on
Rochester's newsmagazine since 1997
this is Need to Know Rochester
>>Hello and thanks for joining me for this additional Need to Know Rochester I'm
Helene Biandudi Hofer
One california school district is taking on student bullying
suicidal threats and drug use among other issues through a pretty
non-conventional source social media the district has hired an outside firm to
track postings on Facebook and Twitter
by its middle and high school students for one year. Now some critics call it an
invasion of privacy
but school officials say the intervention is necessary
after two students suicides in the past two years. So can a project like this be
beneficial for Rochester area schools
and could really help combat truancy and bullying?
joining me a studio is Dave dimbleby superintendent at the Hilton Central
School District
and Mike Johannson a lecturer in the Department of Communication at RIT
and also a social media expert it's great to have both of you here
and David I just want to start off by offer my condolences to you in hilton
community and know that
there's a lot earlier this week for recent grad and just so you know that you
are
and many thoughts and prayers right now thank I'm so
in regards to this issue Dave when you hear about social media surveillance in
the fact that this is happening in school districts
what's your reaction to this and is this something that you would have ever
considered
for Hilton? >>I think we're really challenged by,
obviously, new technology and new applications the technology and that's
an ongoing challenge that we face in schools
and I I was familiar what was going on at another school district another
part to the country and it was intriguing in terms above what they're
doing why they're doing it
and but I would say that as I look as a superintendent schools
I see this issue is not just a school issue but really are
a family issue a community issue and a student issue. So we try to rely on
looking at that in that manner and trying to involve all parties in that
in terms of what students to be responsible for their own managment
of themselves. We wanted adults to help on in the community whether it be
parents teachers or community members help students in managing it
at the same time on so we don't want to take that responsibility away from students
They need to see the responsibility. At the same time there aren't we do have
interests and concerns and needs to
make sure schools are safe students are safe and sometimes we do use
methods of like social media to determine
as a source of information but it clearly isn't the only source of information
that we rely on. In fact I would say to you that are most important
source of information in schools are students because they're having
conversations with each other we tell students that if you're hearing
something from a peer
or you're having feeling yourself... if you are hearing something that doesn't seem quite
right that you should be notifying
responsible adult whether it is your parent or school to address it
so I would be concerned about something like this while it might be a useful
tool
over-reliance on it may take away from
from other important individuals or
needs as well. >>Well let me ask you you you're in that position your social
media expert also an educator's I'm sure you can see the
both sides in this what are the pros and the cons when looking at this issue
>>Well as I think the pros are it isn't... it IS an insight.
You can go to get an overall overall feeling of sentiment if you like.
But I think the cons are sort of a...
as we saw with discussions here it is a bit of a game of "whack-a-mole" really.
If you are monitoring two or three sites and students
become aware of this they'll just go to other sites. If parents ban certain sites
particularly younger teenage students it is likely to go to other site
I think that makes a very good point I think it really is a parenting
and the one thing in all of this that I'm sorta wondering is
parenting changes so rapidly today that the skills needed... the things you need
to know about... the things you should be talking to kids about - I mean I have a
20-year-old daughter -
I can't imagine what it would have been like ahead she been
five or ten now! As opposed to when she was five or ten
So perhaps one other thing schools and communities could start doing
is educating parents more about what's really going on
and how you talk to kids about these things and the potential dangers
>>And Dave I know one of the things is this a school district in California
is doing - they are monitoring the use of personal electronic devices: cell
phones &
iPads and that sort of thing in the classroom and this is one thing that
Hilton and another area school districts actually embrace: the use of somebody's
personal electronics in the in the classroom. Just tell me a little bit
more about the the social media policy if you have one at Hilson
I know one thing that was interesting I heard you have
a light - like a red light green light yellow light in each class - a poster
so students know when it's okay to use a device and and whent not to. So just tell
us a little more about that.
>>A couple few years ago we moved away from a policy of off-and-away during the day
(which is how the high school principal refer to it) as an acceptable use policy
Really we moved to that because first of all, our students
most or students have personal devices. Two is
we're an educational institution and we should be educating children in how to use
those appropriately
(older students). As opposed to saying that
they're not be used at all. So we moved to the Acceptable Use Policy and you
refer to the
the car the stoplight if you will, the red light yellow light green light up so
in the school setting in hallways in cafeterias
in study halls students are generally allowed to use
their personal electronic devices appropriately
In places like classroom settings
teachers manage that so if a teacher could put up a
it literally is a green light - in their classroom which means that students can come into
the classroom
at any given day at any given time and use their personal devices
And quite often those teachers are using of personal devices as a learning
tool in the classroom
some teacher put up a yellow light which means that they'll be days will be using
your personal device or days were not and I'll determined as a teacher
when that will occur and then we have some teachers we have a red light which
means that they'd
they don't - its off it away in their classroom
So, we have found that to be really very effective what we also found was
we surveyed students on that and we found when we had off and away
that ninety percent of students were using a personal electronic device
when it was off and away anyway so we're forcing them to
you know kinda hide it. And we found out that their number one person
they were
communicating to was the parent, so we thought the parents were obviously
endorsing it from wherever they work so we decided that
we need to make a shift and what we found was
it really turned out to be very positive and very advantageous
let's take a look at something, WXXI's Carla Claire talked with some
high school students this week to get
their take. What would their reaction be if their school district
decided to monitor their social media accounts and
here's what they had to say: >>If your high school principal was to check your
Facebook page or your Twitter accounts
Tell us how you feel about that >>I wouldn't really care because
there is not a lot of personal stuff on it It is just
me just hanging out. There is not anything inappropriate that shouldn't be on there
If there was I wouldn't have it. My mom checks my Facebook.
I think that is invading people's privacy
>>Do you feel that it's okay if your principle
was to... >>No.. cuz that's my personal
space. That's where I am me.
Nobody goes in my Facebook because it is my Facebook. I made it.
>>Do you see a one way that it would be a good idea?
>>Yeah, it can, but like
that stuff's not on my page I I only like
add people that I know so like, that won't be going on on my page
>>Helping out people that are being bullied to see if they're being bullied
like cyber bullied or physical
or mental. >>Do you see a lot of negative
activity or drugs or cyber bullying happening Facebook or Twitter
>>A lot of people are depressed about it Some of my friends
>>So we heard from some of these kids. They see this as an invasion of privacy Mike
I want to get your take on this do you think it is a violation of student
privacy
What are your thoughts? Well one thing the students seem to
understand and a lot of people don't understand is if you're in a public
space
like Facebook or Twitter it's a public space you are not entitled to privacy
and I'd like to be a young man they said he'd it's my facebook I created it
That's true, but you don't own it and that's a big difference
And I'm quite impressed actually by the students who say they don't put inappropriate
stuff up there because that's one of the things I impress upon students
all the time. If you don't want the world to see it, never put it
up on a social media site anywhere, anytime anyhow... because privacy settings can
change
and they do. >>We have about fifteen seconds left.
In terms of finding an effective way to combat this
what do you think a school district could do?
>>I liked Dave's point, I think the school district needs to do things
that have students talking to each other
they need students to feel open about coming to a teacher or staff member when
they hear
or see things that are inappropriate. I think it's all about communication I
think social media is just a platform >>Well, Mike Johannson, Social Media
Expert and Lecturer at RIT
and Dave Dimbleby superintendent at the Hilton Central School District thank
you both for joining me today
and for more coverage about education news in our area go to our website
WXXInews.org