Digital Smarts - Social Media and Schools

Schools seem to have a love-hate relationship with social media. They worry about cyberbullying and distractions in class, but at the same time acknowledge that social media can enhance the engagement between students, parents, and the school. If your school seems to be struggling to balance the positive and negative aspects of social media, you may want to direct administrators to 8 tips for navigating social media in schools, written by two very savvy educators. They recommend ways for communicating a social media philosophy to parents and community members, as well as discuss how using these forms of communication effectively requires regular and frequent updates. One interesting tip is to “trust your students, and put them in charge”. This is done by creating a social justice council made up of students who are tasked with tracking new social networks that classmates might use for negative purposes, and keeping administrators in the loop.