Building Community Engagement

1. Building Community Engagement An online strategy for Willowbank School 2010

2. Context • Willowbank School • Multi-cultural • Multi-lingual parent group • Approximately 800 learners • Silver Enviro School

3. 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with parent group perceived as erratic • Newsletters not checked online by all parents • Website often perceived as out of date • Aiming to be a paperless school

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Personnel • Administrator of strategy • ICT facilitator liaison for professional learning • Marketing Strategist support • Teacher input • Parent education and support

12. Timeline Term 2: 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 • Accounts set up • Strategy advertised to parent community • Initial posts completed

13. Who is using social media? Twitter Facebook Gifted Kids Programme Allergy New Zealand TED JPPS Elementary School – Canada Kidicorp • Several professionals • @yis – Yokohama International School • @sumprimary – Summerlands Primary • @tawaint – Tawa Intermediate School • @ptengland – Point England School

14. What would we tweet/post? Tweet Post Event videos Event photos Links to websites/KnowledgeNet Information for parents Event information Surveys • Notices • Sports results • Sports cancellations • Reminders for mufti etc • Meeting reminders • Newsletter links on website

15. Ongoing Analysing 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/ • Engagement • Growth of community • Visits to individual pages • http://www.facebook.com/insights

17. Traffic Generators • Generate via existing strategies ie newsletter • Buttons on website • Email to parents • Print run in partnership with local newspapers

18. 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

19. Looking to the future … Major Impact 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: • Cloud computing • Collaborative environments • Game based learning • Mobile technology • Augmented reality • Flexible displays http://thejournal.com/Articles/2010/04/13/6-Technologies-That-Will-Shape-Education.aspx?Page=1

20. Still unsure? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng

21. 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

22. 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