Social Remediation

By Peter Sutton and Andrew Hughes

Is your school …

• Celebrating the daily achievements of staff and students?
• Building connections with the wider community?
• Monitoring its online presence across web channels?
• Using social media tools to get better classroom outcomes?
• Aware of its online risk profile and the steps it sh

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kai Ming Press
• Release date: Feb 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9780994478917

Book preview

SOCIAL

REMEDIATION

How the world's most innovative schools are using social media to re-invent the face of education.

Peter Sutton and Andrew Hughes

Kai Ming

Press

COPYRIGHT

Title book: Social Remediation

Author book: Peter Sutton & Andrew Hughes

Copyright © 2015, Peter Sutton & Andrew Hughes [e-mail]

The right of Peter Sutton and Andrew Hughes to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.

ISBN: 978-0-9944789-1-7

Education : Leadership (EDU032000)

Education : Elementary (EDU010000)

Education : Secondary (EDU025000)

Cover design by Duncan Rorrison

Typeset in Azoft Sans and Avenir fonts

Layout and diagrams by Duncan Rorrison

Edited by Lorna Hughes

DEDICATION

To Shane Walsh — Till,

a passionate educator, our beautiful friend and Bali victim (2002).

‘Tilly’, you live with us, you live through us.

FOREWORD

Peter's book will make a significant contribution to the discourse and practice in school communities about the use of social media to engage with and strengthen the relationships of the key stakeholders. It takes a different and unique view about how social media should and should not be used in schools of any size and will help them develop their community engagement strategy.

If the purpose of the book is to provide balance to the debate about using social media in schools then the use of case studies, their exemplar strategies and the tools they use provides a narrative to those embarking on their own journey.

Schools are coming to the conclusion that as an integral component of their one to one programs and the deployment of devices in their learning and teaching programs, often beginning in the early years, the focus should be as much on the technology as the psychology and sociology; and that's where the use of social media can be embraced.

The desire to strengthen the digital resilience of children and young people as well as their families and schools is not negotiable and it's as true today in the digital age as it was in previous generations that 'It [STILL] Takes a Village to Raise a Child.' Research and current practices have found that having tech- savvy adults around them supports children and young people to engage online in safe, smart, respectful and responsible ways and that approaches to foster intergenerational conversations about technology can be used to achieve these goals.

Empowering students is key in the shaping of the school culture and climate, as much as the role educators, administrators and parents play. The use of social media by students is seamless and strengthens their connections to their networks and relationships-both online and off. Schools need to follow their lead and harness their passion and expertise in guiding the adults in doing the same.

Robyn Treyvaud

Education Consultant, Social Commentator

Robyn Treyvaud is an educational leader and an internationally recognised expert in online safety and digital citizenship and is the founder of Cyber Safe Kids, a global organisation that assists educators, school and parent communities to understand the challenges of living and working in the digital world and then equips them to meet these challenges. Robyn provides advice to the media, industry and governments in Australia providing a balanced and evidence based view based on her work in schools in Australia and Asia for the past decade.

Cyber Safe Kids is a global partner of Common Sense Media a not for profit organisation in the US whose mission is to empower parents, teachers and young people by providing unbiased information, trusted advice and innovative tools to help them harness the power of media and technology as a positive force in their lives.

Robyn is a leading consultant who works with public and private schools as well as international schools and conducts parent engagement programs and professional learning for educators. She provides schools with best practice approaches and resources to support a strategic, sustainable approach to digital citizenship and resilience.

CONTENTS

PART ONE COMMUNICATION CHAOS

Lock and Block

It’s an understandable but unnecessary

approach to social media.

Horace Mann Down

Even the most prestigious teaching

institution can find itself falling short in this

brave new world.

From Fights to Likes

Using social media to change the

relationship between students, teachers,

parents and the wider community.

Reputation Matters

Participation is the key to managing your

school’s online reputation.

Luddites Unite

Leading a great social media presence

requires a learning mindset, not technical

genius.

PART TWO: CURATING THE CHAOS

Planning Beats Banning

Time spent up-front is time saved later.

Success is a Team Sport

Every social media implementation needs a

range of skills behind it.

The Highs and Lows

Good content is good, good regular

content is great.

The Evolution of a Journey on Social Media

Know where your school sits on the

implementation timeline.

10 T-minus Nine and Counting

Measuring, managing and mitigating

risk - the steps you need to take before

launching.

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

REFERENCES

PREFACE

This book is the culmination of five years of work with schools around the world where minimising the risks associated with social media was a factor, but maximising the opportunities opened up by these new channels was the end goal.

The following chapters will not only highlight those opportunities that are now available to every school — regardless of size or resources — but also walk readers through the steps needed to implement a best-practice social media programme in their school.

Innovators will find a framework to form a safety net for their cutting-edge creativity.

Administrators will find real-world examples from some of the leading institutions around the world that have ventured down this path before them.

Social media is no replacement for a strong and vibrant school community, but if you already have one, it will help it thrive, and if it is currently less than the sum of its parts, it can give it purpose.

This is not a one-size-fits-all approach — different social media strategies will suit different schools and communities depending on aims, purpose, skill sets — but it will provide a clear and concise path through the quagmire that currently surrounds the use of social media in education.

Our aim in producing the book has been to bring some balance to the debate around social media and empower educators with the knowledge, insights and tools to make real and positive change to the way they interact with their community.

We hope you'll take up the baton and run with it

What you will get out of this book:

insights into the impact of social media on schools through real life experiences and case studies;

a behind-the-scenes look at the approaches and strategies of successful adoption of social media by large and small schools around the globe;

a demonstration of how social media can and should be a powerful resource to engage and strengthen school communities in an evergrowing manner; and,

an understanding of how social media is being repurposed for community engagement and communication in schools.

A note about privacy:

The stories used to highlight the risk and opportunities that schools now face in this brave new social media world have been gleaned from our wide-ranging experience in the field.

As we have written this book as a helpful tool rather than a biographical tell-all, modifications have also been made where the publication of the identity of a school or individual would not add anything to the written illustration.

Purposefully, these illustrations have not been referenced

1215

PART ONE

COMMUNICATION

CHAOS

1

Lock and Block

On September 16, 2011, an Australian Anglican grammar

school principal made international news with his line-in- the-

sand stance on social media, printing the following two

sentences in large bold Arial 42 point type in the school's

newsletter:

'GET YOUR STUDENTS

OFF FACEBOOK.

THIS VERBAL

SEWER IS HARMING

YOUR CHILDREN

(Duncan 2011)

The message ripped through the media generally and throughout school networks more specifically.

Principal Chris Duncan had not just touched a raw nerve in the school community, he had electrified it.

Concerned about backlash from his northern New South Wales school community, Duncan hadn’t counted on how far and wide his message would spread.

He hadn’t counted on the mass-distribution power of this network we call Social Media.

The message was a confessed ‘reflex action’ to the bullying online of one of his students; resonating with many other educators across the Internet and fuelling the misunderstanding and fear in which social media was, and still is, held.

Duncan’s message was grounded in the negative potential of social media: bullying, sexting, violence glorification and the derogatory rating of a partner’s sexual performance are all realities of the online space.

And his words surely drew the attention of parents to the magnitude of those negatives. A respected school principal replacing his usual carefully considered 800-word message on school issues with a two-sentence exhortation is not treated lightly.

But taking a ‘lock-and-block’ attitude to social media is not only pointless, it

is also potentially harmful to the reputation of the institution particularly and development of the school community generally.

As you will discover, it is an approach with a limited shelf life.

Does it mean that Duncan was wrong in taking his very public stance against

the inappropriate use of Facebook? Certainly not. But the key expression

here is ‘inappropriate use’ because Facebook was never designed to be used for bullying, or grooming, or pornography, or any other of the endless ways

in which