social media | The Blippit Blog

28th February 2018

Is social media disconnecting us from society?

One of the major criticisms of social media is that it’s disconnecting us, as individuals, from society and from real physical interactions.

But if a key element of ‘tribe’ is communication and connectivity then the digital world arguably holds unlimited bounds for tribes.

If the internet has heralded the death of distance, what do these new kind of tribes look like? And do we relate to each other in different ways now that so much of our lives are lived online?

Tribe: Listen to the broadcast (30 mins)

In this episode of The Digital Human (BBC Radio 4.), Aleks Krotoski asks if rather than separating us, the digital world is helping us revive old tribal connections. It’s a fascinating way to look at schools and their parental communities for many reasons so do have a listen.

14th December 20164th May 2018

Schools, Trains and Change Management

Today I was travelling back by train from a meeting in Manchester. Hot choc in hand I arrived at the platform and found that the train I was to catch had been cancelled. No worries. Trainline App to hand (I wasn’t alone – another guy also had this) I worked out what I needed in no time. No worries.

In front of me was a chap who looked confused. He asked another guy what was happening with the trains and he replied to say he had an app that said the next train was due shortly, quick change then onward no worries. Chap was pleased to help and confused guy glad of the info and he hung around phone app guy in some sort of subconscious thankyou mode.

The platform soon filled with lots of other people. One threesome couldn’t see their train on the departure board so they went off to seek a train person to ask. There was shoulder shrugging and frowning in equal measure.

Finally the train arrived, we all piled in for one stop then piled out again at the next station to change. The app people, including myself, stepped straight onto the connecting train on platform 3 quite confidently. Elsewhere other voices could be heard asking the same question.

Is this the train for Preston? Is it? You think so? Yeh I’m pretty sure it is. According to this app it is yes. Noone seems to know for sure. You’d think they’d put someone on here to ask wouldn’t you?

Complete strangers reaching out for the right information and reassurance but sadly both were in short supply. People were resigned to their fate now. Doors shut and necks continued to crane looking for signs and confirmation that they were headed in the right direction. Like a slightly smug individual I opened my laptop on a free table and got working.

Why the train story? For me it illustrates what happens when there’s an enforced change and people have to divert from their usual trajectory. Some people are in the know and can crack on. Some people are good at finding out the answers and seek either authority or peers. Passengers with access to the latest info at the point where it’s needed are able to cope with the change and even become useful to those who are less connected.

When social media is used proactively, responsively and strategically by schools to the benefit of their community it’s magical and empowering and it’s precisely why we do it; we’ve called it ‘improving the parent journey’.

For more visit Blippit Social

4th October 201616th November 2017

Social Media Strategies for Multi Academy Trusts

Is it possible to get valuable parental engagement right across a Multi Academy Trust using social media?

Yes it is. In this recent talk (30/09/16) given under our exclusively education Blippit Social brand by founder John Bidder, you can hear tips, advice and hopefully get a better understanding of why schools choose to work with us as their partner in this challenging area.

31st January 201518th January 2018

Head Teacher’s Pet (Alpaca my bag now)

Some things are meant for sharing and some things aren’t. When your audience is parents it’s not unnatural to think once or twice about what you might share. However, an Alpaca in the Head’s Office? No brainer. It makes “dog in the playground” seem very pedestrian.

This Alpaca went on tour around the classes with the wonderfully Doolittle-esque Head Teacher Dave McPartlin and in terms of memories for the children you can only imagine them re-telling the day’s events when they saw their families later that day.

Isn’t it refreshing that in the prevailing climate of risk avoidance and health & safety we have an ‘Ofsedicially’ Outstanding school prepared to take in large South American mountain dwelling creatures in the name of enrichment & probably a few other things too…including fun?

On the face of it it’s slightly bonkers.

Conventional wisdom might say

do it, but don’t make too big a fuss as parents might not ‘get it’
do it and feature the visit in the next school newsletter at the end of the month
do it and pop a photo on the school website

Unconventional wisdom might say, do it then share it on Facebook the same day so that mums and dads might actually believe their children when they get home! Today that’s exactly what happened. Unconventional wisdom won and the response from parents at Heysham St Peter’s CE Primary was very good.

By coincidence in the news two days ago another large furry mammal was spotted in London – specifically a Polar Bear. Wait. A massive polar bear in London down in the Tube (and later other places too) with small children? What could possibly go wrong?

For me, social media engagement is about stories and in my talks round and about the place with groups of Heads that’s what I delve in to in more detail. Whether it’s stories about an Alpaca in the Head Teacher’s office or Polar Bears on the London Underground it doesn’t matter too much. Every person and place has a story to tell so why not share it? You’ll might be surprised at the reaction.

4th December 201428th March 2017

Blippit Social on BBC Breakfast talking social media and schools

This week I went on to BBC Breakfast’s famous red couch for Blippit Social. I was lucky enough to be invited on to the programme to comment and advise on the use of social media by schools and attitudes of parents to the subject more widely.

The Inflame Game

The context for the piece was the question of whether or not a primary head teacher of a school had done the right thing by sending home a letter essentially telling them not to let their children go on Facebook, they were too young etc.

When Bill Turnbull (my mum’s favourite presenter second only to Michael Palin) asked whether the school had done the right thing I essentially said yes – for that school it was the right thing. Saying anything else would have been wrong and only inflamed the story. Not knowing or understanding the school’s context and history only the Head himself could say, on reflection, anything else. Every school is different and that includes it’s community; having worked with as many schools as we have over the years there’s no doubt about that. We do know now that done right, even Ofsted inspectors see huge value in our parental engagement approach.

Viewers’ comments on the BBC Breakfast programme Facebook thread on the day show that there is no one single view when it comes down to it. Parents do share the same essential views on safety but not necessarily the same view on what should be done and how to ensure it. Check the comments out to see what I mean.

It’s pointless to make it into a blame game

It’s a fruitless route to play the blame game in my opinion. We’re all old and wise enough to know

It’s not Mark Zuckerberg’s fault
it’s not the parent’s fault
it’s not the children’s fault
it’s certainly not the Head Teachers’ fault

It’s just where we’re at in our evolution; ‘learning’ how to use tools for which there are no real rules; only arbitrary age limits and everyone’s common sense.

The End Game?

What options are there then for young people, parents, teachers and companies on the best use of social media platforms linked to education?

raise age limits for access?
increase reporting tools to expedite action?
boycott social platforms?
boycott technology like phones, tablets etc?
enforce tough technology filters for home access?
enforce and introduce new legislation?
or support, educate and make users part of the solution?

And finally. Of course being a very British thing to do I landed lots of stick for being spotted on the TV so if you can’t beat them, join them.

10th November 20144th May 2018

Leading Parent Partnership Award & Blippit Social

The LPPA is a nationally recognised Quality Award for schools committed to investing in parents for the achievement of pupils.

Blippit Social works with some schools who are already working with schools where LPPA Advisers have worked using the LPPA Framework. Heads can also use or the LPPA toolkit for schools to promote good practice in parental engagement.

If your school is working toward or has achieved the LPPA then you can can now save money on Blippit Social’s managed Parental Engagement service by quoting the code in the special flier downloadable below.

Download more about our special discount for LPPA Schools

Do get in touch with us if a chat might help you clarify your vision further.

15th May 2014

School, safeguarding & social media – what have we learned?

Going live since September have been a great mix of schools who are each harnessing Facebook for their own reasons. You’d be forgiven for thinking that to use the world’s biggest social media platform your school would have to be at the frontier for innovation or at the very least have maverick-like leadership. Not true. Far from it.

The Heads I’ve worked with all know the value of parental engagement. From new-to-the-school through to very well established Heads it really doesn’t matter and for them it’s just a matter of how to get traction.

Where a school ‘is’ in Ofsted’s eyes is proving not to be a factor in whether a Head chooses to use engage with parents or not using social media. For example you might think that a school with a notice to improve has better things to be doing? Surely it’s inviting trouble from disgruntled parents but in our experience it appears not.

Safeguarding: key features of outstanding practice

In speaking with Children Safeguarding Boards about their priorities it feels like safeguarding has begun to usurp e-safety in many people’s minds. The tide is turning on the ‘everything social is bad’ camp and that’s why we say ‘harnessing Facebook for good’. Experience shows that parents want to be active participants in safeguarding and actively be included and party to the school’s success having invested their most precious things into the school – their children. This video (made by year 3) was a direct result of children and parents being together in a joint ‘talk’ about how to keep safe.
(Firefox may not show the video below – switch to any other browser to view)

From the Ofsted Safeguarding in schools – report summary:

“Ofsted does not require schools to build walls around play areas; it does not expect schools to seek Criminal Records Bureau checks on casual visitors to schools, including parents; it does not judge a school to be inadequate because of minor administrative errors, or because an inspector’s ID was not checked.”

“a curriculum that is flexible, relevant and engages pupils’ interest; that is used to promote safeguarding, not least through teaching pupils how to stay safe, how to protect themselves from harm and how to take responsibility for their own and others’ safety”

Keeping children safe is everyone’s job and we believe that for children to be safer social citizens they need better equipped parents who can actively & passively learn via school as an excellent role model.

3rd February 2012

Social Media key to 'parental engagement' door to increasing numbers

A Head we know has a ‘leaky roof’ photo graph that appears in the local newspaper whenever ANY article features their school.

Can you imagine what that must do for their public persona? We’ve all got dreadful pics buried away or better still deleted but when you’re a Head and the press have a photo of you, well, why pay someone to go out and take another one where you’re smiling?

A story reached us a wee while ago of a parent who was unhappy that their child was going to be attending a particular school that wasn’t her number one choice. She didn’t hold the Head in particularly high regard because of ‘something she’d heard’ and the bucket photo that featured regularly in the press certainly did help matters.

The parent rang the school to let them know she wasn’t happy and so the rainy face day Head invited her in. Now, between the meeting date and that phone call the prospective parent found the school on Facebook. She ‘Liked’ the page and began to tune in to what what was going on, what was on offer and more importantly what the head was saying during the week.

School photograph day arrived and being a thoughtful Head, who knew the value of a good photo, she light heartedly updated the parents via Facebook to remind mums not to let the dads do the hair today because its photo day (smiley face etc).

This soft communication meant a lot to the prospective parent. So much in fact that this pivotal update meant she turned up for the school meeting with a smile and change of heart. Combined with all the other good things going on in Facebook she felt satisfied that her child was actually going to be part of a rather good community.

Incredible how much of an impact soft communication can have sometimes.

Transparency and a sense of ‘access all areas’ you might say also did this. We’d say that controlling their own press also had a big part to play too. Why not harness social media for good and give your parents something better to look at than ads and rainy day photos?

27th January 2012

"Do you do Facebook in Schools?"

The BETT Show at Olympia this year was really great for us. Lots of friends from all the years we’ve spent in the ICT ‘industry’ as a customer and now as a supplier. Brilliant and loved seeing both sides. The people we talked to ranged from Spanish Colleges through to Heads and leadership teams from UK primary, secondary, public & private sectors who all face the same challenge. They all had the same question:

“Do you do Facebook in schools?”

I heard that people don’t think the learning platform is dead quite recently too? Seems to me that this depends on how broad your definition is of these things and while there are lots of schools still with single BECTA spec platform systems out there, there are other people doing it differently.

My own view is that the learning platform in its original incarnation is deader than a dodo. The opportunities are much greater now to do this differently and the bloated beast of a learning platform that some schools still have will never be a place for parents to come into as well. Just my view.

Many years ago (before Facebook had captivated the masses) I don’t think I was along in buying into the dream that parents would log in to a VLE or suchlike and by osmosis we’d reach them with ‘great stuff’ and stimulate interaction and engagement but that was just a dream. The change management was too great and the costs – well don’t even go there.

Now it seems very simple to me. Go where your ‘customers’ are and if that’s Facebook you’ll want to be making your way down there soon. Yes – it’s their turf as much as it’s yours and yes you’ll feel like someone in fancy-dress at a formal dinner for a while but long term you’ll be glad you made the move.