February 2008 — News
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Social Media: How to 'Sell It' to Your Team
For example, the California Grade Seven Mathematics content standards (Algebra and Functions, 4.0) states that students must be able to solve two-step linear equations and rate, speed, and distance problems. Classroom teachers need to ask themselves whether there is a clear advantage to having students demonstrate proficiency in this skill using social media (e.g. video or audio content creation and sharing). This could alternately be proposed as a situation where social media is the hook, grabbing students' interest in the project.If your district has a policy against using social networks (or even video sites like YouTube) on school property, then you'll need to work around this, and either leverage academic-focused online social sites like Blackboard, Moodle, or CyberExtension, or use a different social media tool.
Who Are the Stakeholders?
Unlike traditional curriculum planning, if you're planning a social media program in a K-12 environment, there's one critical additional stakeholder: the public at large. Conversations in social media are highly visible, and easily located through the most basic searches, except for conversations that take place in password-protected forums. Students will need to be highly aware of the visibility and permanence of these conversations. Having students agree to a classroom-based social media set of guidelines could be one way of cementing their understanding of the realities of working in this technological framework. Educators would want this document to attest to a student's knowledge of the unacceptability of the following in social media:
- Profanity and harassment
- Using PII (personally identifiable information) in social media
- Phone number, address, last name, etc.
- Non-transparent and/or non-constructive criticism of the work of others
Obtaining Buyin?
Just as a corporate director of marketing would need to methodically "sell" the marketing department on a social media initiative, educators and administrators will need to "sell" their teams on the value of such projects. Here's how to do it:
1. Broach the subject by asking "teaser" questions to colleagues.
A. "So, do you read any blogs or online forums?"
B. "Have you ever checked out any curriculum blogs? I've noticed a fairly large curriculum blog contingent in the home schooling community."
C. "I've noticed that a lot of non-textbook K-12 publishers, like Harper Collins, are using social media to reach out to tweens and teens. What do you make of that?"
2. Ask the person who runs your department's weekly meeting to let you make a brief presentation on social media, containing the following slides:
A. What is social media?
B. Who has used it in K-12 education?
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