Social Media in Education

Social Media in education is a tricky subject. It is a powerful tool used by our students and their families and can be an important way to get our message as a school out there. At the same time there are privacy concerns, misuse, and many other issues that can arise with its use. One area that I struggle with is that I am not a very active Social Media user. At one point I was on facebook, but it was mostly lurking and I realized what a waste of my time it was to see what other people did during the day. My new social media to view is Twitter, but this isn't just so that I can keep up with friends, actually about 90% of the people that I follow I have never met, but to keep up to date on trends in education. There are a ton of people that post resources all of the time, and it keeps me up to date. There is actually a twitter chat this Wednesday (7/17/19) evening at 8:08 using #808educate about the use of social media in our schools.

Enough about my social media use, let's look at what schools should be looking at. I think that if schools are going to be using social media that there should be a policy on use from the school, especially with the use of teachers use of social media. I like what is stated in District Administration's Policy, especially point number four, which I have shared below, about social media.

"District policies should include expectations and guidelines for teachers’ use of personal social media accounts, both in projects with students and in their lives outside of school. 

• Some teachers use personal accounts to share classroom activities, although it ultimately may be safer to create a specific public account and have students follow that. 
• Because they are government employees and serve as role models for younger students, public school teachers may be held to a higher standard.
• Courts have ruled that schools’ ability to discipline teachers for off-campus conduct can be defined by the local community, so what may be acceptable in one region may not be in another. 
• Ultimately, teachers must take care in connecting with students on social media, and should not send permission-based friend or follower requests to student
• If employees do accept friend or follower requests from students, they need  to accept all such requests and not selectively limit their interactions to those who could be perceived as a few preferred individuals. 
• A little common sense goes a long way—if a teacher wouldn’t say something to a parent sitting right in front of them, then they shouldn’t say it on social media."

Schools need to have clear policy so keep everyone out of trouble. After looking at a few policies I think that it is time look at what my school has in regards to a policy and update that.