Saturday, March 10, 2012

Social Media: School Leadership in the Digital Age

Our presentation on "School Leadership in the Digital Age" takes place on Saturday March 10 at 7:30 am in Room 5 of the Tampa Convention Center. We'll share tips that principals can immediately use to use social media to improve their schools. Topics include social media and school safety, social media and school management, and social media and enhanced learning. The presentation can be downloaded HERE.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

A School Wide Plan for Student Achievement: the J. Lloyd Trump Lecture, NASSP Annual Convention

Howard Johnston is presenting the J. Lloyd Trump Lecture at NASSP's Annual Conference in Tampa on March 9, 2012.  The topic is on creating a school wide model and plan for boosting student achievement and test performance. From here, you can download Howard's Power Point Presentation and access the other resources he uses in his presentation:
(1) Powerpoint -- Raising Student Achievement: A School Wide Model and Plan.  The J. Lloyd Trump Lecture. (2) School Wide Culture Assessment Guide.
(3) Timeline for Principals -- Promoting Culture of Achievement and College-Going

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Unfriending---a New Trend?

A new study (Madden, 2012) from the Pew Internet and American Life Project found a growing trend among social media users---unfriending. Managing your online profile comes at a time of greater concern for privacy, concern about how one is portrayed online, and concern that "oversharing" can negatively impact business and social contacts.

While social media sites continue their exponential growth, a growing concern about privacy has resulted in 63% of users reporting that they have deleted people from their friends list, an increase since the last study in 2009. The study also reported that 58% of users share their profile with only a close group of friends or relatives while only 20% make their profiles public.

This trend reflects concern with privacy and the amount of information easily available about an individual through their online profiles. As sites like Facebook launch new features such as Timeline, that put historic data "front and center" on the profile, people are concerned about what they've posted and how they may have been "tagged" in the postings of others. Privacy concerns were greater among women. Men were more likely to report that they regretted something they posted on a social media site. Thirty-seven percent of people regularly scan other sites and "untag" themselves on those sites.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project is one of the most respected research centers on use of social media technology. Their study suggests that people have begun to simplify their online identity management and increasingly recognize the costs associated with personal content that may be available online.

We'd enjoy hearing from you about the issue of social media and privacy. What do you do to monitor your online profile?