Social Media Policy


From my experience, social media use in schools is somewhat nonexistent. Most schools and districts block these tools to be used with school technology.   However, the majority of people (adults and students) all utilize social media.  Why are we not leveraging these tools in our classrooms?  I can see the perspectives of administrators or parents that are worried about what students will come across or be exposed to. But I wonder if by not using social media and teaching students how to properly use and understand the power it has- are we doing a disservice or making things worse?   Areas that are allowing the use of social media are no
ticing more student engagement, ability to connect to more content and ideas and promote collaboration. 

This weeks assignment was to create a social media policy for a district, school or classroom.  I chose to come up with a social media policy for my own class mainly so I could apply this for use in learning management systems that offer a social media feel or for when districts stop blocking social media sites in schools.

After reviewing some policies in my area, it seems that there are no student guidelines for social media use.  Most policies revolve around staff or teachers using social media for personal reasons and not as an instruction tool.   However, through my research, I came across the Los Angeles Unified School District’s student guidelines and policies with social media.  I feel like this is a well-crafted bulletin that I wanted to use as a guide for creating my own classroom policies.  District Administration suggests focusing more on behavior and not the technology. I think this is really important- teach students proper behavior with the technology because the technology is here and they are going to probably use it in some fashion.

Currently, I teach online to students throughout the state of Idaho.  I wanted to draft a social media policy for students to use in my online or face-to-face classroom, focusing on proper behavior, netiquette, and goals.  For my classroom purposes, the term social media is referring to any social networking site (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Classroom, etc.), blogs, bookmarking sites, wikis, etc.  These guidelines need to be followed at all times when contributing to the class environment, whether this takes place at school or off-campus.

Student Guidelines with Social Media

  1. Employ privacy practices. Be protective of your personal information.  Do not share personal identifiers like your full name, address, passwords, etc.  It is also good practice to adjust your location settings to off.  This goes for both your professional and personal accounts.
  2. Professional vs Personal Accounts.  You have a professional job as a student, so it is good practice to have separate accounts for your professional life and your personal life, just like other professionals in the world.  This will help you collaborate more with your learning network and professional interests.  
  3. Be mindful of what you share online.  Remember what you share online can be shared over and over and over.  Do not share private information about other classmates, which includes names or pictures without their consent.  Social media is an amazing tool that can connect us to more information, but keep in mind how far your information can travel as well. 
  4. Contribute and be active in the learning environment.  You want to promote engagement, critical thinking, creativity, and engagement to help us all grow and learn. Provide feedback to others and the learning community.  Check into our community and share often. This doesn’t have to be daily but should be on a consistent basis.  Collaborate with your peers and don’t keep your learning and ideas boxed up.
  5. Stay on point.  Keep off-topic posts to your personal accounts and spaces.  There is a time and place for everything, but remember our learning community is not for posting or sharing your hobbies or interests unless it provides insight or connects to a topic we are learning. 
  6. Produce original work.  Be sure to craft and share your own ideas. Give credit to other’s work, and follow copyright laws.  Include the author or source of the information you share, this may include the @username of the original author if they have a Twitter account or including the reference or website you found the information.  
  7. Focus your follows.  Do not friend people or join pages or groups you do not know.  Follow the guidelines and direction of teacher for which groups you should be joining within your learning environment for school purposes.  This is the time to be selective with whom you follow or who follows you.  Adjust privacy settings so you are in control of what others see from you. 
  8. Think before you post. Your digital footprint matters, which includes public comments and private messages.  Everything you put online can be shared.  Be responsible with your words, do not put anything out there you don’t want other to see.  It is easy for someone to quickly share or take a picture of your comments before you have time to delete them.
  9. Be respectful.  Just like in face-to-face conversations and interactions, you want to treat others with respect.  You may not always agree with everyone, but you should respectfully engage in conversation, this means no put-downs, no bullying, no name-calling.  If you feel you are correct in your stance, then back-it-up with evidence and share your research.  Use respectful language, no bullying, only treat others with respect
  10. Proofread and Edit.  Before you post proofread, double check grammar and spelling, and edit your writing.  You want to be clear and concise and not too wordy in order to get your message across. Be sure to use appropriate and course-specific language. 
If students are unable to adhere to these guidelines, they may face removal from online class forums and participation.

Plan
My envision for implementing these guidelines would first involve feedback from stakeholders.  This would include asking students, what their thoughts are on the proper use of social media; I could see this as a class discussion, survey, or a panel of students.  Teachers and administrators should weigh in on what areas haven’t been addressed or other things that may come about with the use of social media.  The district technology team should be consulted to make sure the guidelines align with current policy and should offer advice on guidelines.  Communication with parents is important to convey the pros and reasoning for social media use in the classroom and guidelines and procedures that students must follow.

As the world and technology change, we must regularly review our current practices and revise as necessary in order to successfully reach and better serve our students.

 Resources
Higgin, T. (2018, July 17).  Learn measured, sensible, and responsible ways to approach social media use in schools. Common Sense Education. Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/how-to-craft-useful-student-centered-social-media-policies

Jackson Public Schools. (2017, July 17). Social media policy and guidelines- staff. Retrieved from https://www.jpsk12.org/cms/lib/MI01908028/Centricity/Domain/505/JPS%202017-%202018%20Social%20Media%20Policy%20staff%20final.pdf

Bendici, R. (2019, February 11).  How to create K12 social media policy. District Administration. Retrieved from https://districtadministration.com/how-to-create-k12-social-media-policy/

Los Angelos Unified School District. (2017, August 10). Social media policy for students. Retrieved from https://achieve.lausd.net/Page/8619

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