Discussion 7 - How can and should schools use social media?

 

How can and should schools use social media?

·         What social networking and/or social media sites do you use in your role as a school leader?  Do you feel that this is beneficial?  In what ways? What positive and negative feedback have you received from students, families, and the community?

The only social media that I use as a teacher is Twitter.  To be honest the only reason I created an account was because it was an assignment for a summer course.  Now that I have this account, I have been using it as a Professional Learning Network or PLN.  I do feel this has been beneficial because I have learned about a variety of workshops held by Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) and International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) happening during summer in which I was able to attend.  Now as far as using Twitter with students and their families that I have not done and I don’t think I will.  I also have a Facebook account that I mainly use for personal reasons.  Since the school in which I teach is located in the neighborhood in which I group up, I do have friends whose children have been my students.  They share posts of their children and tag me but other than that I do not use it for school purposes.   

·         What is your school’s policy on inappropriate technology use?  In what ways could your policy be adjusted or updated? How would your policies be expanded and improved with more student involvement in their creation?

My school’s policy is that we are not use Facebook or any other social media during school.  We are also not be have our students as friends in our social media accounts.  I do agree with the policy the way it is because there are so many things that could go wrong with teachers and students being and posting on social media. I think that just to be on the safe side the policy should stay how it is.  Although I think there should be (and there probably is) a way to use social media in a way that the school could use it for announcements or celebrations but block out inappropriate comments or posts.  This way the school can have a Facebook or Twitter account to share new things that are happening or things that parents need to be aware of.  Maybe there is a way to set up the account so that the student can only post or comment through the parent’s account.  This way parents can be aware of any inappropriate actions.  Most likely if the students know this they are going to think twice about uploading something that they are not supposed to.

·         How can school leaders help their teachers recognize signs of cyberbullying? 

I think school leaders can offer professional development workshops or talk about it during faculty meetings.  Although I think that even though these types of workshops are already offered there will still be times that cyberbullying will go unnoticed.  The teachers should include cyberbullying prevention in their instruction.  Students need to learn what it is exactly and what to do if it happens to them.  Many times, I have had heard of how students are being bullied in person and through technology and nothing happens because the student is to ashamed to say anything.  People do find out until the student can’t take it anymore and decides to take matters into their own hands by committing suicide or school shootings.  So not only should teachers learn to recognize the signs the students should learn what they could do to prevent of stop it.