Take the Plunge
Board members need to spend face time with Facebook and other forms of social media
N
ot since Pepsi proclaimed that it was the Lamar
choice of a new generation has anything swept across
the American consciousness as quickly as social
media. Facebook is a big deal—400-million-users big.
Twitter is part of the daily vernacular and YouTube is
one of the most visited sites in the world.
Teachers, students, and parents are all using social media
to stay connected. New teachers now entering the classroom
have been exposed to this new technology since their forma-
tive years. Parents are turning to social media to get critical
answers, form coalitions, and make sense of the world. Some
studies estimate that as many as 60 percent of all teens own
their own cell phone, giving them access to Facebook and
Twitter as well because no Internet is required. All you have
to do is send a text message.
Most school board members, however, have been slow to
embrace this new medium.
It’s a natural disconnect, because in general the people
making the policies are one to two generations removed from
those who live with the policy. As a board member who works
with social networks every day, I can tell you with certainty:
You need to be aware of this disconnect and integrate this
powerful communications tool into your governing life.
If you don’t, you are missing an opportunity.
Why social media?
Since the term “social media” is being tossed around, let’s take
52 American School Board Journal ■ www.asbj.com ■ April 2010
Johnson a second to define it. Wikipedia says it is content
created by people using highly accessible and scalable pub-
lishing technology. That is very true—and very vague.
Here is a better description: Social media give users the
ability to connect with and influence others via computer-
based networks. Connect and influence—two very powerful
words that describe what social media does, not what it is.
In addition to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, you can
find more than 150 major social networking sites on the Web,
including ones that teach language learning (www.live-
mocha.com), allow you to maintain your own virtual library
(www.librarything.com), and even create your own social net-
work (www.ning.com).
And those are just the websites. Blogs (web + log = blog)
can be even more powerful. These online diaries allow people
to create a following merely by articulating what others are
feeling. Bloggers can represent the passions of many in an elo-
quent and public platform. They can and do sway the opinions
of readers without having to leave their armchairs.
In the Casa Grande Elementary School District, which
serves 8,000 students in the greater Phoenix metropolitan
area, our staff’s responsiveness is critical, especially when
someone is upset about how we do business. We have to be
responsive to our community’s needs.
This is where the power of social networking comes into
play. Regardless of the issue, someone always is using social
media to coordinate the efforts of an interest group. Have a
Reprinted with permission from American School Board Journal, April 2010
© 2010 National School Boards Association. All rights reserved.
bond election in your future? Have tough decisions about staff
reductions coming up? Every issue has a champion and you
need to be connected to that champion. Social media makes
listening easier and responding more accurate and timely.
Putting guidelines in place
As board members, one of our prime responsibilities is
making sure that responsible polices are in place for our
students and staff. If you don’t have some type of social
media policy and/or guidelines in place, you need to make
this happen.
Because, generally speaking, policies define what you can
and cannot do, I recommend that you have guidelines as well.
You want social media to be fun while enriching your district,
and dropping another policy statement that has to be read,
signed, and adhered to under penalty of academic failure, ter-
mination, or death isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time.
More importantly, policies do not encourage the biggest
strength of social media—listening. Social media is not about
just ranting and raving. It is also about listening, learning, and
empathizing with others. Guidelines are perfect for encour-
agement. Guidelines can explain what your district intends to
get out of the social media sphere, how you want to con-
tribute, and what activities are encouraged.
It’s very cool to be part of helping kids get more opportu-
nities than we had, but occasionally not all goes to plan.
Taking a page out of my district’s diary, teachers and students
arrived at school and found two wings of the buildings flood-
ed after a recent rainfall. Mind you, I live in southern Arizona,
so this was a bit unexpected.
As the district sprang into action, getting information to
parents became paramount. It is in these instances that social
media can assist. Posting updates to a Facebook page can
quickly go viral, getting information to those who need it.
Sometimes the issues are far more serious, such as revolts
against proposed changes, or issues with student behavior, or
a staff member’s conduct. Each of these gets tried in the court
of public opinion. When you are faced with a crisis, one of the
golden rules is to respond to questions and accusations imme-
diately. Another is to respond to the accusation in the same
medium in which it was presented. If someone is posting
information on a social media site, you must respond on that
site. Responding to an online post in the newspaper is like giv-
ing a fish a bicycle.
This is not to say that responding via many channels is not
important. Quite the contrary: You need to respond via every
channel. If you don’t, someone else will.
Possibilities, pitfalls, and privacy
With so many sites out there and the new emphasis on results-
driven, grant-based funding, social media offers a bevy of pos-
sibilities to people in every role in your district. Teachers can
use www.livemocha.com to assist in English language cur-
Reprinted with permission from American School Board Journal, April 2010
© 2010 National School Boards Association. All rights reserved.
riculum development, and www.ning.com has an entire social
network category devoted to education.
However, before you go charging off into your board meet-
ing demanding change, talk to your superintendent and your
school attorney. There are some mines in the meadow, name-
ly the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
Take a look at the U.S. Department of Education’s FERPA site
(www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html). There
you will find some guidelines for what you can and cannot
post.
Keep in mind that student photos could very well be con-
sidered part of the education record. Therefore, don’t start
posting pictures of the school play without consulting the par-
ents in your community and an attorney versed in school law.
Without question, our world is more connected than ever.
Facebook recently updated and forced open the accounts of
its users, creating quite the stir. In fairness, Facebook simul-
taneously allowed users to more finely control what informa-
tion can be accessed by users and what someone can see by
doing a Google search.
This situation highlights the paradox of social networks.
To be social, you have to reveal something of yourself. At the
same time, do you want your information all over the
Internet?
This paradox is for individual users and districts to work
out as they venture into social media. Policies will help and
guidelines are even better, but mistakes will be made. Yes,
mistakes, but they will be correctable and, with forethought
and planning, they will be minor.
Look at the benefits
Social networks allow unprecedented access to the thoughts
and feelings of your community. They allow you to listen, plan,
respond, and act in ways not possible even five years ago.
I realize blogs and even Facebook were around five years
ago, but they had not reached the critical mass they have
recently. Many schools and districts are already on the social
media bandwagon; the search “school district” on Facebook
returns more than 500 results.
Do I think social media is the choice of a new generation?
Yes. People overloaded with information are turning to the
people they always have to help them manage it all, their
friends. It’s just this time their friends are online, connected,
and vocal.
Those friends are your community members, so get
involved. Open a free account on Facebook and see the peo-
ple you know who are online. Do a search for your favorite
topics and join a Fan page.
Come on in. The water is fine. ■
Lamar Johnson (lamarj@makethemfans.com) is a social media mar-
keting specialist and a member of the Casa Grande Elementary
School District Board in Casa Grande, Ariz.
American School Board Journal ■ www.asbj.com ■ April 2010 53