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Young celebrities do it. So why are we surprised when a typical teen Instagram post goes something like this: Teen (girl or boy) posts a...

Lisa Nielsen promotes the effective use of social media in education and is concerned that teachers do not fully understand their potential, nor best practice. She recommends conversation as an excellent way of supporting teachers in having a go. She provides two lists of conversation starters worthy of discussion in relation to particular contexts. While not promoting them as "Do and Don't" she has, however, divided them into Recommended, and Think twice before... Topics include: best practice for interacting with students; managing your online identity; role and responsibilities of parents, and managing online spaces. The lists provide an excellent basis for the development of a social media policy for schools.

This 23 page handbook limits the social media policy of the school to three lines on page 20. While this is an example of a very simple social media policy is makes very clear what is unacceptable behaviour and the consequences of said behaviour. This policy is directed at students and parents. While this policy may not seem as comprehensive as some other examples, it has the advantage of not confusing readers with terms, definitions, scope etc. that readers may ignore entirely and gives a very clear message.

This is an example of a very simple policy that establishes purposes of social media and ICT within the school, guidelines for use, expected behaviours and consequences for deviating from expected behaviours. This policy comes in the form of an agreement to be signed by both parents and students to ensure the policy is understood and adhered to. The agreement links to a single page explanation of what the Facebook page is to be used for and the rights of the school to remove content as it sees fit. While not comprehensive, it is a nice, simple policy/agreement that sets some ground rules.

This website is an example of social media policy guidelines. The pattern is well establish so that any organization can be used as references. The website provide hints that the policy should consider different stakeholders such as faculties, parents and students. Moreover, the policy should remind users beware of privacy and copyright law. Some school refer this to develop their policy such as Pingry school (http://www.pingry.org/page.cfm?p=887).

Yidarra's social media sets out appropriate use of social media for both staff and students. It has a lengthy list of inappropriate use of social media, making it very clear what is not acceptable. This policy is unique in that it also has a section dedicated to privacy with an appendix dedicated to the use of images and link to a form for parental permissions.