Survey reveals concerns with social media

A survey of 140 Victorian principals has revealed that schools are not using the social media.  The main reason is due to cyber-bullying of which some principals had been targeted by Facebook hate groups.  The survey found that schools are not keeping up with the community and that they are “struggling to get direction from the government on how to deal with problems created by its inappropriate use”.  Only a small number of schools have an after-hours social policy for staff and students.

Dr Denis Masseni, a multi-media lecturer at Monash University and director of digital business Sponsor-ed has said in his report, Why schools are spooked by social media, “schools had almost no presence” in the social media network.  He suggested that one way to increase a school’s presence was to convert “the school newsletter to a blog style” which in turn would provide a two-way communication with schools and parents.