Friday, August 5, 2011

Facebook- Friend or Foe for Schools and Teachers?

(Creating a Facebook Page for Parent Communication)

Why would a school or teacher want to create a Facebook page?  The answer is simple- that is where their parents are.  It is a potentially great medium to share the latest news just because it has a great chance of being seen.  Posts will appear in your parents' Facebook news feeds along with all of the other posts in their network.

However, there is a lot of fear of using Facebook professionally by teachers and other school officials.  This is justifiable because Facebook has a lot of features and murky privacy settings.  Also there are Federal and local laws and policies to worry about.

So, what do you do to take advantage of Facebook's unmatched communication potential while protecting yourself professionally?  My best advice is to create a Facebook "page".

A Facebook "page" is different from a full Facebook "profile".  A page can have unlimited followers and does not have "friends".  However, when someone clicks the "Like" button on a page, he or she will be "subscribed" to the news posted on that page.  Also, his or her network of friends will see that in their news feed.  Thus, your community will help spread the positive news coming from your school or classroom.

However, there are a few things you should keep in mind if you choose to create a Facebook page for your school or class.

Best Practices for Creating a Facebook Pages for your School or Class
  1. Create an entirely new Facebook profile to generate your school/class page(s).  Keep your online professional and personal "worlds" separate.  
    • If you are not the principal of your school, get explicit permission to create a page for your school.  It is also not a bad practice to clear the idea of a classroom Facebook page with your administration before moving forward.   
    • DPS Board Policy 5150 states the following:
      Employees may not use personal web sites or online networking profiles to post information in an attempt to communicate with students in their roles as school system employees.
    • Within the District firewall, Facebook and Twitter are blocked for students by the District's Web filter to adhere to CIPA regulations, but are accessible by staff.
  2. Do not allow followers of your page to post comments, videos, etc.
  3. Facebook has a minimum age of 13, so do not use the service to send news to students 12 or younger.
  4. Use the "Question" post option to gather feedback in a controlled way.  
Check out these examples:

1.  Bethke Elementary School, Timnath, Colorado
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bethke-Elementary-School/141914602496111
2.  Durham Public Schools
http://www.facebook.com/DurhamPublicSchools

So, how can you utilize a Facebook page to communicate with your community?

Posted by Jerry Williamson at 10:47 AM
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5 comments:

  1. Alison LeSueurAugust 6, 2011 at 3:57 PM

    Jerry, Lena Deskins (AIG) and I want to create Edmodo pages to get information to students and be able to let students discuss classwork online. There are not age limitations on Edmodo and although it works similar to Facebook, you cannot search for people or groups - you must have a code in order to join each one. There is no advertising, etc. I would highly recommend it as an alternative to Facebook, particularly for elementary students. Do you know anyone else in the county using Edmodo?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alison LeSueurAugust 6, 2011 at 4:27 PM

    Sorry - another comment - the district policy makes it sound like any online communication with students is off limits. So is all our communication supposed to be directed to parents only? How are "personal web sites or online networking profiles" defined? Are these tech blogs considered personal web sites?

    Suppose you created a Facebook page to communicate to parents - how do you control the age of the person following the page?

    Finally, a rhetorical question: how do we move into the 21st century if we can't communicate with students online?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jerry WilliamsonAugust 8, 2011 at 6:52 AM

    These were my questions, exactly, as I read the new AUP. I was actually going to write a post dedicated to theses issues, but I will comment on them here.

    I understand this to mean sites that are INTENDED to be personal, not a web site (i.e. a blogspot blog, edmodo network) that is intended for professional purposes. There are many teachers using free services on the Web for professional purposes and communicating with students (i.e. Posting homework on an edublog site).

    When I asked for clarification, I was told that staff need to separate their personal and professional lives. For instance, if a teacher used a Facebook (or blog, podcast, whatever) page that he uses to post about his personal life, and then also uses that account to communicate with students in a professional role, that would violate the AUP.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jerry WilliamsonAugust 8, 2011 at 6:55 AM

    Just to be clear, any web tool (blog, podcast, wiki, whatever) is acceptable as long as it is used for professional purposes.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Alison LeSueurAugust 8, 2011 at 5:47 PM

    Thanks for the clarification!

    ReplyDelete

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