Texting In Its Place
Topic: E-Communication

Last Sunday's newspapers contained two interesting stories about students and texting. The first, "Teen Texting Expert Insists on Being Perfect," appeared in the Washington Post. LG Electronics recently sponsored a national texting contest, and 14 year-old William Glass III was a finalist. Nothing remarkable about that until you learn that Glass refuses to use text-speak. He spells out every word and even uses proper punctuation!

Glass clinched a regional championship, but lost the national contest. That's okay. It's great to know that texting doesn't have to preclude spelling and punctuation. And--he had a great time!

The second article, THX 4 THE GR8 INTRVU! appeared in the Seattle Times. Apparently some of what we've taught kids about being polite has penetrated. High school and college students are remembering to send thank you notes after an interview. Unfortunately, instead of using traditional pen and ink, or even less traditional, but still acceptable formal email, interviewees are texting their appreciation and potential employers don't like it. Why? They say the practice "hints at immaturity and questionable judgment."

Employers also don't want to be 'friended' by interviewees. When one job candidate found the interviewer's personal Facebook page and invited her to be his friend, her reaction was extremely negative. "I'm not his friend. I'm not even his employer. I was somebody who just interviewed him. They call is social networking for a reason."

Seems to me both these articles would make a great foundation for life and career skills lessons on separating personal and professional use of technology.  

 

Technorati Tags: texting students, Washington Post, Seattle Times, school administrators, Susan Brooks-Young

 

 

Mastering your Email (Instead of the Other Way Around!)
Topic: E-Communication

I often hear from administrators that one of the most exhausting aspects of the job today is the expectation that they will be available 24/7.  And, when asked to identify the problematic forms of communication, email is high on the list of culprits.

I am completely sympathetic about this particular issue and always advise doing what they can to reign in the email monster, along with one or two suggestions.

A post today on lifehacker gives a series of really good suggestions. They target business people, but will work well for administrators as well. For example, set rules about email-to-phone call escalation (when one topic generates four emails, pick up the phone) or stop using your email box as a to-do list. Hmmmm...gues I need to heed that one! Here's the link. 

Technorati Tags:email, lifehacker, school administrators, Susan Brooks-Young

The Davos Question
Topic: E-Communication

The World Economic Forum is being held this week in Davos. Switzerland. This year, prior to the conference, everyone in the world was invited to respond to this question:

"What one thing do you think that countries, companies, or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?" 

The responses are available at this link (on YouTube). Viewers were also invited to rank the responses posted and the highest-ranked videos were viewed and commented upon by world leaders while they attended the conference.

I haven't completely wrapped my head around this, but am thinking that educators can, and should, be capitalizing on this kind of use of YouTube and other Web 2.0 apps... 

 

Technorati Tags: Davos Question, World Economic Council, school administrators, Susan Brooks-Young

 

BSF, GOI! (translation below*, if needed)
Topic: E-Communication

*But seriously, folks, get over it!

USA Today just ran another article about text messaging and the demise of civilization as we know it because students regularly try to slip text acronyms into writing assignments.

I guess I'm having difficulty understanding why teachers aren't comfortable just telling students that there's a time and a place for texting and a time and a place for conventional written language and then sticking to it by refusing to accept papers that cross the line or by dropping the grade. Kids do understand consequences and will respond accordingly (I think).

But this particular topic rears its ugly head on a fairly regular basis, so maybe the solution isn't as simple as I think. What am I missing?

 Technorati Tags: USA Today, school administrators, Susan Brooks-Young, text messaging

New Online Knowledge Sharing Community
Topic: E-Communication
ePals recently launched a new site for K-12 educators called Ask ePals. This free online community is open to educators around the world and provides a place for members to find resources, content, advice, and more by posting questions and sharing information. Might be a good introduction to online communities for administrators and teachers who are interested, but not ready to tackle a full-blown social network.

 

 

Technorati Tags: AskePals, school administrators, Susan Brooks-Young, online communities

Friedman Says: We're all public figures now, so behave yourself
Topic: E-Communication

I think I'm in danger of dropping into Pollyanna mode again, but here goes anyway!

I've been reading posts from multiple bloggers since returning from NECC. Many have been interesting and thought provoking, even when I didn't necessarily agree with the author's point of view. But a troubling number (in my thinking) have been mean-spirited, snide, and self-serving. I don't think that people need to agree with everything they read or hear, but I do think they need to be professional about the way they phrase what they post. I wasn't the target of any of these, so I don't think I'm being overly defensive. By the same token, my heart does go out to people who were on the receiving end of some of these comments.

Then yesterday I read Thomas Friedman's opinion piece from June 28 entitled "We're all public figures now, so behave yourself." He writes:

"When everyone has a blog, a MySpace page or Facebook entry, everyone is a publisher. When everyone has a cell phone with a camera in it, everyone is a paparazzo. When everyone can upload video on YouTube, everyone is a filmmaker. When everyone is a publisher, paparazzo or filmmaker, everyone else is a public figure. We're all public figures now."

Friedman also references a book written by Dov Seidman called "How: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything...In Business and In Life." Apparently, Seidman argues that in our increasing transparent world, where mistakes are much less easily forgiven than in the past, how individuals conduct their lives is of utmost importance. In other words, the people who succeed will be those who are able to build trust, work well collaboratively, lead well, and apologize when they make mistakes.

Seems that these are skills we need to teach both our students and ourselves. Going back to my original concern stated at the start of this post... educators who use blogs to make points for themselves at the expense of others may want to rethink this approach. Not only is this poor modeling for students, but this mean-spirited writing may come back to haunt you one day. 

 

Technorati Tags: Thomas Friedman, school administrators, Susan Brooks-Young, NECC07, Dov Seidman

 

 

 

Webtools for Educators Wiki
Topic: E-Communication

I'll be using the Webtools for Educators wiki at a couple of conferences during the first two weeks of June. If you haven't visited the wiki in a while, there are a number of additions, both tools and examples. Check it out!

Also, as you're looking, if you notice that I've left out something, please feel free to add it. Helpful comments and feedback on existing resources are also welcome. The password is webtools.

Looking forward to any and all contributions!

Technorati Tags: Webtools for Educators, school administrators, Susan Brooks-Young

Education Blogosphere Survey
Topic: E-Communication

Scott McLeod (Dangerously Irrelevant) is conducting an online survey of the education blogosphere. If you're interested in participating, here's the info from the post on his blog. 

 

All education bloggers are hereby invited and encouraged to...

1. complete the short and completely unscientific, but hopefully interesting, education blogosphere survey;
2. forward the URL of said survey to all other known education bloggers to ensure decent representation of the education blogosphere; and
3. publicize said survey URL on their own blogs to foster greater participation in this most noble endeavor.

Survey results received by Sunday, January 14, shall be posted in the town square on Wednesday, January 17.

Technorati Tags: blogging, mcleod, survey, technology leadership, Susan Brooks-Young

Opportunity to Shape Policy in Another Country
Topic: E-Communication

You have a real opportunity to help shape policy in another country. I have a colleague who works for the Ministry of Education in another nation where they are going to institute school program self-review in the very near future.

He has asked me about how this is done in the U.S. (to avoid reinventing the wheel). As I answered his questions, it occurred to me that he was getting a limited (one-person) point of view. So I asked him if I could post his questions on a wiki and solicit ideas from other educators (not necessarily limited to the U.S.). He said yes, so here goes...

Coincidentally, his query came as I was reading Chapter 4 in Wikinomics, which describes the concept of Ideagoras. An Ideagora is a Web site that is used to post questions/problems, and invite responses from experts in that field. The idea is that collective wisdom benefits both the person/organization posting the question and the contributors.

Here's the link to the EducationIdeagora. The password is idea. Please look at the questions and add your ideas.

Also, please feel free to add your own topic(s).

Finally, please share the link and password with your colleagues (e.g., post on your own blog). This is an exciting opportunity for us! 

 

Technorati tags: Wikinomics, school.administrators, initiating.school.review, ideagora, Susan Brooks-Young

 

 

I've been tagged: five things you may not know about me...
Topic: E-Communication

There's a game of virtual 'tag' happening among bloggers. Basically,someone posts five things readers may not not about him/her and then tags five more bloggers. I was tagged last by Karen Fasimpaur who, it turns out, must have grown up near where I did in Cincinnati because one of her five things was going to Reds games with her dad.

Anyway, it's kind of fun to read about other bloggers and see how far this thing goes. Here are my five things.

1. I was in the band in high school (played clarinet) and marched in the half time show at the first Pro Bowl (whoa, does that make me old or what???).

2. I was 16 when I went to college and had no clue what I wanted to do (except I was pretty sure I didn't want to teach school). So...I majored in Theater Arts. Didn't seem practical at the time, but it's served me well in a variety of jobs.

3. When I finally decided a few years later that maybe teaching wasn't such a bad idea after all, I went back to school during the day and worked as a cocktail waitress at a cowboy bar at night to pay for tuition and books. This was right when Willie and Waylon hit their stride, so the music wasn't as challenging as it might have been, and I learned a lot about how to deal with people in altered states of mind!

4. Many people know I live on a farm on an island, but fewer people know that I also have seasonal residency in Canada and live part time in Vancouver, BC.

5. Finally, a side project that I occasionally get back to work on is a series of walking tours of Baroque churches when Rome. When I read Angels and Demons, I knew every single landmark Dan Brown used in the book.

That's it for me.

Okay, here are my five tags:

 

Conn McQuinn, Jeff Allen, Chris O'Neal, Derry Lyons, Michael Simkins