Teacher-Student Relationship in the Facebook Era

The popularity of social networking sites has facilitated new modes of teacher-student communication, conveying the potential of changing teacher-students interaction. The goal of this chapter is to examine students’ and teachers’ perceptions of student-teacher SNS-based relationships in the Facebook era and to supply evidence that supports decision making. The authors present two studies involving secondary school Israeli students and teachers, examining the relations between Facebook-based student-teacher communication and student-teacher relationships. Findings suggest that Facebook communication may be beneficial but highlight conflicting issues. The authors discuss the implications of these studies, offering recommendations that include comprehensive support of teachers in developing new ICT literacies. They recommend further research as a means of providing educational policymakers and stakeholders with evidence to assist with informed decision making, as well as a means to empower teachers by allowing them to make decisions based on their educational beliefs. EDUCATIONAL PARADIGM CHANGES IN THE KNOWLEDGE ERA: INTRODUCTION TO SNS IN EDUCATION Throughout human history, knowledge was the driving wheel behind societies. In the modern, post-industrial society, many consider knowledge to be the single most valuable commodity (cf. Bell, 1976; Masuda, 1980). Indeed, in the 1990s, the phrase for describing the changing society was altered from “information society” to “knowledge society”, focusing on ideas rather than on explosion of information, hence shifting attention to 21st century skills for gaining knowledge. To this day, the two concepts – information society and knowledge society – tend not to be differentiated (Anderson, 2008). Information and communication technologies are key issues in the transformation of society. Specifically, the growing usage Alona Forkosh-Baruch Levinsky College of Education, Israel & Tel Aviv University, Israel Arnon Hershkovitz Tel Aviv University, Israel