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• Website often perceived as out of date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?

Twitter

• Several professionals

• @yis – Yokohama International School

• @sumprimary – Summerlands Primary

• @tawaint – Tawa Intermediate School

• @ptengland – Point England School

Facebook

• 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