To Friend Or Not To Friend? The Use of Facebook In Drama Education

Now, more than ever before, the issue of whether to use Facebook as a Web 2.0 platform with your drama or theatre students is a crucial one.

Like it or lump it, you simply cannot ignore Facebook and the power it draws. Its daily influence on the teenagers we teach is remarkable, to say the least.

Using Facebook to harness the social media skills of youth for the benefits of their education may not be a bad thing if the boundaries are clear from the beginning. A Facebook page with tight security settings for a class, a school musical cast, or a particular project may be appropriate, but teachers simply ‘friending’ current students may be a different thing altogether and fraught with danger.

Of course, if you are a bit wary of using Facebook with your students, may I suggest you are not alone. Try Edmodo: it looks like Facebook, functions like Facebook, but isn’t Facebook! Edmodo promotes itself as a ‘secure social learning network for teachers and students’ and has been my preferred option in the past.

Check out The Teacher’s Guide To Facebook by the guys over at Mashable, the social media experts.

If you have successfully used Facebook in drama, let others know about how it was used and to what effect by commenting below.