Facebook privacy settings for educators

In my EDN 303 class we discuss privacy issues and social media. One of the issues that comes up quite often is facebook privacy. Here are my recommendations that I give to my students:

– Make your profile private – do this so that only your friends can see your wall, photos, page, status updates, etc.

– Make yourself unsearchable. While it’s ok to be searchable it might just better to make yourself hidden so that your students cannot find you

– Do NOT become friends with your students. Do NOT chat with them on instant messenger, etc. While I will be friends with my students, they are 18 years old. I would never be friends with a student that is a minor. Just do not do it.

– Make a separate profile for work friends. I do this using LinkedIn. That way my colleagues can be my friend but do not have to see all of my personal photos if I choose to post them.

– If you want a page but are a little scared, create one using a fake name and just friend your close family and friends. That way you can see their pages

– The final thing – check the privacy settings at least once a month. Facebook tends to change their settings all the time, so please double check yours to make sure they are correct.

Here is a video that goes through setting your privacy settings:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA7GL507mrk]

Posted in Higher Ed, K-12, Web 2.0 and tagged .

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