Social media at school

Social media allow you to interact with your "audience" in a way that brings many advantages. But also a few drawbacks.

Indeed, there are countless incidents linked to the use of social media in schools. Here are a few tips for good management from "Social Media Guidelines for Schools".

• Develop guidelines in collaboration with your teachers and staff. Update your official "acceptable use" policy for social media.

• Create an official page for your institution. To protect people's privacy, create it as a "Fan" page, so people can interact without having to give you access to their data. Ensure regular updates by employees in a professional tone.

• On your personal profile, keep your professional affairs separate. Do not include your place of work, personal data or e-mail address. Don't share any information or images that you wouldn't like to be publicly displayed. As an employee of a public institution, you always represent your institution. Be wary of activities that may be associated with your account (surveys, photo submissions, etc.): they are not guaranteed to remain private.

• Don't connect personally with students, ever. Your ability to maintain the respect of students, parents and peers is at this price.

• Students' parents can be partners in the educational process, but they can't be "friends". In social media, it's all too easy to cross boundaries that shouldn't be crossed.

• Use "group" pages or sites to connect with students and parents for educational purposes. These pages should not give access to teachers' personal data and private accounts. Do not post photos of students on group pages without their consent and that of their parents. Do not post student photos on personal pages.

• Hold employees personally responsible for any content they post online. What goes online stays online indefinitely. What may seem funny now may not seem so funny a few years later, for the institution, its employees or former students.

• Teach employees how to use social media and networking sites intelligently. Policies and procedures are important, but only one step. Provide training and include information on the professional use of these sites in institutional publications.

Two articles on the subject:

• How to avoid committing social media gaffes by Nora Carr
• Social Networking Goes to School