Thinking about Social Media in Schools...

I have been reading quite a bit recently about using social media in schools particularly Facebook.  Twitter is where I find these article and they constantly inspire me with new ideas and  sending my mind in many directions.  For example, I follow a principal in Canada who has given me concrete ideas of how to use a school Facebook Page:

gcouros gcouros RT @luc_germain: RT @bhsprincipal: Creating your school’s niche on Facebook http://bit.ly/qjlxfP

Another Principal, Eric Sheninger is a leader in the use of social in schools.  He sent this tweet recently:  

NMHS_Principal Eric Sheninger You School Needs a Facebook Page by @mrwejr  http://bit.ly/qJwqph

I plan on talking with folks at my school to see how we might encourage the use of a variety of social media tools--platforms like  edmodo for the classroom, facebook, twitter and various others social media tools for communicating with families.  

Finally, there is still a lot of fear out there about social media and teachers interacting with students in appropriate ways.  Even though I personally don't friend students, I found myself agreeing with the teacher in this article about the state of Missouri making it illegal for teachers to be friends with students on Facebook:  http://bit.ly/oMr56e "I am not a pervert and don't wish to be treated as one," Joplin middle school teacher Alana Maddock wrote in an email to Gov. Jay Nixon in June, not long before he signed the legislation. "I am very responsible with my Facebook pages and don't appreciate being assumed to be a danger to my students."

OTHER RESOURCES:

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/08/50-reasons-to-invite-facebook-into-your-classroom/

Solving Facebook concerns can be as easy as creating a FB page or Group

Social Networking: Teachers and Students

This question came up on facebook.  "Correct me if i am wrong, but we are not supposed to be facebook friends with any student, whether we teach them or not. i have had a lot of rising 9th graders want to be my friend!"

Here is the link to the WS/FCS Board Policy on preferred mediums of communication that exist for teachers, school administrators and all other employees to communicate with students rather than the use of social networking sites. 

http://policy.microscribepub.com/cgi-bin/om_isapi.dll?clientID=104460929&advquery=social%20networking&depth=2&headingswithhits=on&hitsperheading=on&infobase=forsyth.nfo&record={1160}&softpage=PL_frame

The main point is:  "The Board strongly recommended that teachers, school administrators and all other employees not communicate directly with students or list WS/FCS students as “Friends” on personally administered pages of social networking sites, unless the student is the employee’s child, grandchild, sibling, cousin, niece or nephew. The Board of Education reserves the right to limit the mediums of interaction and communication between a teacher and student in the event the communication between the teacher and student warrant such."

It does say "recommend"...so that means you can not be fired for simply communicating, but the problem is the slippery slope that exists when communication starts on social networks that include your friends who do not necessarily think of your job as a teacher and the things that might say or post pictures of you doing :(

 However, other renowned educators feel quite differently than our school system.  In fact there are principals out there that actually encourage their teachers to friend students on Facebook!  Read more about that here:

http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2010/07/innovative-educator-in-new-york-times.html

Finally, here are some articles that have been written on the topic:

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/should-teachers-friend-their-students-facebook
(there was a suggestion on here for making a group page that would allow you to communicate with students on a very limited platform--like a fan page)

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Students_Teachers_Social_Networking/

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=11759793021&topic=7244