Running Head: SHARED VISION & RATIONALE

Technology Plan for East Cobb Middle School

Nadia P. Williams
ITEC 7410/EDL 7105
Spring 2015
Katheryn Shields, Ed. S.

Keywords: Social Media in the Classroom

SHARED VISION & RATIONALE

Technology Plan for East Cobb Middle School
Vision Statement
To foster more school community through school-wide social media adoption.
Rationale
Students use social media as a regular form of entertainment. With the rise of
technology usage in schools, much research has supported the fact that technology can be
used to enhance student learning. Since social media is not merely a forum for
socializing (Davis, 2015), it can be used as a tool for learning by bringing the real world
into the classroom. Social media is also a way in which schools and teachers can
improve communication among students. For example, social media outlets such as
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube provide a conduit through which teachers can establish
backchannels that foster student discussion and surface ideas that students who are too
shy or intimidated to voice out loud (Lederer, 2012). Though many students are already
using social media, oftentimes they are not learning exactly how to use it in a judicious
manner. Goble states in the article Should Teachers Be Using Social Media in the
Classroom? (2014) that students access and usage of social media is a lot like giving a
13-year old the keys to a Ferrari without any driving experience: students are ill-prepared
to navigate the full and appropriate use of social media without a stable foundation of
appropriate digital citizenship. Furthermore, the successful modeling of the appropriate
and meaningful use of social media within classrooms provides students with a preview
of how they can use these tools for their eventual entry into the workforce (Lederer,
2012). While learning important content, students can concurrently learn how to
establish and maintain a healthy digital footprint.

SHARED VISION & RATIONALE

Furthermore, it is an area in which adults also participate. Professionals use
LinkedIn for networking purposes, but this also takes place via Twitter. EVIDENCE>
In The Principal as Technology Leader (2003), Creighton asserts that it is
important that technology leaders make certain that schools are an equal-opportunity
environment with regard to gender and socio-economic status (p. 15).
Diversity Considerations
Social media is a realm in which both male and female students and those of all
socio-economic strata participate. In A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom,
Vicki Davis posits that ...social media is another tool that you can use to make your
classroom more engaging, relevant and culturally diverse. East Cobb Middle School is
such a diverse environment in which the student body comprises 23% Hispanic students,
3.8% Asian students, 49% African-American students, 22% Caucasian students, and
2.4% Mixed Race students. In the usage of social media to build more of a sense of
community among the student body, we would be working to set up an environment of
equity among all students.

Stakeholder Roles
With this plan, all stakeholders will be invited to share positive moments around
instruction and events at East Cobb Middle School using a unified hashtag. Using a
hashtag would allow for the aggregation of discussion surrounding East Cobb Middle
School throughout many social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,
and Vine. Using tools such as Rebel Mouse or other hashtag social media stream
aggregators, all stakeholders can see the ongoing promotion of community at East Cobb.

SHARED VISION & RATIONALE

Teachers would be able to include social media into their instruction by a variety
of means and professional development sessions would be conducted illustrating the
ways in which it can be used as an extension of their classrooms. For example, teachers
can capture an image on Instagram or Twitter and use that as a writing prompt to which
the students would respond in their comments or replies. Another instance in which
social media can be used by teachers to augment the classroom experience would be to
offer extra credit opportunities. In this example, students with limited access are not
penalized for not having regular access, but are still afforded an opportunity to
participate. English and Social Studies teachers can also issue writing assignments to
which students would respond using a blogging platform such as KidBlog for their
responses. That said, the students within each class can then provide sound feedback to
their classmates by commenting upon the blog posts of their colleagues.
Community leaders and parents can be included in the ongoing promotion of East
Cobb by participating in the hashtag, by following any official social media channels
created for the school, and by offering incentives for community involvement. Parents
can also see some examples of what types of lessons are taking place within the
classrooms in seeing what teachers have posted from their classrooms. In fact, students
can also be invited to be guest tweeters/bloggers/Instagrammers/etc. within their classes
which would help them understand the gravity of controlling an official account outlet.
The efficacy of this plan will be assessed by simply viewing how many teachers,
students, parents, and community members participate in the ongoing online
conversation. Since East Cobb Middle School currently has little or no digital footprint
aside from its official website, this foray into social media will be an ongoing and self-

SHARED VISION & RATIONALE

differentiated one in which stakeholders can choose to participate at levels concurrent
with their proficiency and comfort levels. The goal would also be that for subsequent
years, there is increased growth in observed social media usage and more collaboration
on the ways in which teachers and other stakeholders can engage students in deeper
learning using tools that they already find fascinating.
References
Creighton,T.(2003).Theprincipalastechnologyleader.ThousandOaks,California:
CorwinPress.
Davis,V.(2015,February19).AGuidebookforSocialMediaintheClassroom.
RetrievedJune28,2015.
HowtoUseSocialMediaasaLearningTool.(2015,January12).RetrievedJune25,
2015.
Lederer,K.(2012,January19).ProsandConsofSocialMediaintheClassroom
CampusTechnology.RetrievedJune24,2015.
Leicht,G.,&Goble,D.(2014,October1).Shouldteachersbeusingsocialmediainthe
classroom?RetrievedJune20,2015.