Mass communication professor Stephen Banning “Facebooks” with his class.
“The students like it,” he said. “They just think it is really funny.”
Banning searches for students who are not in class on the popular student Web site Facebook.com and projects their online profiles to the rest of class.
“I thought it would encourage them to come to class,” he said.
Banning is one of many teachers who joined the Facebook phenomenon in order to get to know his students a little more. But some feel teachers should censor the information they view on the site, while others have said they should be able to fully explore it.
Banning said joining Facebook seemed like the “thing to do.”
“Everybody was using it – in class,” he said. “I wanted to find out what it was about.”
Banning, who has 29 Facebook friends, said more of his students contact him through Facebook than e-mail.
“I’ve gotten real positive feedback, as far as taking the time to want to know about them,” he said.
Emily Erickson, mass communication professor with 46 Facebook friends, signed onto the Web site for the first time a year ago. She said she wanted to get to know some of the names of her more than 700 students by looking at their pictures.
“Students will ask if they can be my friend,” she said. “I don’t know if they think I’m a geek, a wannabe or what.”
Jay Perkins, mass communication professor with 54 Facebook friends, said he uses Facebook strictly as a communication tool.
“I gave up on LSU ever creating a semester book that had pictures of the students with their names,” he said. “Now I can create my own class list with everybody’s pictures.”
Perkins uses the “create a group” function on the site to have a forum for all the students who plan to take a class with him abroad in the summer.
“I’m going to be spending a month in Europe with these people,” he said. “I figure I might as well get to know them.”
Erickson said professors should be “strategic” when putting a profile on the site.
“I don’t have personal information on there,” she said. “It’s a ‘communication route’ for students and professors. The professor simply needs to set the tone by what students put on the page.”
Erickson said most students who use Facebook assume only other students look at the site – something they shouldn’t assume but professors should.
“It’s their territory, not ours,” she said. “And since they are using it as a private sphere, we should respect that.”
Banning signs on to Facebook at least once a day but said he isn’t addicted to the site like some students are.
“I think the students put way too much on there,” he said. “Occasionally, I learn more than I wanted to about someone – too much information.”
Patrick Esfeller, political science sophomore, took Erickson’s class in fall 2005 and said he added her as a Facebook friend shortly afterward.
“I’ve actually looked for more of my professors on Facebook,” he said. “There’s a ton of them on there.”
Esfeller said he does not view teachers on the site any differently than those who aren’t members.
“I don’t think it adds credibility, but at the same time I don’t think it takes it away,” he said.
Emma Guillory, English senior, said she added Banning as her Facebook friend after he announced his membership in class. She said Facebook is a chance for students to communicate with professors in an informal way.
“They are showing they are interested in things we are interested in,” she said.
“I don’t think that there should be a line drawn with us and them,” she said. “They make friends with students. They should enjoy the same liberties that we do on Facebook.”
 
Contact Marissa DeCuir at [email protected]