My Principal tweets: A report on leaders and social networks

We know that when leaders get involved in professional learning – when they walk the talk – their staff and community are much more likely to follow and be inspired to join in.

The report  – School Principals and Social Networking in Education: Practices, Policies, and Realities in 2010 – highlights the importance of school principals getting hands-on experience with social media tools, like Facebook and Twitter, in order to understand how it might support collaborative and networked learning.

The key findings of the report include:

• Principals who have active and personal experience of social media are far more likely to be strong advocates for its educational potential, and for e-learning in general.
• Many principals believe that there are possibilities within social media – but their schools do not have a strategy for its use.

The report recommends three key actions:

1. Greater active involvement in social networking is required for school leaders – and sites like EdWeb, ASCD Community and Google for Educators can provide a context that offers obvious benefits quite quickly if Facebook and Twitter don’t strike immediate chords.
2. Models of good practice are needed to show the potential of social networking in education
3. School policies need to be more effective and based on real-world contexts. They should extend beyond whether sites should be blocked to incorporate students and community in authentic digital citizenship conversations.

Schools look to their leaders for guidance and inspiration. What are they seeing at the moment?

Original link for report: http://www.edweb.net/fimages/op/PrincipalsandSocialNetworkingReport.pdf