Digital Technologies – Responsible Use

Social media use for student learning

Establishing protocols for social media use

When establishing protocols for social media use by students, staff or parents within the school context, schools are encouraged to:

• consider privacy and security settings
• establish clear expectations, including expectations around not using age-restricted social media platforms in a logged in state
• actively monitor and moderate posts
• shut down or temporarily disable when not in use
• regularly review and remove members who do not need to access the site
• review the Photographing, Filming and Recording Students policy.

Appropriate uses for social media to support student learning

The following examples demonstrate social media platforms and applications being used appropriately, with a clear educational context (in a supervised manner, where moderation is enabled), in ways that limit or avoid student activities from being visible to the public online:

• use of a social media platform to show a curriculum related video by a teacher at the front of the classroom
• use of a non-age restricted, private classroom online forum for students to post curriculum-related questions, which the teacher and/or other students answer (for example, curriculum support for students studying a VCE subject)
• use of a non-age restricted, private classroom online blog by a student to describe/showcase classwork as it develops, which the teacher, peers or the student’s parents/carers can make appropriate comments on (for example, portfolio of a design process)
• use of an online wiki by a teacher as a content repository (for example, a collection of primary source material)
• use of a non-age restricted, online photo sharing site to curate and annotate image collections to support understanding of curriculum content (for example, photographs of landforms or other geographical features)
• use of a non-age restricted, private classroom discussion board or chat forum to hold a slow chat, where questions posed/answers posted can be offered at different times (for example, questions prompting students to share effective self-regulation strategies)
• use of online collaborative mapping tools to record/annotate local or global events, phenomena and places (for example, mapping/documenting global volcanic activity)
• use of a non-age restricted, online instant messaging app to organise and run a class event (for example, an act for the annual school concert).