What’s Your Profile? A Social Media Approach at Cordon School

We visited the school in Cordon to discover how upper primary students perceive their image on social media… This is the fourth episode in our series.

In this fourth episode of our series “Taking a Step Back in Haute-Savoie’s Schools,” we headed to the school in Cordon, located in the Saint-Gervais-les-Bains valley, to find out how CM1-CM2 students (4th and 5th graders) understand and approach their image on social media.

“We’re doing a session that will allow the children to create their profile on the school’s digital learning platform (ENT), and to start thinking about how they would create a profile on social media in the near future. Technically, they’re not supposed to be on social media at their age—but a third of them already are!” explains Lise Galevielle, a teacher for CE1, CM1, and CM2 classes and the principal of the Cordon school.

Among her CM1 and CM2 students, aged 9–10, one third are already using platforms like TikTok, Instagram, or Snapchat.

During this session, Lise provides a worksheet listing typical information requested by social networks (first name, last name, address, email, phone number, etc.). The students work in small groups to reflect on what they would or wouldn’t want to share. Then, they complete the sheet individually to indicate what they would choose to make public on their profile.

“I try to raise their awareness about the kind of information that should not be disclosed on a profile; I raise awareness not only among the students but also among the parents,” she emphasizes.

To support this, she sends home a short summary for the children to read with their parents, having noticed that most parents are unaware of what their child actually does on social media. “He’s keeping himself busy, I know he’s on TikTok,” is the kind of response she often gets when she asks parents about their children’s online activity.

Profile photos are another topic covered. In today’s session, Lise has the students cut out the type of profile photo they’d want to use on a social network: a picture of their pet, a photo with their family, a shot of them in a swimsuit on vacation, etc.

Then, the students discuss each other’s choices.

The school’s digital platform (ENT) will allow them to put theory into practice by creating a profile and a profile picture—this will be the focus of the next session.

This social media approach gives the teacher the opportunity to cover multiple topics, including cyberbullying, which already affects many middle schoolers—and could potentially affect Lise’s students. In this CM1-CM2 class, 6 out of 21 students already have a phone with WhatsApp. Some only connect to the internet at home, “so they’re still connected,” the teacher says with a touch of irony.

Lise Galevielle tries to offer her students a broad understanding of digital topics—from presenting on the ENT to learning about fake news, for example.

“We try to cover as many digital-related topics as we can, and it’s not always easy in our mixed-grade classrooms. We give them a few pointers; we plant small seeds and hope they’ll grow—but parents need to be involved too, because learning how to use a phone or access the internet doesn’t happen on its own,” she adds.

She also believes that the fact this learning comes from the school and the teacher gives it more impact than if it were coming just from the parents.

“At least, that’s what we hope,” she concludes.