By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer, LA Daily News – from the Contra Costa Times | http://bit.ly/n5LGDa
10/02/2011 01:00:00 AM PDT - The Los Angeles Unified School District is looking into policies for using social media such as Facebook.
Polytechnic High Principal Gerardo Loera is a big fan of social media, posting everything from football scores to schoolwide test results on Facebook and Twitter for students, parents and the world to see.
He even includes a live feed of his tweets, usually typed from his cellphone, on the school's website.
"It's just such a useful and immediate way to disseminate information to my school community in a very quick way," Loera said.
"In a few minutes one of my messages can reach thousands of people and if something I post gets retweeted ... well then Poly can be read about all over the country."
But not all uses of social media by teachers and administrators are seen in such a positive light. School districts throughout the country are studying how to best use the technology while steering clear of its drawbacks.
Nationwide, teachers have been fired for online behavior, from serious breaches like making passes at students on MySpace to the seemingly innocent, like posting a picture of themselves on Facebook having a drink at an after-hours party.
To help teachers avoid problems, last month Los Angeles Unified began debating a new social media policy.
Until last year, LAUSD had a strict ban on using social media sites during work hours or on district computers, which were kept out of the district's Internet server by the same filtering software and rules used to keep pornography and violent Web content away from students.
smf/4LAKids: This is the same filtering software and rules used to keep offensive words out of emails – and by extension blogs like this one. You won’t be offended by any references to the most popular parts of fried chicken here – whether white or dark meat! The filtering apparently only affects incoming email – LAUSD emailers are free to write naughty words, but not read them.
The National Association of Secondary School Principals tweeted (@NASSP) Wednesday: “It's Banned Websites Awareness Day. Great day to lead conversation with faculty about how much filtering is too much.”
Officials acknowledge though that social media sites should be explored as useful tools for educators looking to connect with parents and community members.
"LAUSD is trying to enter the 21st century, but we need to have a policy that fits the needs of everyone," said Lydia Ramos, LAUSD's director of internal communications and a member of the committee that is drafting the new policy.
"In terms of engaging students, we know there is value to social media but there is disagreement even among teachers about how to take advantage of that."
The varied views of educators on the issue of social media can be seen in the vastly different policies some schools have adopted.
This summer the Pinellas County school board in Florida unanimously voted to ban teachers from communicating with students on Facebook or Twitter, out of concerns over inappropriate contact.
Also, the state of Missouri passed a similar law, which will force all school districts to implement no-social-media policies.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education officials and the American Library Association have publicly supported the use of social media in schools.
A 2010 Department of Education report calls on districts to "(apply) the advanced technologies used in our daily personal and professional lives to our entire education system to improve student learning."
Some educators believe the issue can be a generational one, with older teachers feeling social media has no place in classrooms and younger, more tech-oriented teachers seeing the sites as useful learning tools.
LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy brought in a hipper and more tech-oriented attitude to the district's leadership team, which in the past had some administrators who had secretaries check their email for them and barely knew how to navigate Google searches.
By contrast, Deasy keeps an iPod and iPad near him at all times and he's a fan of tweeting.
Still, many teachers say the world of social media is still too unpredictable and could force them to deal with issues that could be easily avoided by staying off-line.
"Social networking has been a nightmare for me and is usually brought to my attention for negative reasons," said Debra Jelin, assistant principal at Millikan Middle.
Jelin, who was in charge of discipline at her previous high school campus, said she had to intervene on several occasions when cyber bullying became an issue between students.
"Social networking helps you bring connectivity which is important, but you're not having that kind of communication with that one person, but also with everyone else that person communicates with," Jelin said.
"There is also a fine line with what students and even parents need to know about your personal life," she added.
Ramos, a former teacher, admitted she also has a personal rule of not accepting friend requests from former students on social media sites.
Social media experts, however, stress that there are several ways for teachers to both make use of the benefits of these websites and protect themselves from common pitfalls.
For example, teachers can create a professional page used only for communication with students and parents that isn't linked to their personal page.
Schools can also launch pages that, essentially, serve as active community boards where they can post future events and answer common questions.
And teachers can even start groups among students on most social media sites, where only the group members can post content and comments related to a project or class discussion.
This could allow a class, for example, to have a collaborative research project on the Vietnam War where students could post YouTube videos, newspaper articles and related blog links, all located on an accessible social media page.
A recent University of Maryland study even found that kids can perform better in school by engaging in social media.
The report, which studied students from low-income families, found that students who used social networking sites felt a greater sense of belonging which in turn helped them do better in school, said Christine Goodhow, a professor of education and information studies at the University of Maryland.
LAUSD officials said they are still in the early stages of crafting their social media policy, which they hope will help lay out basic rules for what is acceptable - and what is not - for district educators online.
Still in draft form, some rules could require that all district staff set up separate accounts for professional life and personal life or that teachers obtain written parent or guardian approval before posting videos or photos of students to any online forum.
- Polytechnic High Principal Gerardo Loera tweets at @MrLoera
- LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy tweets @DrDeasyLAUSD
- 4LAKids tweets @4LAKids
Not a twitterer? Good for you!
- If you want to check it out on your cell/smartphone send the text message FOLLOW 4LAKids to 40404.
- More than you ever wanted to know? Text LEAVE 4LAKids to 40404.
4LAKids notes that Los Angeles Daily News education reporter Connie Llanos is departing the DN for other things. Thank you Connie and good luck!
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