GSE Doctoral Student Joe Mazza Explores How to Connect With Parents Via Social Media

February 27, 2013 - Joe Mazza, a student in GSE’s Mid-Career Ed.D. Program in Educational Leadership and principal of Knapp Elementary School in the Philadelphia suburb of Lansdale, will be featured in a one-hour Education Week webinar at noon Eastern Time on Thursday, February 28.  The webinar, “Connecting Parents and Schools Via Social Media Initiatives,” will focus on a variety of ways educators can connect with families through social media.  Topics will include using Skype to run parent-teacher conferences, live-streaming PTA meetings and exploring how schools can help parents become more digitally literate in spite of socioeconomic disparities. Mazza will be joined by co-panelist Elisabeth Stock, chief executive officer and founder of Computers for Youth, which provides computer training to low-income families.  Education Week contributing writer Nora Fleming will moderate the discussion.  

Mazza has been a trailblazer in connecting with parents, and building community, through  Twitter, Facebook, a parent-school Wiki, virtual chat, a blog, and a Google text line—no mean feat in a complicated school in which 40 percent of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and speak 22 different languages at home. His dissertation at GSE measures the impact of social media on communication between school principals and families. 

Registration for the webinar is free.