Using Social Media: Digital Demons
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During August 2011, the Department, Melbourne Football Club (the Demons) and Year 9 students from 25 schools around Victoria collaborated on a program to make social media a safe and positive space for sporting professionals. With the recent explosion of social media, the Digital Demons – Playing by the Rules program aimed to promote appropriate behaviour online and assist sporting professionals to use social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook safely and responsibly. Under the Student Action Team (SAT) model, students became ambassadors for safe and responsible use of social media. They took authentic action in their local community, educated their peers about cybersafety and gathered information about the online needs of Melbourne Football Club players. |
About the program
The Digital Demons – Playing by the Rules program began with an introduction day at the MCG attended by more than 100 Year 9 students from across the state. Demons players Jack Watts, Lynden Dunn and Jared Rivers joined the discussion about how young people and elite football players can behave safely and responsibly online. Students identified the most important issues surrounding cybersafety for young people and began discussing the actions they could take in their schools.
This event was followed by two web-conference sessions hosted in the Department’s Virtual Conference Centre. In the first session, SATs collaboratively developed a survey of 15 questions. Over a fortnight period SATs surveyed their school community including their peers, teachers and parents. In the second session, SATs analysed the data collected and its potential implications.
The program finished with a celebration day where students worked collaboratively to develop and present the ‘Playing by the Rules’ Code of Conduct for Demons players back at the MCG.
More information
To access the Code of Conduct developed by the students during the program, see: Digital Demons Code of Conduct
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