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Social Media for Educators – Pause before you Post

Lisa Bering, CHRP

June 9, 2011

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Objectives

• To be familiar with methods to use social media in the classroom

• To know how to maximize benefits of social media for education

• To understand the importance of minimizing risks of social media for teachers, students, and younger children

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Facebook:*At Least 500 Million Active Users(more than 50% of these log on daily)

**LinkedIn: More than 100 Million Users

***Twitter:More than 200 Million users by the end of 2011

*Presented by George Kao for the choice Magazine community**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn***http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2011/03/14/twitter-users-now-sending-1-billion-tweets-per-week/

Top 3 Social Networking Sites

Use Social Media for Research

Research in the Classroom

• Create a Facebook page for a literary character

• Connect with other classes to explore geography, political science or history

Sharing Resources• Share interesting websites related

to class topics• Share brainstorming ideas

Other Modes of Research

• Have students follow journalism via Tweets and media sites

• Learn a foreign language via Facebook, or communicate with native speakers via Skype

Social Media in Class - Communication

Heighten Class Interactivity• Answer

Questions/Hold Office Hours

• Have students tweet one thing learned in class to take attendance

• Recruit Guest Speakers

Class Management• Have students

tweet feedback instantaneously

• Help Shy Students Quiet students might find online communication appealing

Other Uses• Create groups

for entire classes or small groups

• Use polls with the Poll app in Facebook or PollDaddy for Twitter

Social Media for Networking/Professional Activities

Job Searching

• Assist graduating students – advertising their jobsearch on LinkedIn or using Tweetmyjobs which connects jobseekers and employers as well as posting resumes

Other Uses• Create a community blog and post

what your class is doing & learning• Follow professors, mentors or others

in your field to monitor research & professional activities

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www.linkedin.com

Need to register for use

• Professional, business networking• Less emphasis on photos

• Turn off notifications of others’ changes

LINKED IN

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Use Dedicated Accountsi.e. class Facebook account, class Twitter username, dummy Linked in draft name• Control content• Decrease distraction• Places less emphasis on Friending• Keep messages related to certain topics• Prevent seeing nudity, swearing, crimes,

improper behaviour, student love lives, political or other affiliations

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Be wary of its consequences

Be aware of its uses and popularity;

however,

Social Media for Educators

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• Virginia sparked controversy by proposing ban of teacher-student texting and Facebook contacts as part of Proposed Guidelines for the Prevention of Sexual Misconduct & Abuse in Virginia Public Schools January 2011

• Three quarters of the feedback the Board got were critical. Teachers were concerned the policy would bringing Web 2.0 applications into school use more difficult

• The idea was scrapped and according to spokesperson Charles Pyle, the new document will give local schools flexibility in developing their own policies and this version emphasizes appropriate behavior and does not call out (in)appropriate tools.

http://www.hackeducation.com/2011/03/23/virginia-board-of-education-backs-down-on-its-ban-of-teacher-student-texting-facebooking/

• York, Ontario teaching assistant, Biana Baggiarini criticized for posting on Facebook “My student’s papers are making me dumber, so very stupid; by the minute”. She has apologized and is still working as a teaching assistant. March 18 2011

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/956501--york-ta-apologizes-after-criticizing-students-on-facebook?bn=1

Guidelines• Use caution interacting with individual students

on sites to avoid perception of bias• Set expectations i.e. you can exchange

messages about course assignments, but don’t begin small talk when you see me online

• Course requests such as asking for an extended deadlines must be done through a school site, not Facebook.

Educators’ Advice• John Lundy, a Director of Laurentian University’s School

of Education tells new graduating teachers:…they have an electronic footprint and no matter what

their privacy settings or how hard they try to delete materials, it will exist somewhere.

• Caroline Cantin, an education consultant with the Conseil scolaire de district du Centre-Sud-Ouest Quebec says

If teachers are role models, not just for their students but for their co-workers, then they are never 100 % off duty in a public space – and regardless of any privacy settings, the Internet is public

http://professionallyspeaking.oct.ca/june_2009/online_friends.asp

Humber Employee Policy

Humber IT acceptable use policy

Unacceptable use includes• To intentionally transmit, receive or display threatening,

obscene, hate, and anonymous or harassing materials Humber College reserves the right to access all

information stored on HCnet. Files may be released as required by the Courts.

What’s online ?

Even teens (79%) think their friends share too much personal info online.

28% have shared personal information that they normally wouldn't have shared in public

25% have shared a profile with a false identity39% have posted something they regretted

Zogby International poll for Common Sense media, 2100 adults polled, parent and teens 15-18 years old, August 2010.

www.commonsense.org/privacy

Help students Pause before they Post

• Where am I posting ?• What am I posting?• Why am I posting?• What does this say about me?• What will I think of this in 10 years (next 2 jobs,

possibly in a relationship or married, potentially a parent)?

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*From Huffington post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/08/essential-social-media-et_n_637690.html#s110607 **From: Common Sense. Org, advice-for-parents/online-privacy-what-it-and-how-get-it Retrieived June 5, 2011

• *Avoid Posting Embarrassing Photos • Create Positive Content• Don't Talk Trash Online • Be Social • It's Not All About You* • Google Yourself • **Don't post your whereabouts• Look for the opt-out buttons** and remember

that advertisers collect information

Students face repercussions from social media. Measures of prevention:

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying – being harassed through the computer

• Is often a group undertaking, with an entire network of kids participating

• Kids play different roles at different times-- bullies, victims, bystanders, and "upstanders" (kids who stick up for victims)

• This means that surface level solutions like telling teens to stay off Facebook or cell phones won't work. Online communication tools are here to stay. Accept that everyone has a responsibility to work towards respect.

Effect of Bullying

“Being bullied interferes with scholastic achievement, development of social skills, and general feelings of well being, …unlike traditional bullying which usually involves a face-to-face confrontation, cyber victims may not see or identify their harasser; as such, cyber victims may be more likely to feel isolated, dehumanized or helpless at the time of the attack."

Dr. Iannotti.Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) 2005 Survey, Wang J, Iannotti RJ, Nansel TR

http://www.nih.gov/news/health/sep2010/nichd-21.htm

SextingSexting: When people take and send sexually revealing

picture of themselves or send sexually explicit messages via text message

• “Sext” to show off, to entice someone, to show interest in someone, or to prove commitment

• Sending sexual images to minors is against the law, and sometimes individuals (even teens) are prosecuted for child pornography or felony obscenity

• There have been some high profile cases of sexting. In July 2008, Cincinnati teen Jesse Logan committed suicide after a nude photo she’d sent to a boyfriend was circulated widely around her high school, resulting in harassment from her classmates.

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/advice-for-parents/talking-about-sexting

• Facebook privacy site governance http://www.facebook.com/fbsitegovernance

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• Can do wikis, so many in class can contribute, or blogs for individual students

• Can create student profiles to get to know each other

• Can set standards• Private• Consistent use in college

Advantages of Using College Network

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http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/media_education/media_education_overview.cfm

Help students sift –Canadian Media Awareness

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http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/lessons/secondary/cyberbullying/cyberbullying_behaviour.cfm

Safety software overview for parents:http://www.digitalmediabuzz.com/2010/06/technology-helps-parents/

Promoting Ethical Behaviour Online

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http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/index.cfm

In class http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/special_initiatives/wa_resources/wa_teachers/are_you_web_aware/web_aware_social_networking.cfm

Are you Web Aware ?

Resources to help students

Follow up site

www.onlineteacherscanada.wordpress.com