Building Community Engagement
An online strategy for Willowbank School
2010
Context
• Willowbank School
• Multi-cultural
• Multi-lingual parent group
• Approximately 800 learners
• Silver Enviro School
Issues
• Communication with parent group perceived as erratic
• Newsletters not checked online by all parents
• Website often perceived as out of date
• Aiming to be a paperless school
Proposal
• Discover the potential of virtual environments to develop an online strategy to nurture relationships with our various communities through the use of social media.
Opportunities
• Parents informed on a continuous basis via Facebook and Twitter
• Marketing of events and needs reaches the widest possible audience
• Business sponsorship possibilities through online advertising
• Ability to utilise language tools on applications allowing equitable access to information for non English speakers – Facebook has 69 language options and Twitter has 6.
• Opportunities to post links to websites and posts on supporting learning at home
• Facebook supports the use of Survey Monkey for community surveys and feedback
• Facebook and Twitter able to reach a wide audience over a short period of time to facilitate planning for 10th anniversary
• Clobby Group Chat – chatroom for invited guests on Facebook – generate focus groups
Facts
• More than 55.8% of Facebook users are female
• More than 41.9% of Facebook users are in the 25-44 age range
• http://www.checkfacebook.com/
• Twitter allows for short tweets which can redirect to a web page or act as reminders
• Facebook allows for embedding of photos, video, surveys and larger amounts of information as well as possibilities for business sponsorship
Risks and Rewards
Rewards
• Continuous, up to date streaming of information
• Parent community informed of updates and availability of information
• Quick, easy to access information provided in a variety of languages
Risks
• Online environments can be open to hacking
• Not all parents will have access to online environments
• Consistent monitoring of sites and tweets/posts required
• Teacher facebook accounts need to be privacy protected
Impact
• Community informed of information and events
• Paperless school a possible reality
• Administration of accounts required by SLT
• Facebook and Twitter settings required to be tightly controlled
• Social Media etiquette professional learning required for teachers and available to parents
Suggestions
• Facebook account in the name of Willowbank School created
• Twitter account in the name of Willowbank School created
• An online strategy account to be set up for the updating and monitoring of the above accounts
Action Plan
• Professional learning for staff and parents
• Facebook and Twitter etiquette resources available
• Specific administrator email set up so that school has continuing access
• Careful monitoring of privacy and sharing settings
• Professional updates and tweets
• Monitoring of site by SLT
Personnel
• Administrator of strategy
• ICT facilitator liaison for professional learning
• Marketing Strategist support
• Teacher input
• Parent education and support
TimelineTerm 2:
• Accounts set up
• Strategy advertised to parent community
• Initial posts completed
Term 3:
• Teacher education on online etiquette
• Online strategy explored for business opportunities
• Aiming for X to sign up within term 3
• Incentives for “liking” and “re tweeting” of posts
Who is using social media?
• Several professionals
• @yis – Yokohama International School
• @sumprimary – Summerlands Primary
• @tawaint – Tawa Intermediate School
• @ptengland – Point England School
• Gifted Kids Programme
• Allergy New Zealand
• TED
• JPPS Elementary School – Canada
• Kidicorp
What would we tweet/post?
Tweet
• Notices
• Sports results
• Sports cancellations
• Reminders for mufti etc
• Meeting reminders
• Newsletter links on website
Post
• Event videos
• Event photos
• Links to websites/KnowledgeNet
• Information for parents
• Event information
• Surveys
Ongoing
Analysing
• Engagement
• Growth of community
• Visits to individual pages
• http://www.facebook.com/insights
Monitoring
• Reputation online
• Trawl content on Facebook and Twitter
• Tweet funnel for monitoring of tweets to align with Willowbank values
• http://openfacebooksearch.com/
• http://www.socialmention.com/
Traffic Generators
• Generate via existing strategies ie newsletter
• Buttons on website
• Email to parents
• Print run in partnership with local newspapers
How does this all fit together?•Semi Private
•S, T, P use•Password protected•Learning focus
•Semi Public•P, T use•Acceptance protected•Information focus
•Semi Public•P, T use•Open info, no posting•Communication focus
Looking to the future …
Major Impact
• Cloud computing
• Collaborative environments
• Game based learning
• Mobile technology
• Augmented reality
• Flexible displays
Challenges• Poor digital media literacy for
educators
• Out of date pedagogy and materials
• Poor strategy on evolution
• Failure to adapt
• Lack of support for non traditional learning environments
A recent report indicated the top six technologies that will impact on education in the next 3-5 years:
http://thejournal.com/Articles/2010/04/13/6-Technologies-That-Will-Shape-Education.aspx?Page=1
Still unsure?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng
Activity to date
• 5 followers
• 11 tweets
• Follow us on twitter @willowbanknz
• 12 people like us
• 6 posts to wall
• 1 photo album
• 1 discussion
• Like us at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Howick/Willowbank-School/125796360796155
Web links
• http://www.checkfacebook.com/
• http://www.businessweek.com/idg/2010-06-19/keep-kids-safe-on-facebook.html
• http://www.pcworld.com/article/199162/can_you_really_trust_facebook.html?tk=hp_new
• http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10650497&pnum=2
• http://thejournal.com/Articles/2010/04/13/6-Technologies-That-Will-Shape-Education.aspx?Page=1
