Recently I had occasion to muse about the role of Facebook in higher education. As it turns out, I've been saving a New York Times article on the same topic that appeared prior to my own piece. It was one of those nuggets I bookmarked but never read. Perusing it at last, it seems a shame not to mention Stephanie Rosenbloom's article here.
The article describes ways in which some professors use Facebook and other web resources to share aspects of their personal lives with students who might otherwise presume that academic types are unplugged and stored in closets when not teaching. The piece, while offering no surprising insights, does a decent job of portraying at least two sides to the question: should professors be "open books" for their students? Here's a snip: "While many professors have rushed to meet the age of social networking, there are some who think it is symptomatic of an unfortunate trend, that a professor’s job today is not just to impart knowledge, but to be an entertainer."
Read the entire piece: New York Times, March 20, 2008, The Professor as Open Book
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