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Image to illustrate Digital Leadership

The idea for this page is to build a 'best of the web' reading / watching list for school leadership regarding using social media for school advancement. Rather than talk about how great social media is we're using social media to build this reading list.

A new survey from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project finds that 80 percent of internet users participate in some kind of voluntary group or organization, compared to just 56 percent of non-internet users. And if you use social media, the percentages are even higher: 85 percent of Twitter users, for example, are group participants.

Definetheline.ca: Clarifying the Blurred Lines between Cyber-bullying and Socially Responsible Digital Citizenship. Welcome to Definetheline.ca. The objective of our research team at McGill University is to share our expertise with policy-makers, teachers, parents, educators and youth (11 - 17) in user-friendly ways that help all stakeholders engage, learn from, and share resources on our website. We also have a fun section for children (ages 5 - 11) that will promote responsible, thoughtful and considerate digital citizens from an early age. Defining Digital Citizenship and Socially Responsible Online Communication: Social media and a range of digital technologies provide enormous opportunities for peaceful and supportive global interaction, international learning collaboration and fruitful educational partnerships. Every digital user has the potential to reach communities in all corners of the world through transformational online leadership and responsible digital citizenship by embracing the fundamental principles that underlie constitutional rights to free expression, privacy, safety, fair and equality.

Assessment 2 annotated bibliography

Thanks Ana this looks helpful!

Interesting read that identifies students abilities to engage and use technology for social media but are they effective in using these technologies for their learning. Identifies the need for teacher PD in these issues.

Great Blog by US Principal discussing the pros and cons of 1:1 and BYOD.

"The most time-consuming part of evaluating web tools for educational use has got to be looking at the Terms of Service (also know as Terms of Use or Terms and Conditions). They can go on for pages, and are so often wrapped up in so much legalese that even if you manage to read to the end, there is no guarantee you will be any wiser. And yet we can't just ignore them; it is our duty as educators and as digital citizens to protect rights and understand responsibilities online."

Another article for gauging where schools, educators' pedagogies sit in relation to using technologies. Do we offer students opportunities to develop good citizenship behaviours using technologies? Is education and learning in a rut in some schools? A real thought provoking article?

Some interesting results and differing opinions between various players in online learning environment.

"The evolution of education, particularly as filtered through the prism of emerging technology and new media, is something we're keenly interested in and something of increasing importance to society at large. Now, from authors Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown comes a powerful and refreshing effort to approach the subject with equal parts insight, imagination and optimism, rather than the techno-dystopian views today's cultural pundits tend to throw our way." A really useful post that introduces the book New culture of Learning, and includes two good videos and links to the book website.

"I set out to answer these questions through a study of attitudes, which compared digitally literate students' to digitally-challenged teachers and visa versa. In this study being undertaken at Swinburne University and sponsored by the Wesley College Institute for Innovation in Education, 321 students in years 9 and 10 and 100 educators were surveyed about their attitudes to digital literacy and the use of digital technologies. The schools were co-educational independent schools with laptop programs and significant differences were observed in student and educator attitudes towards each other's digital literacy. The hypothesis, "that there is a disconnect between the digitally capable students and digitally challenged educators in schools with laptop programs, limiting effective use of digital technology in the classroom" was supported in the findings. This has repercussions for educating "net generation" students and implications for the implementation of the National Secondary Computer Fund and National Broadband Network. The disconnect was revealed in terms of attitudes towards technology in the classroom, teaching pedagogy, internet use, adoption of cutting-edge technologies and limitations placed on school laptops and networks. In this study 57 statements were provided to research participants, who were then grouped into four groups: digitally capable students, digitally challenged students, digitally capable educators and digitally challenged educators."

Report on just published report by UNESCO on what it takes for Mobile Learning schools with link to full pdf. More evidence value of mobile learning in schools.

Some interesting research going on in the EU on how social media can be used to inform policy: Social networking technology provides major new opportunities for policy makers (eGovernment) to engage with the community (eSociety). We will develop a toolset that allows full advantage to be taken of a wide range of existing and well established social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, WordPress etc.) to engage citizens in two-way dialogs as part of governance and policymaking processes. The tools will make it possible to detect, track and mine opinions and discussions on policy oriented topics. The tools will allow discussions to be seeded and stimulated through injection of policy discussion points into relevant communities in a secure and managed way. The tools will allow the origins, bias and evolution of opinions to be tracked to provide auditable records of provenance, guard against misuse, and ensure trust and privacy for all involved. A key feature of our approach is to allow policy makers to move away from the limitations inherent in the current practice of using bespoke and dedicated platforms (e.g. specific opinion soliciting websites hosted by government) and instead make full use of the high levels of participation and rich discussions that already take place in existing social networking communities. In this way, WeGov will develop the tools and techniques for closing the loop between policy makers and the citizens.

Queensland University of Technology recognises the important role social media technologies play in enabling people not only to communicate and collaborate with each other, but also to create, share and consume content. The uptake of social media has opened up new ways of learning and teaching for educational communities to experience new ways of communicating. The rapid growth in Web 2.0 tools and other emerging technologies, often located outside university managed environments, has occurred alongside the steady growth in blended learning in higher education, with students becoming increasingly active communicators, collaborators and creators of content in a virtual community. Learning and teaching activities now take place both in physical and virtual spaces with a range of tools, including learning management systems, other university supported applications and tools, and, increasingly, a variety of public domain social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wikis, mashups, video-sharing sites, etc.). These guidelines aim to provide guidance to QUT teaching staff and students in the use of social media that adds value to the educational experience, whilst being mindful of the University's duty of care and legal obligations.