Social Media

       Social Media has multiple applications in education. Teachers is all levels of education can use social media to communicate with parents and students.  Updates regarding upcoming school activities, class activities, homework assignments, and long term projects can be posted using multiple types of social media. Links to school, classroom, or teacher websites can be shared through social media to further extend communication. Social media gives teachers, parents, and students the ability to communicate immediately with one another without the use of e-mail, paper newsletters, fliers. or notes. In an article by Brian Puerling entitled Social Media in Early Childhood Programs, multiple uses for social media are addressed. The author also discusses how introducing young children to the appropriate use of social media develops their ability to "draw from multiple resources in an information rich world" (Puerling 2013). Seeking information from multiple resources is an expected skill that aligns with Head Start and many curriculum assessment outcomes..
Social media can only be used, however, for general communication regarding events. No student specific information can be released using these tools.  Student confidentiality must be protected using email, parent/teacher conferences, and notes. 

     Two social media tools applicable in early childhood would be Facebook and Twitter.  Facebook is extremely useful for parent communication and can even be used to share information with students.  Notifications for school events, field trips, and in-class activities can be posted weeks to days in advance. Reminder notifications can be sent the day of the event to keep parents up to date. Parents can also receive posts about weekly learning activities and themes.  Inclement weather updates and school cancellations can also be sent through Facebook. Facebook can be used to link parents to teacher websites, school websites, or a teacher's Pinterest Board for educational and activity ideas.   Videos, links to educational game websites, and learning activities can be posted through Facebook allowing students to work and play online or on a mobile device away from the home computer. As long as permission has been obtained from parents, Facebook can be used to post pictures of the classroom, student learning activities, field trips, or community events, or family events.   In addition to Facebook, Twitter can also be used for updates, school events, school and classroom notifications. Twitter is more limited than Facebook due to word limiting, but it can still be used for short notifications and reminders. If a teacher chooses to only use twitter, a longer and more detailed version may need to be sent by email or paper at an earlier date.  Twitter can also be used to share pictures of the learning environment or special activities and events.  Teachers can also use Twitter to share ideas and information with students and parents by tweeting links to websites. These two forms of social media are incredibly useful in the field of early childhood for the dissemination of information.

     Although social media can be incredibly useful for communicating with parents, it has its drawbacks especially in the low income communities. Not every parent has access to a mobile device  or a computer, at least not immediately.  Many still have to rely on the library or the computer of a family member to check Facebook or Twitter.  Since those two forms of social media are used for the immediate dissemination of information, it is imperative that the parent has frequent access to the appropriate technology.  Also within this community, lies a sector that may not have the educational background to navigate social media. There are still many that are illiterate or only functionally literate making technological communication impossible. There are still other issues with the use of social media regardless of income and education levels.  Teachers must be extremely careful when posting photographs of students; release forms must be signed by every parent. The safety and confidentiality of each child must be protected. Names need to be left out of photographs and the tagging of parents should probably be avoided so as to not alert anyone who may be a danger to the child.  Facebook particularly opens the door to blurred lines in parent/teacher relationships.  Teachers must be extremely careful to maintain a professional page that is unrelated to their personal page. Teachers should avoid being friends with parents and students on their personal page so as to maintain those professional boundaries.  Because of this, school administration may have to monitor social media use by parents and teachers. Staff should always obtain permission from school administration before beginning a Facebook page or a Twitter feed.  Administration may not have the time or manpower to monitor social media use and may not allow the use of social media.  Even with these concerns, social media can be used to effectively communicate with parents and students as long as it is used with responsibility and boundaries.