Social Media has become the major source of collaboration among our youth today. I believe it is a valuable tool to leverage in the classroom as well. Therefore, it becomes necessary for educators to ensure that students are safe and appropriate when engaging in social media activities. When considering creating a social media policy for my classroom, I first examined my school’s technology acceptable use policy (TAUP). What I found was very limited (see below), so I created a document I could give to my students on the first day of school to ensure that any use of social media pertaining to the classroom was appropriate and acceptable. Prior to engaging on any social media projects with my class, I would discuss the purpose of the project and get feedback from other teachers, staff, and community members. At our annual Back to School Night I would discuss with parents how and why social media was going to be used. Parents, school staff, and community members would all be invited to discuss and view our social media activities. I believe students would be on board with any social media projects as according to the infographic, “The Use of Social Media in School”, 96% of students with Internet access report using social networking technologies.
According to my schools’s parent/teacher handbook, “Access to any web log (blog), forum, or “social network” website of any kind, such as Facebook, MySpace, Xanga, etc. is prohibited unless it is an academic social network such as Edmodo and access is approved by the teacher and purposed for academic pursuits.” Due to the brevity of our TAUP in regards to social media, I created to following document:
Joanna Lieberman EDTECH Learning Log 
Hey Joanna! I really like how you framed your policy as a first day of school document that students should take home to their parents. In particular, I like how you broke the bullet points down into categories. The headings were to the point and quick reminders of how students should behave online. I think it’s a great idea to have students assume fictitious identities online, especially with your age group. Your bullet point about writing properly is amazing. I love how you included that writing in all caps is the electronic version of shouting. Great plan!
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