Social Media
Social media is a big deal, and getting even bigger in the
education world. I’d guess that 80% of the meetings and workshops I’ve attended
in the past year refer to or strongly encourage the use of social media in the
education profession for communication and professional development.
For me, I’m a Twitter guy first, even though Facebook is on
my list. I’m not very high on posting what I’m doing at any particular moment or
how I feel about it (and to be honest I really don’t care for other people
letting me know how their day is going… or not going…). Twitter provides me access to the minds of the
brilliant people I choose to follow. I get to see what they recommend reading
or watching. Facebook is mostly to follow what my family and friends are doing.
And really, that’s about all I know about Social Media. It’s
all I even care to know.
As a school employee, I would like to pass along two messages
to patrons:
1. If you have children on social media, watch what
they are doing. Follow or Friend them. Check their profiles and their posts. Make
sure that whatever they post, they should be willing to talk about with you.
2. I don’t watch for complaints about the school or
its employees on any social media platform. Please do not post complaints there
if you want a solution to your problem. If there are issues we need to address,
please call us. Be fair to us and give us a chance to resolve them before you
rally your followers on how you’ve been wronged. I will not respond to anything
Facebook communicates when it comes to what you feel like we should be doing or
what we’ve done wrong. Along with that, I’d encourage others not to respond to
jump on the bandwagons of these kinds of complaints. Good, old-fashioned
conversation is the best way to find solutions. I feel like I’m a pretty
approachable guy, so give me a call (872-7600), send me an email (jrumford@usd466.org), or stop by and see
me (704 S. College) so we can figure things out.
And, if you want to see what I read or who I follow, follow
me on Twitter (Jamie Rumford @JamieRumford)!
