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Social Media In Schools
I have a challenge for the members of Geeks!
My Principal has asked around for some ideas on how to incorporate social media into our education. I was wondering if you the community could lend your expertise in social media, and maybe anything you heard from other participants at Gnomedex 9.0 (sorry I only make $5.61 an hour, I couldn't afford the ticket to go). The Principal has a blog on blogger, and he is on twitter, @GPNHS, so they are making progress. Also remember how reluctant high schoolers will be to let the "Institution," into their supposed private social lives. I'm open to things that they are doing, but will not allow them any access to compromise my privacy.
So what do you think? Can you or anyone else in the Geeks! community think of some ideas I can give my Principal to earn me some brownie points? Not that I need them, I don't think he even knows my name, lol.
My Principal has asked around for some ideas on how to incorporate social media into our education. I was wondering if you the community could lend your expertise in social media, and maybe anything you heard from other participants at Gnomedex 9.0 (sorry I only make $5.61 an hour, I couldn't afford the ticket to go). The Principal has a blog on blogger, and he is on twitter, @GPNHS, so they are making progress. Also remember how reluctant high schoolers will be to let the "Institution," into their supposed private social lives. I'm open to things that they are doing, but will not allow them any access to compromise my privacy.
So what do you think? Can you or anyone else in the Geeks! community think of some ideas I can give my Principal to earn me some brownie points? Not that I need them, I don't think he even knows my name, lol.
Tags: Education, Media, School, Schools, Social, Teen, Teens, in
Views: 3
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Chris Pirillo on -
Have you seen SchoolTechTV?
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Permalink Reply by Alexander Melton on -
making a facebook page?, using ning.com which is what this site is built on. Maybe a series of chat rooms on the schools website. See if anyone at the school could make an ipod touch/iPhone app since most kids have one of the two.
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Permalink Reply by Will Broman on -
The problem I and others have with becoming a fan of a page is that they feel like they give up privacy, like the school is going to access everything they have done. The school actually encourages the use of the ning, and many teachers have them. The problem is many people won't interact with it unless it is an assignment, because quite frankly there isn't much to them that students want to access. and an app might not be so bad, because kids won't be giving any privacy away really. I had thought of a different use for an app, I think I will include that in my suggestions. :) thanks!
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Permalink Reply by Angela Dice on -
Fan pages on Facebook limit access to your personal information (as opposed to a profile that you would become friends with): http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=903#/help/?faq=12277
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Permalink Reply by Will Broman on
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Well a high school, and more of the students than the institution. I know that the administration and school want to help us (the students) succeed in the 21st century, but they don't know how to connect with us and I can't think of a way that my peers will latch onto and quickly get involved.
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Permalink Reply by Angela Dice on
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I think it really depends on what specific goals you want to accomplish and what kind of information you want to share. Find areas where you wish you had a better connection with students, teachers and the community and use the tool that fits best.
If you want, say, to share with the community your English students' writing, start a WordPress blog as a class project, allow students to post, make the teacher an administrator.
If you want to share updates about the school with parents, such as snow closures, etc. start a fan page and Twitter account. One of our little districts did that: http://www.facebook.com/#/pages/Belfair-WA/North-Mason-School-Distr...
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Permalink Reply by Will Broman on
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I guess the most specific goal is getting students to interact. We use nings in class, but teachers don't know how to create useful assignments, and students don't feel like they want to go on them outside of school. And the problem I forsee, as with that fan page and @GPNHS is that they don't update enough or on a regular schedule and so they are easily forgotten. Chris updates constantly and therefore keeps his site fresh in your mind, sxephil does a show M,T,W,T so I know when he'll be on.
I guess the real question is, what can schools do to vary their posts to make them interesting. http://twitter.com/GPNHS most tweets don't allow for interaction of students.
I am guessing you are either a parent or teacher or maybe not, but what as an adult would keep you coming back and interacting to a fan page, social network, or twitter?
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Permalink Reply by Angela Dice on
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I'm neither. I'm a newspaper web editor. You're right about regular updates on a fan page. You have to have someone who will commit to frequent, meaningful updates to keep them engaged. You have to ask questions, take polls and not just dictate information, as it seems that Twitter account is doing.
Maybe a classroom Ning isn't the way to go. A social network generally works best when you have people with a common interest. Kids in a classroom are there because they have to be, not necessarily because they're all interested in that topic. Perhaps a Ning group centered around something like the science club or honor society would be more engaging for the students.
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Permalink Reply by Will Broman on
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so each club might have a ning that is linked with a global grosse pointe north ning, thats good and I had not thought of it.
And as I am exploring all of the things my school has done, I remembered a site that the school paper set up. mygpn.org it has a spot to anonymously comment on stories and there have been no comments on any stories that are featured. which brings me to another thing, we need to have a centralized site. The school itself has a website, the principal has a website, the school has a twitter, the school has a site dedicated to athletics, the newspaper has its own site, etc.
As a newspaper web editor you obviously see the virtual side, and I have to ask does it seem like the people who are creating all of the fun interactive stuff for your site have to spend a lot of time on it?
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Permalink Reply by Angela Dice on
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The time depends on what you're creating. There are some pretty great free or cheap online tools to help you easily create things like interactive timelines (such as with Dipity), multimedia slideshows or click-through photo galleries (Soundslides), etc. Our custom Flash projects are what take the most time.
Just a quick idea on centralized sites: You can use WordPress MU to create a site and multiple blogs with a centralized admin. We use it for our blogs, and it tends to be pretty easy. Plugins for WordPress make it easy to integrate things like Twitter with widgets, etc.
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Permalink Reply by Will Broman on
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hmm... okay, the school paper uses a WordPress template for their website. maybe there is something started there that simply needs to be cultivated and added to.
I think I will talk to the teacher of the paper. Thanks!
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Permalink Reply by Will Broman on
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I also have found this, http://socialmediaschools.com/ but most stories are cut off half way through and say, if you are finding this helpful sign up for my new course! some of it is good though
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