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.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

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.
Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Issuu – An Awesome App for Publications

In preparing for a presentation next week, I was trolling around for some interesting new Web 2.0 applications designed specifically around publishing and publications.

I stumbled upon Issuu (pronounced “Issue”, and tried it out. This free website makes it possible for you to download any publication you’ve created from your hard drive, which Issuu then displays on your homepage and turns your clunky PDF publication into an interactive digital publication. You can zoom in, use the right and left arrows to turn pages, and view your publication in a variety of ways.

What’s more, you can use Issuu as a library, storing all your publications and adding favorites from a growing library of other publications, all categorized by interest. The best part of using Issuu is the fact that once your publication is converted, you can then post or embed your publication anywhere online, including on your blog, website, Facebook, MySpace, etc. Issuu also provfides viewer statistics about your publication.

To test it out, I uploaded a recent Budget Book my office created, which now lives on the shelves in my Issuu library but also has been embedded on our organization’s website. Issuu provides you with detailed how-to videos as well.

This is an awesome app that I intend to use frequently.

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)

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Visit Ancient Rome via Google Earth

Ah, Google Earth. One of my favorite distractions, along with Trio, a little game I installed on my iGoogle page.

Google Earth, which I once used to “fly” along the southern Italian coastline with my son, has unveiled the remarkable Google Earth view of Ancient Rome. The three-dimensional simulation painstakingly reconstructs some 7,000 buildings of ancient Rome, including the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Circus Maximus.

The program also hosts a new layer that allows you to see how Rome might have looked in A.D. 320, a city of about 1 million people under Emperor Constantine. Ingenious pop-up windows provide information about all the monuments, and you can “enter” some of the sites, including the Senate and the Colosseum, to study the architecture and marble decorations.

Bernard Frischer, who heads Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, told eSchoolNews that experts worked for about a decade to reconstruct ancient Rome within its 13-mile-long walls. Now Googler Earth Rome can be used for broader educational purposes and Google is sponsoring a competition for U.S. teachers, offering prizes for outstanding curriculum using the new tool. Here’s the video introduction about Google Earth Rome:

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Teaching Around the Firewall

Edutopia recently explored how teachers have gradually found ways to teach around the firewall in “Stumbling Blocks: Playing It Too Safe Online Will Make You Sorry.” How do teachers teach in school districts that block Facebook, Twitter, and many Web 2.0 applications that can enrich learning and encourage lively, hands-on learning?

When I present to school districts about Web 2.0 tools and technology, I often run afoul of the firewall in a given school district and can’t use the system to display these tools.

So how are teachers working around overprotective content filters to use Web 2.0 tools in the classroom?

Edutopia’s piece, written by Suzie Boss, advocates four steps teachers can take to teach in spite of the system:

1. Befriend the keymaster

2. Innovate in Safe Places

3. Teach Good Digital Citizenship

4. Advocate for Access

Here’s what Antero Garcia, a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School System, says about putting up walls to keep Web 2.0 out of the classroom:

“Sooner or later someone is going to expect my students to be able to quickly and effortlessly post to a blog, add to a wiki, or collaborate via some sort of social-networking protocol. And once again, my school will have failed to prepare them for such a task.”

Word to the wise.

Are You a Tech-Savvy Superintendent?

Title page to Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning...

Image via Wikipedia

eSchool News has just announced its Call for Nominations to its 2009 Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards.

Here’s the announcement fresh from the eSchool News presses:

Does your superintendent “get it” when it comes to technology? Does he or she demonstrate exemplary vision for the use of technology to improve all facets of education—and show outstanding leadership in working to make this vision a reality?

If so, then help us recognize these accomplishments by nominating your district’s chief executive for eSchool News’ ninth annual Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards.

Nominees, who must be general superintendents of a K-12 school system, will be judged according to the criteria below. Ten national finalists will be chosen by the editors of eSchool News in consultation with last year’s winners. The 2009 winners will be honored in a ceremony held at the same time as the American Association of School Administrators annual conference in San Francisco and in the February 2009 issue of eSchool News.

Here are the criteria used by the judges:

Ten “Hallmarks of Excellence” for the eSchool News Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards

1. Must be a general superintendent.

2. Models the effective use of technology in the day-to-day execution of the superintendency.

3. Ensures that technology resources are equitably distributed among students and staff.

4. Insists that adequate professional development is a component of every technology initiative.

5. Demonstrates exceptional vision in leading the development and implementation of a districtwide technology plan.

6. Exhibits a thorough understanding of the role of technology in education and can articulate that understanding to all school district stakeholders.

7. Provides exceptional leadership in supporting the integration of technology into the curriculum.

8. Demonstrates exceptional vision in employing technology to streamline school district business operations.

9. Demonstrates curiosity and open-mindedness in considering emerging technologies and weighing non-traditional solutions to traditional problems.

10. Thinks creatively and strategically about the long-term challenges and opportunities of technology in the school district and in education at large.

Hurry and get those nominations in, because the deadline is Sunday, Nov. 30. Apply at this link.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Nings for Educators

I have recently discovered Nings, social networking sites for people of similar interests. You can see a few of my Ning memberships in my sidebar — the Website Owner Zone, Twitter GoGetters, etc. Nings are great platforms for communicating with other people who share your passions, to share links to great sites, to announce events and conferences, and more. You can also start your own blog on these Nings, or cross-post from your blog to the Ning for others to read.

Each of these social networks was created by someone who signed up for an account on Ning, created a network, and then invited in friends, colleagues, and/or students to interact around specific educational topics.

There are dozens of Nings out there for educators, so I thought I’d share a few with you and encourage you to explore them and think about joining. You can get email updates once you become a member and it’s a useful way to share best practices in education.

1. The Global Education Collaborative

This is an online community for teachers and students who are interested in joining global education projects. With more than 800 members, the site encourages users to post media, blogs, and ideas for advancing collaborative education worldwide. Some of the groups-within-the-group include “Global Awareness Curriculum,” “Student-Driven Podcasts,” and “Primary Teachers Collaborating.”

2. Classroom 2.0

This is a social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education.
“Beginners” are encouraged to become “part of the digital dialog”. This is a very active Ning, with more than 13,000 members and lots of resources designed for digitally savvy teachers and administrators.

3. School 2.0

This Ning describes its purpose as “a larger discussion of how education, learning, and our physical school spaces can (or should) change because of the changing nature of our social and economic lives brought on by these technologies.” There is also a wiki associated with the site, which you can find at www.School20.net.

4. Independent School Educators Network

This 1,200-member network shares tips and share best practices in classroom technology. It also has a list-serv you can subscribe to at ISED list-serv, the SchoolComputing Wiki, an ISE group on Flickr, and join in the conversation at EdTechTalk.com.

5. Ning in Education

A general education Ning with more than 2,000 members. If you’re looking for a place to share general information, tips and to seek out advice, this is the place to go.

6. Coming of Age

This site was established to enable people to meet and discuss “Coming of Age: An Introduction to the NEW Worldwide Web,” an ebook about blogging, podcasting, and other applications, and how they can be used in the classroom. You can also get your free copy of the eBook at this Ning site.

7. Smart Board Revolution

An example of how specific Ning groups can be. This 500-member community shares best practices, tips, ideas and lesson plans on using interactive whiteboards in the classroom. A great idea.

8. Teachers 2.0

This Ning of more than 200 members who help one another to learn and use technology tools ranging from PowerPoint to Web 2.0.

The good news is that if you haven’t found a Ning to your exact liking, you can start one of your own. And Ning has recently launched an ad-free platform specifically for educators.

Here’s a very tool video about setting up a Ning, geared specifically for educators, from falconphysics on YouTube:

Follow Along as the World Votes

twitter vote report

Image by cambodia4kidsorg via Flickr

OK, if this isn’t a teachable moment, I don’t know what is.

Another giant in the social media world, Twitter, will be making Election Day instantaneously more interesting for anyone who wants to follow along as-it-happens or wants to keep a wary eye on the day’s voting operations.

Calling all teachers! What a great lesson for high school students on Tuesday.  Log on and watch the action.

Specifically, Twitter has created  Twitter Vote Report to assemble reactions and reports from Twitter users, whether they’re standing on a long line to vote, watching TV reports, or experiencing something unusual at the polls. You can use the Twitter “hashtag” #votereport for tracking tweets and to participate.

You can also do any one of the following, according to Twitter:

If you currently use Twitter, send a message after you vote that begins with #votereport (this is critically important for ensuring that your message gets to the right place.) Then write some or all of the following:

#[zip code] to indicate where you’re voting; ex., “#12345″

#machine for machine problems; ex., “#machine broken, using prov. ballot”

#reg for registration troubles; ex., “#reg I wasn’t on the rolls”

#wait:minutes for long lines; ex., “#wait:120 and I’m coming back later”

#good or #bad to give a quick sense of your overall experience

#EP+your state if you have a serious problem and need help from the Election Protection coalition; ex., #EPOH

If you want to use your cell phone, you can also text messages to 66937 and begin your message with #votereport.

I hope we can all report in that things were #good.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

More on Social Media, Colleges and Universities

Many thanks to Heather Mansfield of Diosa Communications for promoting my post, “Why Schools Need to Get on the Social Media Bandwagon,” on her website. You can find my post here and at PROpenMic, one of my favorite Ning social networking sites. Speaking of Ms. Mansfield, she’s a web 2.0 consultant and expert with a great site that, among other things, lists good reads on the topic of using Web 2.0 tools in education. On her higher education page, she lists Web 2.0 Articles, Blogs, and Resources for Higher Education.
She also highly recommends the use of MySpace by colleges and universities, since they’re listed there on MySpaceSchools anyway. Here are two great links she sent along:
Her MySpace Portal
Her FaceBook page
Let’s see if her hard work pays off and if colleges and universities eventually get on the Web 2.0 bandwagon.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Next Page →