The boom of social media is a cause of both wonders and woes. The variety of workplace incidents arising from the use of social media indicates the uncertainties faced by organisations as to what constitutes acceptable behaviour and where does one draw the line between private and work-related conduct. The existence of legal grey areas is inevitable during the emergence of new digital platforms. In particular, schools and their staff are still in the process of determining the boundaries of appropriateness.

When educating students inside a world of rapidly evolving technology and social media, it is important for teachers to acknowledge the pervasiveness of social media, its influences, and its benefits in the conduciveness of student learning, better communication between members of the school community and the building of a positive learning environment. In order to incorporate and better adapt to these new media platforms, schools need to implement robust policies and procedures and teachers need be educated and trained to ensure responsible use of social media so as to minimise its risks.

What are the Risks?

Common risks of using social media in any workplace, including schools, include defamation, harassment, intimidation or bullying. However, in the school context, the use of social media has led to incidents that may once have been contained inside the school gates becoming publicised and having wider and more severe consequences for the school community. The impacts of social media do not only affect young people but school teachers are also at risk of misusing social media.

A high profile incident in late June 2016 involving the leak of screen shots of a teachers’ group chat over Slack, an app that facilitates corporate internal-communications and is allegedly a more user-friendly version of email, has resulted in the sacking of three non-government high school teachers in Rhode Island, USA.

The Providence Journal reports that members of the school community apparently received mass emails from a teacher, with a link to an 18-page Google Doc that contained screenshots of private messages between teachers, ranting about students and parents. The teacher claims their account was hacked. The screenshots showed disparaging messages between teachers, calling students ‘idiots’, ‘dumb’ and ‘toxic’.

Even though these are the acts of individual employees of the School, and the School has issued an open letter condemning the action of those teachers, the damage has already been done. The reputational impact on the School was severe and has also damaged the trust between teachers and students.

The teachers at the School, through the lack of understanding and vigilance when using digital platforms, saw the school-provided app as ‘private’, whereas it was actually easily exposed to the public eye.

Embracing social media: Responsible use is ultimately rewarding

Generally speaking, articles in the news are always tending to negativity and it is normal for social media to be viewed as the cause for all evils and the centre of controversy, in schools particularly.

However, social media can also be a positive way for schools to stay current, keep students engaged and facilitate more effective learning and communication. Most education departments in states and territories in Australia have published social media policies and guidelines for best practice. Theses guides are valuable resources for your school whether it is during the creation of a social media policy or the reviewing of your existing policy.

Example of the beneficial use of technology in schools

A web-based app designed to tackle racism in schools is pending release next month and it is anticipated the prototype will be trialled in various schools across NSW and Victoria. The Age reports that teachers have made numerous requests to the app developer, following the success of a previous app for adults, for the development of a similar app that would promote "positive peer relationship among children and provide teachers better tools to deal with racism."

The Victorian Department of Education has also identified a number of beneficial uses of technology for teachers in the classroom, including:

• the establishing of a ‘group’ via a Ning for teachers to facilitate sharing of professional learning opportunities, current research, meeting times and reminders;
• the discussion of issues or sharing of ideas between teachers and students through establishing a group for professional use only on Facebook;
• weekly dissemination of thought provoking questions to use for class discussion via Twitter; and
• social sciences teacher sending snippets of current affair (relevant to the subject) and shares links to relevant news articles via Edmodo or Twitter.

The National Safe Schools Framework, developed by the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, also provides comprehensive guidance for the use of social media in schools. It is a national approach to help school communities to address issues of cyber safety.

Responsible social media use by teachers and schools yields countless benefits for student’s learning and for better communication between members of the school community. Although the risks of social media may at first sight deter usage, by implementing robust social media policy and procedures that comply with the relevant national and state guidelines and providing adequate staff education and training, schools would be able to minimise these risks. Ultimately, it will be advantageous not only to teachers but also the wider school community if everyone is able to reap the benefits of these new digital platforms.