Social media has impacted the Department of Education and schools in Australia in various ways over the last decade. These impacts are both positive and negative and often influence how or why decisions are made.
A positive influence that social media has had on schools within the DET is that schools will now often have their own social media presence. The form in which this presence takes varies from school to school but most schools will now usually have at least their own Facebook page. Through Facebook the school is able to communicate easily with its community and share information between parties. This is especially important when emergencies arise when information is needed to widespread and quickly received. An example of this were the recent NSW and QLD bushfires. Schools that had their own social media accounts were able to post up to date and accurate information that parents and students could easily access. This allowed schools to communicate whether or not they were closed or open or even if they were being forced to evacuate (Guzman, 2016). This allowed one channel to be known as the authority for the school and for parents to be able to trust this source (Social Media Policy, 2018). This was helpful when schools needed to get the message to hundreds of parents at one time without having to call or text them individually.
Social media is not without its downsides though. One negative influence that social media has had and continues to have is the issue of cyber bullying within schools. Schools often struggle to effectively manage cyber bullying due to the multiple platforms of social media and that it is used outside of school. This leads to students being bullied in schools which can be managed through teachers and executive staff but when that bullying continues in their own homes and via devices that they just simply cannot be parted from, this leads to issues coming into the classroom which escalate often into violence and self-harm. These issues were not as common 10 years ago but due to the increase of social media usage students are finding themselves faced with cyber bullying more and more frequently and schools are forced to deal with the fallout from this despite not having any control over the situation.
Social media has both positive and negative influences in school settings but these platforms need to be managed effectively to ensure that all users are protected and safe.
References
Guzman, A. (2016, April). Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/6-ways-social-media-is-changing-the-world/
Social Media Policy, Social Media Policy (2018). Retrieved from https://policies.education.nsw.gov.au/policy-library/associated-documents/social-media-procedures.pdf
