Managing Your Digital Footprint

Managing Your Digital Footprint

Session Description

Electronic media--also known as social media or social networking--tools have made it possible for us to communicate and collaborate in a variety of ways! These tools allow us to learn anywhere, anytime, and engage in ways not previously possible. But, what happens when these technologies find their way into our classrooms? Will they be a force for empowering learning or less than appropriate behavior for both adult and K-12 learners?

This session will provide some suggestions you can take based on what other educators are doing already! You will also become familiar with the San Antonio ISD's "official" approach to electronic media, both for yourself as an educator and your students. More resources are available online athttp://bit.ly/saisdemedia

Session Facilitator

    • Miguel Guhlin (mguhlin@saisd.net), Director, Instructional Technology Services

    • Twitter/Facebook: @saisditech

Session Resources

  1. 1 page handout (PDF)

  2. School District Response to Electronic Media

    1. SAISD Board Policy

    2. District Administrative Procedure (Current version, subject to change)

      1. TEA's New Ethics for Teachers

Social Media Best Practices (Suggested)

  1. Social Media Do's and Don'ts

  2. Using Facebook in the Classroom

  3. Teachers' Guide to Using Facebook

  4. Facebook Safety Guide and Facebook Page

  5. Educational Chats on Twitter (#edchat)

  6. Assessing Tweets: A Twitter Rubric

Tools to Manage Social Media/Networking

  1. Hootsuite.com - This is a great tool that allows you to manage multiple Twitter (e.g. personal vs work) accounts, as well as Facebook within one screen. You can also direct the RSS feed (find out what RSS is) for a blog, wiki or twitter feed through Hootsuite.com to enable "auto-posting" of content. This can be a real time-saver. And, you can also schedule Tweets to appear AFTER the work day, which makes it convenient. View Hootsuite How To Tutorials online.

  2. HashTags and IceRocket.com - This is a search engine that allows you to search Twitter, whether by account orhashtag. For example, you can do a search on the hashtag #edchat to see what people are sharing for education audiences. You can also search on a particular username, for example, saisditech to see what they have been tweeting.

Educational Uses of Facebook

Educational Uses of Twitter

    • The 10 Best and Worst Ways Social Media Impacts Education

Other Resources

Research on Social Media in Education

“It might surprise parents to learn that it is not a waste of time for their teens to hang out online,” said Mizuko Ito, University of California, Irvine researcher and the report’s lead author. “There are myths about kids spending time online – that it is dangerous or making them lazy. But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age.”

MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Report

Use of social media and its success in schools.

Educators would like more training, professional development, and direction on using social networking and other technology from school/district leaders. Although educators are joining social networks, they express a need for guidance, training, and professional development.

Many educators have a high level of concern about joining social networking sites. They are concerned about privacy; they have very little time; and they get too much email.

Schools and districts often block access to sites, and many educators are frustrated by this....

Source: A Survey of K-12 Educators on Social Networking and Content-Sharing Tools, EdWeb.net

Educators who have joined a social network are more positive about the value of this technology for education than those who haven’t, but they want the ability to separate their personal and professional communications.

Source: A Survey of K-12 Educators on Social Networking and Content-Sharing Tools, EdWeb.net

Students who attempt to multi-task, checking social media sites while studying, show reduced academic performance (http://viralms.com/blog/2011/04/how-social-media-affects-students/). Their ability to concentrate on the task at hand is significantly reduced by the distractions that are brought about by YouTube, stumbleupon, Facebook or Twitter. Social networking has increased the rate and quality of collaboration for students. They are better able to communicate meeting times or share information quickly, which can increase productivity and help them learn how to work well in groups. (Source: http://edudemic.com/2011/07/social-media-education/)