The average Australian spends 1.2 hours on social media each day.
Facebook tends to be used by teachers for personal use while Twitter is used in a professional capacity.
Don’t have a Twitter account? Signing up to Twitter is easy! Follow these steps to get started.
1. Go to https://twitter.com/signup.
2. Enter your name; phone number or email and a password.
3. Click sign up for Twitter.
4. Select a username (usernames are unique identifiers on Twitter).
5. Click create my account.
Learn more about writing tweets https://support.twitter.com/articles/15367
Learn more about followers: https://support.twitter.com/articles/14019
Use a one or two hashtags in your tweet and make sure they are relevant. Hashtags will give your content greater exposure to the Twitter audience.
Other hashtags:
#eecnsw (Environmental Education Centre NSW)
#ozscied (science)
#ozteachers
#SpEdSC (Special Education Slow Chat)
Learn more about using hashtags https://support.twitter.com/articles/49309
A Twitter chat involves a group of people tweeting about the same topic using a specific hashtag. Twitter chats take place across the Twittersphere every day.
Some Twitter chats are specific to a particular event, such as a conference while other chats occur weekly, fortnightly or monthly.
Other Twitter chats:
#ausELT – Australian English Language Teachers, http://auselt.com/
#includEDau – Special needs educators, Sunday’s 7:30pm weekly
#makerEDau - first Sunday of the month 8pm AEST
#ozcschat – Australian Computer Science teachers, second Tuesday of the month 8pm http://www.ozcschat.weebly.com
#PSTchat – Pre-Service Teachers, Tuesday’s 7:30pm weekly
#satchatOZ – Saturday’s 8:30am weekly
See Education Chat Calendar for other education related chats.
Twitter chats are a great way to engage with the Twitter community. Cindy Valdez-Adams, EAL/D teacher at Fairfield PS, founded the #tesoloz Twitter chat. The chat takes place on the last Friday of the month from 8pm-9pm.
Storify http://www.storify.com creates a ‘story’ by capturing your hashtag’s results. Content can be curated to only show the best user content.
Click the cog to view the lists created and subscribed to by a particular user.
More information about Twitter Lists: https://support.twitter.com/articles/76460-using-twitter-lists
Learn more about notifications: https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169920-receiving-sms-notifications-for-tweets-and-interactions
Always follow relevant department policies, including the Code of Conduct.
Do not act unlawfully (such as breaching copyright) when using social media.
Make sure your personal online activities do not interfere with the performance of your job.
Be clear that your personal views are yours, and not necessarily the views of the department.
Do not disclose confidential information obtained through work.
Useful links:
Department’s social media policy
Social media policy explained
Social media Toolkit for schools (last updated October 2014)
Written parental permission is necessary for any public identification of students, for example, when they are named, photographed or interviewed for the school newsletter, DoE web pages or for any other media.
Provide parents with a general permission note covering all these cases at the start of each school year, with their response recorded in a register.
More information: https://detwww.det.nsw.edu.au/schools-communication-and-engagement/permission-to-publish
Legal Bulletin No.9 provides current advice regarding Permission to Publish online. The main term that schools need to understand is ‘reasonably identifiable’… This means that any instance where a student, teacher or parent can be ’reasonably identified’, whether it be their name printed, a photograph, or a quote, permission must be sought.
Permission to Publish tips:
Obtain General Permission to Publish (PtP) upon enrolment (it’s included in the ‘Application to Enrol in a NSW Public School’ form) AND distribute a separate General Permission at the beginning of every school year.
Ensure that your PtP form states all possible communication channels that students may be published on. The DoE template outlines all possible channels.
Avoid allowing parents to permit some but not all forms of communication (e.g.. some parents may say yes to everything except social media) – this becomes messy and difficult to keep track of.
Maintain a ‘Do Not Feature’ list, that contains the headshots, names and year levels of each student that is not to be published in any media. Always cross-check your photos and information with the list before publishing.
Include a PtP for each ‘specific activity’ (e.g.. excursions) ; this can be added to the usual permission slip given to parents.
Be mindful of age restrictions outlined in the terms and conditions outlined for the social media channel.
Office of the Children’s eSafety Commission has useful resources regarding the most commonly used social media channels https://esafety.gov.au/esafety-information/games-apps-and-social-networkingthat can be shared with parents.
IFTTT is a free auto tool which connects products and apps through the use of a Recipe. There are two types of Recipes: DO Recipes and IF Recipes.