Crafting Social Media Policy

I used this assignment as an opportunity to craft a blog post that can be cross posted to the blog I use with my district. With my new appreciation for connected learning I wanted to examine existing policy against the framework suggested by Steven Anderson in Edutopia to ensure we are not missing a chance to improve. What follows is what I intend to post there:

Over the last ten years social media has been woven into most of our daily lives. Facebook now has over two billion active monthly users. Instagram has six hundred thousand users and Twitter has over three hundred thousand users. Considering this, one has to wonder how these tools are being integrated in the classroom. In a world where knowledge is quickly becoming measured by one's ability to connect quickly to the most appropriate resource for the problem at hand, we should seek to leverage these tools and engage students where they are.

So how might we reimagine how we use social media in Windsor Schools? How might we take advantage of the benefits while avoiding the pitfalls. The website Edutopia offers a useful framework for considering this question. Allow me to step through this process and include my perspective on each of the components. As always, I welcome and encourage your feedback.

Start by examining school culture. If I were to guess, our culture is ranging from reticent to connect with students using tools not specifically sanctioned for academic purposes in the absence of clarity on policy to teachers being actively discouraged to connect until the student has graduated. I am not aware of any teachers using these social networks for academic purposes in Windsor’s case.

The next step in the framework is to organize a team. Ideally our team would be comprised of teachers, community members, parents, and students across grade levels with a variety of social media fluencies, including those with little fluency. Our goal would be to open and transparent about process and decision making. A number of tools are available to us for collaboration. It might make sense to consider a private Facebook group.

In the research phase we will look at current policy and discuss how we think it might change. Social networking is addressed as part of our computer, network, and Internet policy. On this topic specifically, our language includes:

• The Superintendent or designee may gather and maintain information pertaining directly to school safety or student safety from the social media activity of any district student in accordance with Education Code 49073.6 and BP/AR5125
• The District respects the right of employees and students to responsibly use social media and networking sites, message boards and forums, as well as personal websites and blogs. Personal use of these sites should not damage the reputation of the WUSD, its employees, students or their families and should be consistent with the School District’s educational objectives, mission and curriculum.

Other items to consider from the computer, network and Internet policy that are relevant to social networking use include:

• Respects One's Self.  Users will select online names that are appropriate and will consider the information and images they post online.
• Respects Others.  Users will not use technologies to bully, tease or harass other people.  
• Protects One's Self and Others.  Users will protect themselves and others by reporting abuse and not forwarding inappropriate materials or communications.  
• Respects Intellectual Property. Users will cite any and all use of websites, books, media, etc.  
• Protects Intellectual Property.  Users will request to use the software and media others produce, as required by copyright laws.
• Transmission of any material in violation of any local, federal and state laws is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material, licensed material and threatening or obscene material.  
• Users shall not use district technology to access, post, submit, publish, or display harmful or inappropriate matter that is threatening, obscene, disruptive, harassing, discriminatory, defamatory, intimidating, disruptive, threatening, sexually explicit, or unethical, or that promotes any activity prohibited by law, Board policy, or administrative regulations.
• Use of computing resources for commercial activities, product advertisement or religious or political lobbying is prohibited.  
• Users shall not share their assigned online services account information, passwords, or other information used for identification and authorization purposes, and shall use the system only under the account to which they have been assigned.
• Students shall not disclose, use, or disseminate personal identification information (such as name, address, telephone number, Social Security number, or other personal information) of another student, staff member, or other person with the intent to threaten, intimidate, harass, or ridicule that person.
• Users shall not "hack" into the system to manipulate data of the District or other users.
• Users may be held personally and financially responsible for malicious or intentional damage done to network software, data, user accounts, hardware and/or unauthorized costs incurred.  
• Use of electronic devices in school, regardless of ownership, should be consistent with the District’s educational objectives, mission and curriculum.
• Records maintained on any personal device or messages sent or received on a personal device that is being used to conduct district business may be subject to disclosure, pursuant to a subpoena or other lawful request.
• With classroom teacher approval, students may use their own devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets, laptops) in the classroom to access and save information from the Internet, communicate with other learners and use the productivity tools loaded on their devices.

• Personal devices may only be connected to school networks for uses that are consistent with educational needs.

It will also be helpful to examine social media policies produced by other public school districts (example 1, example 2).

Once research has been completed we will be able to begin drafting a document that incorporates feedback. The draft document can easily be published on the District’s website

connected to a form for feedback collection. Once a final draft has been synthesized we can deliver copies to SCOE’s legal team and finally, the school board, for approval.

It will be important to support the new policy with communication and training that makes the initiative clear to all District stakeholders. Meetings at each site as well as one on one discussion with teachers who are either eager or afraid of the new policy may be appropriate. Everyone should be assured that the policy will be reviewed on a regular basis given the dynamic nature of new technologies.

Transparency with regard to the way that we use social media will allow students to learn in ways that are more meaningful, powerful, and more closely aligned to the type of learning the will be expected to apply in their work life.

References:

Anderson, S. (2012, May 7). How to create social media guidelines for your school. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/how-to-create-social-media-guidelines-school

Chaffey, D.  (2017, April 27). Global social media research summary 2017. Retrieved from http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/

MacMillan, A. (2017, May 25). Why instagram is the worst social media for mental health. Retrieved from: http://time.com/4793331/instagram-social-media-mental-health/

Rheingold, H. (2012, January 23). Social media and peer learning: From mediated pedagogy to peeragogy. Retrieved from: https://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/events/2012/social-media-and-peer-learning-mediated-pedagogy-peeragogy