Teaching in the Age of Information

It started innocuously enough. I started collecting student emails when they first became popular – but I never used them. And parents were the main people who emailed me about their student’s status. I only started getting student cell phone numbers when we were working on outside projects; You know – I call students because they are missing play rehearsal. Or Constitutional Law meetings. I ended up getting the phone numbers of the tech crew kids on the play so we could talk about props or sets or lights. Using my cell phone to get a hold of students seemed like a good way to use time efficiently. Of course then the students had my number as well.

You know I created an account on myspace solely to find a rap DJ that I know in town. I wanted him to come and give a lecture to my African-American History class about the history of hip-hop. And the only way to reach him was through myspace. So I created a profile – just really briefly. But then students started asking to be my “friend” on myspace (to avoid creepiness I never asked a student to be my friend). And sending me messages and comments.

So now I have a bunch of students who have my email, my myspace account, and my cell phone number. This means that any point of the day or night they can get in touch with me. And sometimes they do.

I have had messages about assignments – from a student who feels like he can’t finish the paper assigned, or from someone who thinks the questions on the book were stupid. I get text messages telling me that they will be late, cell phone calls asking me when the assignment is due.

But then I start to get questions that were not directly related to school. How should I ask this girl to prom? What should I wear to this event? These are questions that I would be happy to give advice on in school, but now they are asking me off duty.

So do they ever cross the line? Well I was really glad I had my phone turned off when I got a text message at 3am from a student who finally finished a paper for me. And sometimes I have been contacted late at night and I don’t know if they are contacting me because they need help or because they just want to talk.

Let’s just say that no one in teacher school told me how to handle this. If I want to help students become better human beings, I don’t believe that education stops at the school house door, and I want to help students with their quandaries, then I embrace the way that we can communicate. On the other hand, I have to figure out how to balance their needs with mine.

To a teenager, almost all crises are life-threatening. They don’t have a date to the prom, or their parent hits them, sometimes they reach out in the same way for help. I have to try to filter between the angst to help them with what they need but not lose myself and my time in the process.