Presentation to Eastern MA administrators and guidance counselors regarding the need to integrate social media/web 2.0 tools into our schools to help create more engaged classrooms

1. What is the mission of
public schools?
Merrimack College Think Tank
April 27, 2011

2. Massachusetts Board of
Elementary and Secondary Education
Mission Statement
If we continue to block sites like Facebook, YouTube, and
Twitter what parts of this need to be modified?
The mission of the Massachusetts Board
of Elementary and Secondary Education
is to strengthen the Commonwealth's
public education system so that every
student is prepared to succeed in
postsecondary education, compete in the
global economy, and understand the
rights and responsibilities of American
citizens, and in so doing, to close all
proficiency gaps.

3. Burlington High School Mission Statement

4. Some questions for you
• Why is it important for students to use social media
to “connect”?
• What impact will it have on their school?
• What impact will it have on their futures?
• What impact will it have on all of our futures?

5. If we truly believed these mission
statements we would...
• show students how to edit their privacy settings and use groups
in Facebook instead of banning online social networks because
they’re ‘dangerous’ and/or ‘frivolous’
• teach students to understand and contribute to the online
information commons rather than ‘just saying no’ to Wikipedia
• put a robust digital learning device into every student’s hands
(or let them bring and use their own) instead of pretending that
we live in a pencil notebook paper and ring binder world
Click here for the complete list from Scott McLeod’s Big Think Blog

8. " Please stop waiting for a map, we
reward those who draw maps, not
those who follow them."
- Seth Godin (Poke the Box)

10. Questions????

11. Contact Us:
Eric Conti - Superintendent, Burlington Public Schools
e-mail - conti@burlington.mec.edu
blog - Burlington Superintendent’s Blog
twitter - @ericconti
Patrick Larkin - Principal, Burlington High School
e-mail - larkin@burlington.mec.edu
blog - Burlinton High School Principal’s Blog
twitter - @bhsprincipal