680 Module 5 discussion
Hello Class,
For this module we are to discuss our school's presence on social media. I actually attended a professional development session on this the other day. Social media in education has so many benefits, but also creates a lot of issues or problems that can arise. Walking that tight rope of benefits/risks can be difficult as a teacher sometimes!
Having a class Twitter account has been recently promoted at our school. I currently have a twitter for my class and many other classes, clubs, sport teams, and even our principal have an account as well. I do go on there from time to time but rarely post. This is an area that I could see improvement in the future but I always go back to the same questions.
1. Is it okay to post activities or events with pictures of students under 18?
2. Do students use twitter anymore to get information?
Answers I get to both of these questions are a bit fuzzy for me. Generally speaking it seems like it is okay to post these pictures on twitter of athletes or clubs but what about a cool lab? Do you have to stop and get written permission from the student/ their parents? Is it even worth that time or effort? Also, I polled my classroom and very few actively use twitter. The students in my classes are typically on Instagram or Snapchat. If we want to share information for the purpose of getting the students involved or taking more ownership of their class, wouldn't we need to start using these platforms?
I really enjoyed the articles, and podcast about sharing our schools story. I really started thinking about how much fun it would be to share my classroom's story with the rest of the school, community and parents. My biological kids are in elementary school and I LOVE getting pictures and updates of what they are doing in class! It makes my day! Would high school parents feel the same way? One of the articles, "Tips for Using Social Media....:" mentioned the principle that a picture shares a thousand words. I would love to post pics of dissections or dna extraction or one of our 6 fieldtrips. I just worry about the issues of sharing pictures of students. What if one student is unhappy with the picture and feels embarrased. How do you guys handle taking pictures in your classroom? Do you guys share that a lot on social media? Do you think enough people use twitter for it to be valuable and worth the time?
Lot of questions for you guys.... the podcast, although mainly about promoting an entire school really did want me to be a better marketer for what goes on in my class! As a school system, I think advertising is huge and important... but is it important for individual classrooms? I just continue to struggle with the possible issues and time spent being worth what the students get out of the social media presence. We all use social media, but the students really use a different platform now than what we find appropriate for school settings. None of my students use facebook anymore... why, because we do and their parents do. Facebook would be awesome for our class, but it wouldn't reach the students. Same could be said for Twitter. I have thought about using Instagram but again worry about the pandora's box that might open with such a visually heavy social media presence.
Lastly, how do we go from just pushing out material to using social media for engagement with the public? That is what would make social media truley beneficial for our community!!
Thank you,
Jim
For this module we are to discuss our school's presence on social media. I actually attended a professional development session on this the other day. Social media in education has so many benefits, but also creates a lot of issues or problems that can arise. Walking that tight rope of benefits/risks can be difficult as a teacher sometimes!
Having a class Twitter account has been recently promoted at our school. I currently have a twitter for my class and many other classes, clubs, sport teams, and even our principal have an account as well. I do go on there from time to time but rarely post. This is an area that I could see improvement in the future but I always go back to the same questions.
1. Is it okay to post activities or events with pictures of students under 18?
2. Do students use twitter anymore to get information?
Answers I get to both of these questions are a bit fuzzy for me. Generally speaking it seems like it is okay to post these pictures on twitter of athletes or clubs but what about a cool lab? Do you have to stop and get written permission from the student/ their parents? Is it even worth that time or effort? Also, I polled my classroom and very few actively use twitter. The students in my classes are typically on Instagram or Snapchat. If we want to share information for the purpose of getting the students involved or taking more ownership of their class, wouldn't we need to start using these platforms?
I really enjoyed the articles, and podcast about sharing our schools story. I really started thinking about how much fun it would be to share my classroom's story with the rest of the school, community and parents. My biological kids are in elementary school and I LOVE getting pictures and updates of what they are doing in class! It makes my day! Would high school parents feel the same way? One of the articles, "Tips for Using Social Media....:" mentioned the principle that a picture shares a thousand words. I would love to post pics of dissections or dna extraction or one of our 6 fieldtrips. I just worry about the issues of sharing pictures of students. What if one student is unhappy with the picture and feels embarrased. How do you guys handle taking pictures in your classroom? Do you guys share that a lot on social media? Do you think enough people use twitter for it to be valuable and worth the time?
Lot of questions for you guys.... the podcast, although mainly about promoting an entire school really did want me to be a better marketer for what goes on in my class! As a school system, I think advertising is huge and important... but is it important for individual classrooms? I just continue to struggle with the possible issues and time spent being worth what the students get out of the social media presence. We all use social media, but the students really use a different platform now than what we find appropriate for school settings. None of my students use facebook anymore... why, because we do and their parents do. Facebook would be awesome for our class, but it wouldn't reach the students. Same could be said for Twitter. I have thought about using Instagram but again worry about the pandora's box that might open with such a visually heavy social media presence.
Lastly, how do we go from just pushing out material to using social media for engagement with the public? That is what would make social media truley beneficial for our community!!
Thank you,
Jim
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