Fantastic way to get parents interested in online safety
Thinking of holding an online safety session for parents and carers? Worried that you'll have a poor turn out?
Lots of schools are keen to hold online safety sessions for parents and carers. The problem is that whilst the school thinks online safety is important, parents often do not. I think parents don't attend because they genuinely can not see what all of the fuss is about. Either they don't use social media and so they 'don't know what they don't know' about it or they use social media and have never had a problem. So maybe what we need to do is to demonstrate just how far and how fast a picture posted on a social network can travel!
Now this is (sadly) not my idea but... how about if a teacher takes a picture of the school mascot, class pet, a teddy bear (you choose) and shares it via Facebook or Twitter accompanied with a brief explanation that you are trying to demonstrate to your class how widely an image can be shared and how it can reach people that you don't even know? I've been the recipient of this sort of request a couple of times and have been happy to accommodate. I've not known the teacher; the request had been shared many times before it reached me and, hopefully, many of my FB 'friends' have shared it further. How many likes/ comments and shares do you think you might get? How far do you think that your image might travel in say a week or two weeks?
A teacher in Hereford posted this image of 'John' on Facebook on a Tuesday. By Friday it had had over 1,000 shares and reached almost every continent!
What a fantastic way to demonstrate the power of social media. And what a great thing to do a month or so before you hold your online safety session for
parents! What if every day after you post the image, you update 'a how many shares counter' displayed prominently in school? Try it a month or so before you hold your online safety session for parents. Every day after you post the image, update 'a how many shares counter' displayed prominently in school. Even if t doesn't persuade parents to attend your online safety session, it will deliver a powerful message to your pupils about social media.