Social Media in Schools

I am a state level Technology Trainer in Utah. In this role I travel throughout our state working with different districts and administrators. From my experience policies are inconsistent. Some districts have no policy but consider or treat this as inappropriate contact with students. Other districts have a policy that teachers aren't allowed to connect with students via Social media, and I have heard of some districts and administrators outside of Utah that have encourage teachers to avoid social media completely. I also heard that Nebraska's Teacher Union (I think it was Nebraska) created a policy that they would not defend any teacher who was on social networks. Some districts and administrators are using it to communicate with their constituents. Namely, David S. Doty of the Canyons School district who tweets as CanyonsDave.

I am really interested to see what folks are doing around the U.S. because my question and concern is how do educators stay relevant if they are completely out of the environment that students are spending 30% of their free time in? I can see ways that Social Media can be used in classrooms, but I am concerned about encouraging it if districts nationwide are going to be disciplining teachers for connecting with people or using social media.

Personally, I really love a phrase that I heard from Patrick Black (twitter: teachntech00) who blogged about right relationships. I believe there is a way to develop right relationships online and face 2 face that encourage and inspire our young people. Contact or a relationship online is not sinister simply because it is online.

I am in a position that allows me to experiment with social media and how the teachers can use it. I am the director of the only cooperative high school in Illinois. It is governed by two school districts. Each district has an equal number of board members. We have a Fortigate web filter to which I have the "keys". I can allow websites that it blocks based on my judgement. I allow teachers to have access to most social networking sites (at this time I am not sure any are blocked that the teachers have asked to use). We do not have a written policy on the use of social networking but I ask the teachers to keep social interaction in the open and to treat it as if what they say or do is visible to all of their students, their parents and the community as a whole. So far teachers and students are using it appropriately. I am hoping that more of my staff will begin to use the tools that will help them be more relevent to their students.

Thanks, Mitchell, for your comments about "right relationship." This topic is extremely timely for me. Just had a 90-minute meeting yesterday with admin and tech leaders from our district. Spirited (often heated) discussion. We came together to examine/discuss/create social media policy for the district. We have an AUP that clarifies legal responsibilities. However, it is the relationship part that we struggle with. We bring such a variety of perspectives. Because some misunderstand or have no schema for Web 2.0 or for networking, they see blocking everything as the answer. My next step is to provide a Web 2.0 overview for the team. I'm seeking resources for this. Any links, tools, resources would be helpful. Thanks, Eric, for moderating this group. Looking forward to learning here.

Our district just started with a pilot of an "approved" blogging solution for the district. It is going quite well so far. We also allow the upload of teacher or student created podcast/vodcast to their campus website. Many of our administrators use this type of media to deliver messages to parents, students, staff and community.

The fear of unknown, caused by the lack of knowledge, is often the main reason school districts block anything related to web 2.0. I applaud your intention Ms. Steele-Pierce to educate your coworkers about Web 2.0 applications and their potential in education. Our digital natives deserve the opportunity to communicate in schools using the only way of communication they feel comfortable with.

I just came across this via Twitter myself and thought it was great.

Steven Anderson (@web20classroom) just created The Administrator's Technology Toolkit, which shows admins how they can integrate simple, easy to use tools like Twitter, Google Docs, Social Bookmarking, Google Reader, and Ning into what they do daily.

Check it out.

It's exciting to see a number of people participating in this discussion. At TICAL, we're very interested in this topic. About a year ago, we started an on-going survey to get administrators' opinions about using Web 2.0 tools in the classroom—value, obstacles, ways to overcome obstacles, etc. I invite you take take the survey yourself and add your own perspective. It's short and easy. Here's a link.

I enjoyed reading your Top 5 tools. We've been teaching administrators in our district and your list is the same as ours. It's nice to be affirmed.

I am so glad people are talking about this.

We have no social media policy in my district. Due to the fact that we receive state aid, we are required to have pretty strict filtering for students, and so social media sites are blocked for them.

Teachers, however, can access Facebook, Twitter, and such, and our tech people have even allowed my to download TweetDeck, from which I can manage not just my own twitter (@suedensmore), but the ones I have set up for my performing groups and parents. The latter are mostly broadcast at the moment.

Some teachers choose to be "Facebook Friends" with students, and some do not. I recently unfriended all of my current students, but I do have a FB group (Triton Arts) which is public, and through which I can communicate. Gradually, I expect I'll open access to the wall and photo posting.

I see so many ways in which social media could be used in the classroom very appropriately that it is driving me a little insane that so many people dismiss it out of hand as a waste. I commend all you administrators out there for tackling the issue!