My New York State School Boards Presentation

My social Network on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter...
Image by luc legay via Flickr

I presented this weekend at the annual New York State School Boards conference, held at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in Manhattan. It was a great, receptive group, although (and this happens often) a few faces were quizzical and downright skeptical. Nevertheless, there were many questions from the standing-room-only audience and I truly appreciate the interested many people have in Web 2.0 and social media.
School leaders are always a tough sell, but I’ve noticed a dramatic difference in the way everyone has become a bit more willing to suspend their disbelief about PR tools like Facebook and Twitter.
If you’d like to take a look, my presentation, Communicating in a Web 2.0 World, is available on my Slideshare page.

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5 Reasons to Love Social Media

My social Network on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter...
Image by luc legay via Flickr

Shane Haggerty, a school communications professional from Ohio, recently posted the following list on his blog, Social Avenue. I felt the need to post it here because I feel exactly the same way as he does about social media.  Thanks, Shane!

  1. New Connections: More than anything else, social media has opened up a whole new pool of connections, many of whom have become friends. While most of these connections remain on the professional level, the use of tools like Twitter and Facebook and Linkedin have been an excellent way of doing business and getting to know new people. At first, it seemed strange opening up on these tools, but choosing to “follow” like-minded professionals has been great for learning new things that I probably never would have had the chance to know before.
  2. Old Connections: Thanks especially to Facebook, Linkedin or other social networking sites (the now-irrelevant MySpace), social media has changed the way we keep in touch and has allowed us to re-connect to old friends. Some may think that’s a bad thing to re-connect with that person who may have driven you crazy in junior high, but for the most part, social media creates a sort-of “at-a-distance” re-kindling of old friendships. This is excellent if you are nosey and want to see what a disaster that person has become who used to torment you in gym class.
  3. Lightning Speed: The ability to blast messages and communicate with masses of people is made much, much faster with social media. While email is still popular, full inboxes, Spam and an abundance of e-newsletters have created an opening for social media to take advantage of, which is to send short, quick messages and then make it viral with sharing tools that allow you to pass-it-on with the click of a button.
  4. Leveling the Playing Field: Never before has a medium allowed small businesses, entrepreneurs, everyday, common people, non-profits and more market to the masses like social media has. This is one of my favorite things about it. Before, large advertising budgets of the corporate giants could quickly swallow the messages of the rest of us and celebrities controlled our attention anytime they wanted. Now, the mom-and-pop store can easily create a viral sensation on tools like YouTube and any one of us can be a “celebrity” with our own blog or large followings on Twitter and Facebook.
  5. Down Fall the Sacred Cows: Finally, I simply love it because it makes the establishment and those who love control and order nervous. Social media, because it is new and viral and real and transparent gives control to anyone, anywhere, anytime. I love anything that shakes things up and takes down existing “sacred cows.” Social media has caused people to change, and change is always a good thing.
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Presenting at NSPRA 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - JUNE 9: San Francisco Municip...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Here I am in beautiful San Francisco, where humidity has been banished forever, or so it seems, and cable cars are passing by my hotel window.

Oh yes, and this is a business trip — the annual National School Public Relations Association Conference. I will be presenting tomorrow morning on a topic near and dear to my heart — “Using Web 2.0 and Social Media to Reach Your Audience.” I’m hoping to persuade school PR people to jump on the Web 2.0 train before it’s too late!

Here’s a link to the presentation, which is now available on SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/evelynmccormack.

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Remix America Lets Us Mash Up History

I’m thoroughly impressed by so much out there on the web, but the newest addition to my “must-visit” list is Remix America, a video mashup website with an educational twist. Here’s what Remix America says about itself:

This country is a remix, it’s what we do. What did Jefferson and Paine and Adams do but mashup history, take a little from the Magna Carta, a little from John Locke, and a whole lot of rebellion. Now, thanks to the web and digital technology, everyone can join in. This is a unique moment in our history — We can rediscover the promise of the Declaration of Independence next to the music of Louis Armstrong next to the beats of the Beastie Boys and clips of our candidates talking about “Changes.” Every one of us can own our best expressions of liberty, democracy and freedom, remix them as they see fit, and share them with the world.

RemixAmerica.org is a multi-partisan, non-profit website that uses digital technology to give everyone the chance to own the words, the music, the images and sounds of America in digital form; to remix those expressions and ideas with their own; and to send the products of our community’s creativity out to the world… where others will come back to us and start it all over again…

Basically, Remix America, the brainchild of producer/philanthropist Norman Lear, wants to “change the National conversation” by offering a long list of historical videos, “America Then,” with a long list of more current videos, “America Now,” and offers anyone with the skills to use bits and pieces of those videos to create their own mashups that say something about this good country of ours. This is a must for classrooms, professors, teachers and technology directors. There’s a lesson around every corner on this website. Here’s just a sample, a remix from member WreckandSalvage. It’s a mashup of two months’ worth of Good Morning America snippets that somehow is an interesting take in the state or our country, the media and more:
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsfree video player

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OneDayU: For Lifelong Learners

I love to learn new stuff as an adult, most likely due to a misspent youth. As an undergraduate college student, I knew where the pool tables were located. Let’s just leave it at that.

If you’re like me, trying to make up for lost time, or if you just love to learn new things, check out OneDayU, an organization (or company) that’s offering one-day workshops and seminars on a variety of topics.

Here’s what they say:

We’ve gathered the country’s brightest professors from the world’s finest universities to create the most stimulating day of college available anywhere. Our class lineup lets you partake in the latest thinking on world affairs, science, politics, history, art, literature, and more—and you don’t need to spend $45,000 an academic year to enjoy it! At One Day University there are no entrance exams, no SATs to ace, and no stress. It’s just live classes taught by the most sought-after professors from America’s most prestigious schools.

Here’s a sampling of what they offer:

– On May 17, a one-day class with Will Shortz (he of the New York Times Crossword Puzzle), who will lead a two-hour live and interactive discussion in Manhattan, explaining how he creates his famous New York Times crossword puzzles, and highlighting some of the special “insider” tricks and tips you can use to solve the hard ones.

– On May 9, a series of professors will do a day-long event that will include Kenneth Miller of Brown University on “Science: God vs. Darwin — America’s Continuing Problem with Evolution,Richard Pious of Barnard/Columbia University on “History: Lincoln’s Constitutional Dictatorship & Lessons for Today, Paul Bracken of Yale University on “Foreign Affairs: The Global Economic Crisis — the U.S. in a Volatile World, and Sherwin Nuland of Yale, on “The Genius of Leonardo da Vinci.”

Although those two events happen to be taking place near me, in New York City, OneDayU holds sessions in Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other locations.

Check out the website and sign up for lifelong learning.

Nings as Social Networks

Image representing Ning as depicted in CrunchBaseImage via CrunchBase

I know that I’ve written about Nings for educators before, but I was recently asked by the National School PR Association to write a description of how Nings can be useful for anyone as a tool for social networking. The key thing to remember about using Ning as a social network platform (for adults) is that it’s NOT Facebook or MySpace. Although I have a fairly active Facebook page for professional and personal use, adults I speak to often cringe at the mere thought of creating a Facebook account.

So Nings are friendly, but generally free of rock music downloads, college drinking photos and references to “Jackass” and “The Real World.”

Here’s my description of how Nings can be used by thoughtful adults, along with links to several to which I can claim membership:

Using a Ning to Build a Network

Nings have become an increasingly popular way to network with other people and groups who share similar interests with you and your school district. Ning currently hosts more than 500,000 networks on the web, and that number is growing.

Ning provides free, easy-to-navigate online software that allows you to create a social networking website available to a larger group of members. Once created, it can be used as a platform for sharing best practices, links, photos, videos and other information. Generally, the success of a Ning depends entirely on its members and how they use it.

Here are a few examples of how you can use a Ning:

Nings can be used for small niche networks (teachers within a department, for example) or in a larger way (national or state public relations professionals).You can set the privacy level, restricting membership by invitation only or keeping it open to anyone who wants to join. Free Ning tools include discussion forums, chats, video sharing, photo sharing, link sharing, and more. You can also set the frequency with which you’ll receive updates from your Ning groups.

The Ning Premium service, at $19.95 a month, allows you to point your Ning to a domain name and to add or delete advertising, among other details. But the free service fits most groups well. You can also choose the domain name option for $4.95 a month.

Here in the Hudson Valley region of New York, we have created a group Ning for school public relations professionals, where we can share best practices and put our collective brain trust together on such topics as the local press, school budget challenges, and upcoming meetings. We have also created several subgroups within the Ning, including one on using technology.

Here are links to the Hudson Valley PR Ning and other sample Nings on the web:

Classroom 2.0 (A professional development Ning for teachers with 18,000 members)

http://www.classroom20.com/

PR Open Mic (A Ning for PR students, faculty members and practitioners with 4,100 members.

http://www.propenmic.org/

The Hurricane Information Center (a Ning for individuals interested in hurricane updates, with 700 members)

http://gustav08.ning.com/

The HudSPRA Network (A newly created Ning created for school PR professionals in the NY Hudson Valley region.)

http://hudspra.ning.com/ (We might be creating a new domain name for this site, so if this link doesn’t work, try http://www.hudspra.org.)

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David Jakes, EdTech Guy

I just love this guy, and because I’m preparing my own workshops for educators in Dutchess County, NY, and for school PR folks at the National School PR Association conference, I’ve been trolling the Web for great Web 2.0 presentations. Jakes never fails to amaze me — he has dozens of great presentations posted on his website and I’d like to share one with you. Enjoy. I might post Jakes’ presentations here now and then — hope he doesn’t mind!

 

TCEA Best Practice
View more presentations from djakes. (tags: bestpractice djakes)

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Learn More About the Inauguration

Gosh, the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama has been a major topic of conversation everywhere — in my office, at home, on line in my local Stop & Shop. Seriously.

So why not jump on the Inauguration learning curve with me and research both this Inauguration and the history of U.S. Inauguration ceremonies? Thanks to the Web, you can learn more than imaginable. Here’s a list that’s by no means exhaustive, but might help in your quest for lifelong learning. It’s also a great list for teachers yearning to make this landmark event a teachable moment.

1. The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies: This is the official site for information related to the inauguration. The Joint Congressional site features slideshows of previous inaugurals, a look at all the inauguration day events (morning worship service, swearing in, parade, etc), and inauguration trivia. You can also watch the progress on construction of the platform for the inaugural ceremony.

2. The Smithsonian Presidential Inaugural Photographs website provides you with online photo portfolios of previous Presidential Inaugurals.

3. Check out the Obama/Biden Inauguration website, which provides loads of great information, including an Inaugural Schedule, a timeline of the day’s activities for the new president; an Inaugural blog, updates and news, and a live video of the Neighborhood Ball event.

4. Steep yourself in inauguration history at PBS’s Inauguration website, which focuses on the history of the Presidential Inauguration. You can learn about past Presidents and notable Inauguration events from the Library of Congress, read the Inaugural Addresses of our past Presidents, look at Presidential portraits, and more.

5. Take a look at the Presidential Inauguration Committee’s photostream on Flickr. This is a great resource for anyone wanting to know how things are progressing in D.C. and can’t make the real event. That would be me, folks!

6. If you’re a sucker for memorabilia, try visiting the Official Inauguration Store website, where you can scoop up buttons, T-shirts, artwork, clothing, kids’ items and more. Then again, if you do a search on eBay for “inauguration,” more than 2,300 items will turn up. Happy hunting!

Enjoy the Inauguration, even from afar.

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A Long Break and Brain Mush

Call it holiday bliss, call it writer’s block, call it whatever you like. But a month-long vacation from this blog has been psychically healthy, financially disastrous, and a boon to my free time.

Still, I walked around New York City; Wilmington, NC; and other places I visited during the holidays with a guilty conscience. What about the blog? What about the blog?

Suffice it to say, School Communications 2.0 fell by the wayside while I scrambled through department stores looking for gifts, did the annual Yankee Swap with my work colleagues, decorated the tree, baked pecan pies and red velvet cupcakes, entertained friends and family, drove to North Carolina, and soaked in quality time with my college kids and my extended family.

There were several highlights during this break, a few of them bordering on the surreal:

I joined with the townspeople of Kure Beach, NC, as they gathered together on New Year’s Eve to welcome 2009 with the annual dropping of “the lighted beach ball. ”

I toured a gorgeous home in Wimington that whispered “retirement,” “golf and tennis,” and “quality of life” into my all-too-eager ears.

I wrote a piece about tracking Santa Claus on Google Earth.

I ran out to buy “just one more thing” for my kids at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve and was the only person in the store. Then I walked out empty-handed.

I played Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture with my kids, and came in last.

I did virtually no work for two weeks.

But alas, all good things must end. The vacation is a distant memory already. And I’ve returned to the thinking, working world. My body has, anyway.

So yes, my next post will return to the subject of education and technology — I promise. That is, if my brain hasn’t turned to mush from inactivity.

Nominate Little Old Me!

I know I’m just a pre-teen in the Edublogs bloggers’ universe of seasoned pros, but I think School Communications 2.0 has been around long enough to get a few measly nominations to the Edublog Bloggers’ Awards. So think about it, would you?

The nomination process is relatively simple. You just go to this site and fill out the form. The only catch? You have to have a blog to nominate, because you have to write a post about the contest and link to the Edublogs contest page.

But beyond that, you simply have to contact Edublogs and list the name of my blog. That’s it!

I may not win, but at least I’ll get to dance the Pasa Doble.

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