Parental engagement: Facebook, Twitter & Web2.0 apps
The recent #edchatuk on Twitter focused on parental engagement. I received many messages querying our use of Facebook (FB) and Twitter in engaging and communicating with them. This has prompted me to explain the circumstances surrounding our use of such web services and highlight their impact.
In December 2009 my school: Campsmount Technology College burned down. And by this, I mean right to the bloody ground (see video below) Everything was gone: without focusing at this time on the loss of students’ work or staff’s resources – the server for our website was lost and we had no administrative details: no phone numbers/addresses for parents or our staff. At this stage (Sunday morning at 9am – only 4 hours after the fire) we turned to the internet. My wife immediately recommended social networking.
Teachmeet opener from Jamie Portman on Vimeo.
Fortunately, we had set up Google educational apps a few weeks before. Due to word of mouth we were able to get nearly every teacher’s email address. We also used it to host a new website via wordpress. All schools in the UK have websites – so nothing new there then in engaging with parents. But we needed to go further. We needed to use a range of tools to ensure that our messages got across. I therefore immediately set up a Twitter account and a FB page using my own personal account (only because at the time I couldn’t figure out how to set up a fan page for organisations) This period of uncertainity revealed the potential of such applications.
The ‘OFFICIAL Campsmount (Fire updates)’ FB page was set up. Within a few of days we had over 1880 members. Our strategy was to control all information. The first week was a period of unparalleled decision making that required quick thinking and purposeful communication. With the press of a button I was able to send all kinds of messages and reminders to over 1880 inboxes on FB. Our use of twitter led to messages of support from within the community and across the country. Ed Milliband (our local MP and then a member of the British Govt.) even picked up on one tweet whilst in Copenhagen. This led to him visiting us a few days later.
I updated these communication tools at least daily for about 8 weeks. Feedback showed that parents were extremely grateful for the strategy of using a website PLUS other applications like FB and Twitter. Parents were able to engage in the process of getting school life ‘back to normal’ whilst at our temporary teaching bases. Essentially: parents knew what was going on. The beauty of it meant that information went directly to them via notifications – instead of the limitation of a website where people had to actively check for updates. The way people access information nowadays has changed. We now use RSS feeds, moblie phones and emails to notify us about the things that we have interests in.
I think I recently read that there are 10 million active Facebook users aged between 30-50 in the UK. How can schools ignore that? If we are serious about engaging with parents, then effective means of communication is necessary. FB and Twitter are just some tools that could be useful for you. After all, I’d be really pleased if 50% of the letters that we send home actually make it home. We need to improve that. FB is banned at our school, as in nearly every other in the UK, but I update it from my iPhone or at home. For me however, its a legitimate tool for communication.
I recently set up a new Facebook group page (We do not accept any friend requests or allow discussions) entitled: ‘Official Campsmount Facebook’ We will continue to use that, Twitter, our brand new website and traditional letters for engaging/communicating with our local community and parents. We are now beginning to use Youtube and Vimeo for video messaging and other web2.0 apps like Flickr to engage even further. Our teaching and learning magazine (more on that here) is also published within the Parents section of the website to show how ‘even’ teachers are continuing to learn. All of this is intended to engage parents within the life of our school.
Fortunately for us, we’re back up and running in temporary portakabins (more on that another time) and although we need to continue to think about how we engage parents in actively supporting learning at home – its a start.
Links:
http://twitter.com/officialctc (Twitter)
http://www.ctcmail.net (New website)
http://bit.ly/CTColdfacebook (Old FB Group page linked to my account)
http://bit.ly/CTCnewfacebook (New FB Group page)
Hi Jamie
Great post. I'm seriously thinking of setting up an official facebook page for our school as an additional way of comunicating with parents. How many signed up for yours out of interest?
Also what tools did you create to make this blog? It looks great. I like the twitter bar etc.
Jasmine Renold
(Assistant headteacher at a grammar school in Lancs)
Hi Jasmine,
Thanks for your comment. The initial facebook group has over 1880 members! The high numbers may be due to the events surrounding the fire as the new one has nearly 600. In saying that – even considering that some are students, its still a significant proportion of our parents.
In answer to question about the blog – I use wordpress plugins called 'Twitter badge' and 'Twitter ticker'.
Hope that helps
Jamie
[...] @JamiePortman, Assistant Headteacher at a secondary school in Doncaster, kindly shared his experience with me in which he created a Facebook page to engage with the school community when the school burned down (as an aside, it’s interesting to note the number of new technologies which have ‘stuck’ after being introduced in a crisis situation such as this or snow closure days). Jamie has written about his use of Facebook and other social media to engage parents in on his blog which you can read here. [...]
[...] Read about how we used social networking during our school fire crisis here Links: Showcasing whole school events through ‘CoverItLive’ Sharing practice: C Magazine [...]