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with parent group perceived as erratic Newsletters not checked online by all parents Website often perceived as out of date Aiming to be a paperless school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 10 th 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 age range 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 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

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 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

Timeline Term 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 – Yokohama International – Summerlands – Tawa Intermediate – 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

Ongoing Analysing Engagement Growth of community Visits to individual pages insights insights Monitoring Reputation online Trawl content on Facebook and Twitter Tweet funnel for monitoring of tweets to align with Willowbank values om/ om/ om/ om/

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

How does this all fit together? KnowledgeNet FacebookTwitter Semi Private S, T, P use Password protected Learning 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:

Still unsure?

Activity to date 5 followers 11 tweets Follow us on 12 people like us 6 posts to wall 1 photo album 1 discussion Like us at: pages/Howick/Willowbank -School/ pages/Howick/Willowbank -School/

Web links kids-safe-on-facebook.html kids-safe-on-facebook.html y_trust_facebook.html?tk=hp_new y_trust_facebook.html?tk=hp_new m?c_id=5&objectid= &pnum=2 m?c_id=5&objectid= &pnum=2 Technologies-That-Will-Shape-Education.aspx?Page=1 Technologies-That-Will-Shape-Education.aspx?Page=1