0th34

If my director were online enough to realize how much I am online, there would be hell to pay. Nicely, of course, b/c she is always nice. That's almost worse - I don't want to disappoint her. - Katy S