As president of the PTA at the school of my children, I count on social media to hold families informed of everything, sports and musicals with important school updates. But I also saw first -hand how it can be distracting or used to share comments that are in conflict with school values.
It is particularly difficult to create a healthy digital school culture when school heads have little control over the deletion of content, such as confession accounts, combat accounts and identity accounts. Confession accounts anonymously distribute rumors over students, often linked to relationships or personal issues. Combat accounts share student altercation videos, sometimes encouraging violence. Identity accounts arise as teachers, students or even the school itself, displaying content intended to embarrass or mislead. These types of accounts can create a negative environment for students, staff and administrators. Beyond the targeting of individuals, they feed the distractions that can wave throughout the school, affecting students who are not even on social networks.
But it is also a personal problem for me. This year, my teenage son was targeted in a confession account. I reported the account in the application of social media, but it was not deleted. The school director also reported the account, as are the other students who were mentioned. No answer.
If you have already tried to report a confession account, you know that this experience is not unique to me. And even if you end up withdrawing a message, if the process takes too long, the damage has already been caused. Acting on these types of accounts must occur quickly.
Act
As CEO of ISTE + ASCDMy team and I spend our days to help schools create incredible learning experiences for each student. We work with almost all the country's districts. One of our main initiatives – and one of my personal and professional passions – is to help schools create healthy digital cultures while teaching students how to be honest digital citizens.
Invited by the frustration of my son's experience, I contacted the schools of our network to see if they have been faced with similar challenges on social networks. The message was extremely clear: social media is an excellent way to maintain the communities of connected students and their families committed and informed, but when the inappropriate content emerges, it is injuring and disruptive. School managers end up with limited options to take up the challenge and may feel helpless when declaring positions or attempted inappropriate accounts.
Work together for schools
Last year, the ISTE + ASCD team and I contacted Meta (The company behind Instagram) to share the concerns we have heard of educators across the country. We have underlined the need to give the heads of schools more control over the content of social media linked to their school communities. We expected the idea to be rejected from the start, knowing how an elevator would be. But Meta's team was receptive and wanted to explore solutions. What started as a single conversation has evolved for the design of a pilot program to give school managers a more direct role in the management of the content linked to their communities.
Over the past six months, a group of schools has tested an Instagram version which has enabled college and secondary leaders to identify and immediately report inappropriate or disruptive positions. During the pilot, the reports of the school partners were priority for examination, and the school schools received updates of status and notifications in real time when measures had been taken in a report.
The pilot allowed schools to tackle inappropriate positions before causing significant damage or becoming major distractions for learning. Confession accounts have also been reported and deleted. As part of the pilot, ISTE + ASCD worked with participating schools to support them to teach their students a healthy use of social media, including creation Better standards for digital behavior and using the new Digital citizenship lessons.
Solution
The pilot's results were remarkable, schools reporting a significant reduction in harmful content and improving digital culture. Justin Ponzio, director of Buchser Middle School, shared: “The partnership with Instagram was incredibly useful for keeping our students and our community more online. Schools more and eliminate harmful posts. »»
Based on the success of the pilot, Instagram now extends the program to all the country's intermediate and secondary schools. I am very happy to share this, from this month, any verified college or high school can qualify to participate in Instagram school partnership program. This program allows heads of establishment to use social media to communicate with their school community while providing more control over potentially harmful content.
Based on my experience as a parent, I am really grateful for this program. Participating schools will receive a banner on their profile so that parents and students know that they are an verified Instagram partner school. When combined with the definition of effective digital use standards and the teaching of digital citizenship skills to students, this program allows heads of establishment to create an edifying and engaging digital community.
A call to a continuous change
Although it is an important step in the right direction, I am fully aware that social media continue to present challenges for students, parents, teachers and school communities. It is essential that families create a healthy digital culture in their homes. In addition, other social media platforms have the opportunity to follow the example of Instagram and give schools the controls they need to approach the content and harmful accounts on their respective platforms. I hope that Snapchat, Tiktok and other social media platforms will join us to make it a priority to provide schools with better tools to protect students and maintain a positive online environment.
For more information on membership of the Instagram school partnership program, visit About.instagram.com/community/educators. To access the digital citizenship courses ISTE + ASCD, visit iste.org/digital-pitizenship-nsenson.
