Social Networking comes to education…at least for the kids.
Social Networking is basically sites where users build a community and share information. MySpace and Facebook are among the largest social networking communities and sites on the net. However, there are many other types of social networks. Several years ago someone started a site called Rate My Professors. It was a place where students could go and read about a professor they might want to take for a particular class.
When I was in college we did the same thing…only my circle of people to ask was relatively small. With a social networking site like this you can get the opinions of people you don’t even know but that might still have valuable information to share. I use Amazon the same way…I read people’s reviews of products I’m thinking of buying so why not review a professor. The site was so successful that it has spawned an offshoot call Rate My Teachers. Sites like this are causing concern in the educational community. The teacher's union in the UK is even asking lawmakers to review the law to see if it is even legal for these sites are legal and if teachers deserve any special protection.
Upon finding the Ratemyteacher site I had to see if Indian Hill was listed…..it certainly was at
http://www.ratemyteachers.com/schools/ohio/cincinnati/indian_hill_high_school
Fortunately the elementary students haven’t started their reviews yet, but the HS students certainly have. I'm sure it makes some people uncomfortable, but I don’t think a site like this needs to be banned as students have a right to their opinion….but it certainly does open up a whole can of worms in terms of privacy. Does someone have the right to publish information about you? RateMyTeacher does give a place for teachers to respond to postings, but how is a teacher even to know that something has even been said about them....good or bad.
If you do have a few minutes you might enjoy looking up some of your own college professors. The RateMyProfessors site even offers video segments called “Professors Strike Back” where professors can offer their own video rebuttal.
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com
http://www.ratemyteachers.com/
3 comments:
I have mixed feelings about this. While I think it is important for kids to have a voice, people often forget that it's all about about perspective. Mainly, you have to look at the source. I noticed that there was a "Parent Mode" as well, so parents can leave comments too. Over the last few years, I have received both positive and negative comments from both kids and parents relating to the same topic...Here's a perfect example. You give too much homework vs. my child isn't challenged enough. There are two sides to every story. Not to mention the number of kids who are rating it. I noticed that several teachers received one bad review, but only one kid reviewed them. It puts kind of a negative spin on it.
On the flip side, as a student I would have loved to have this information in college. I was CONSTANTLY asking around about professors, because it really did matter. I think it is important for people to be matched with someone who will teach them the best. I think this could be a neat tool, but should be taken with a grain of salt.
Erin-
I totally agree with you...it makes me a bit uneasy. I didn't see any parent comments left. Overall there weren't that many comments left if you think about how many students have been thru the HS in the last 3 years. College just feels different....there is something about HS that just makes me a bit uneasy about it. It just seems like it is too easy for a young person to take a cheap shot at their teacher. Thanks for the comments...glad to hear you are feeling better.
This reminds me of a few years back when we gave all of the kids surveys and had them rate the class and the type of feedback we provided to them. The intention was to improve instruction, however, we found ourselves (myself included) reasoning away the responses--he doesn't know what he is talking about...what about when I did this...I had to get after her 2 min. before the survey was given, that's why she wrote that...etc. I think there is only a handful of kids that can look at their school day/teacher and rate it objectively.
I did check out the HS site and it made me really uncomfortable. Some teachers got positive reviews just because they were funny. I think some of the HS kids still miss the point of the site.
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