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• Website often perceived as out of date• Aiming to be a paperless school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 RewardsRewards

• 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

OngoingAnalysing

• 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