anything new to create?

May 14, 2012 in Teaching Tips with 0 Comments

Jonathan Fields, of the blog Tribal Marketing, asks the question,

“How do I make a mark when it seems everything that can be created, said or done has been created, said or done by someone else?”

The answer:

No field is too crowded to make a mark when you’re remarkable.

We’ve seen this to be true in many crowded fields. From music to iPhone apps. From sports to school innovation.

Just when it seems like it has all been done before, there comes along…

Karmin

Pinterest

Jeremy Lin

Salman Khan

So what about you?

What about the industry you are in?

How could you be remarkable today?

Collect info from visitors on your website

May 7, 2012 in Social Media with 0 Comments

Websites are increasingly becoming places to collect information from your visitors. You can passively collect visitor information by using Web analytics, and you can actively collect information using online forms and surveys.

A content management system such as WordPress has a built in dashboard, or administrative panel, that automatically tracks data on your website visitors (see picture). Through the dashboard, you are able to access website visitor statistics including

  • The total number of overall website views
  • The total number of unique visitors to your website
  • Which pages are the most popular
  • Which links were clicked the most

 

 

 

 

 

All of these data help you design a website that better meets the needs of your audience. The goal is to take information that is frequently accessed and put it in a more obvious place to make sure that your community is able to find and use that information easily.

QR codes are here to stay

March 10, 2012 in Social Media with 0 Comments

Now at #SXSW for my second year, I’ve seen QR codes everywhere.

In fact, we are about to put a QR code on our school building.

Check out this awesome mockup:

 

I looks like QR codes are here to stay. But, so many people don’t know what they are or how to use them. So here is a bit of a primer.

1. QR codes stand for quick reference. They allow you to use your phone to scan the code and instantly access any information, whether a website, contact info, map, secret code, etc.

2. QR codes make typing long web addresses or remembering contact information moot. You simply scan the code and have access to that data.

3. QR codes are accessible. You can put them on anything to reference more information. Gone are the days of long pieces of text or bullet points in advertisements. Pique their interest and invite them to scan your qr code.

4. QR codes are easy to create. You can use a tool like Bitly to create your own qr code for free.

5. QR codes are fun. It can be like a game to create and scan a qr code. You never know where you might end up, and that is part of the intrigue.

Debbie Russel at has a great write-up on some interesting suggestions of how to use qr codes in business. Check it out here.

Here’s a quote from her blog about the current use of QR codes:

Using the right apps, a person can set up their smartphone with their banking information, location, and product search preferences. Now when that same woman finds a sweater she likes in a magazine, she can scan the accompanying QR code and have it shipped to her home with just a few clicks.

So how might educators use QR codes?

 

Adding Video to your LinkedIn profile

February 23, 2012 in Social Media with 0 Comments

LinkedIn has many applications you can choose from to further customize your LinkedIn presence. These applications help your profile move from a static online resume to an interactive multimedia portfolio of your best work. There are applications for sharing recent blog posts, presentations and videos, and even your reading list.

Both Slideshare and Google Docs allow you to share PowerPoint-like presentations on your profile with visitors. Slideshare has many sharing features built in, including number of views, full screen mode, sharing, and commenting. Their full site, slideshare.net, allows you to upload PowerPoint presentations, customize slides, and add narration. The Google Docs application goes one step further, allowing you to embed YouTube videos into your presentations. Currently, this is one of the only ways to add video to your LinkedIn profile, which can help your profile really stand out.

How to Monitor Student Activity on Facebook

January 29, 2012 in Internet Safety with 0 Comments

To help combat cyber bullying, consider monitoring student activity on Facebook. Privacy settings on Facebook profiles make it difficult for school leaders to see negative comments posted by students, but there are still ways to monitor students’ Facebook accounts. First, you can empower a group of students to be your school’s “online safety monitors.” When dramatic situations, such as bullying or threats of a fight, are posted on Facebook, these students report the threat to school officials, who are able to contact parents and handle the situation immediately. A second way to monitor student activity online is to create a personal Facebook account to friend students on Facebook. There are two ways to do this:

 

Create a Facebook Profile for the School Mascot. A Facebook profile is a personal Facebook account of an individual person. In order to view users’ profiles, you’ll need to be friends with them on Facebook. One way school leaders have done this is by creating personal accounts as school mascots. We created a Facebook profile for “Megabyte,” the Mentorship Academy mascot. Megabyte’s account is able to friend students, and since Megabyte isn’t an authority figure, students are likely to accept his friend requests. All administrators have access to the Megabyte account and can use this account when researching incidents that inevitably occur on Facebook.

 

Use your own Personal Facebook Account. A second way to see student activity on Facebook is for administrators to use their own personal Facebook account. There are examples of school administrators who have blurred the line between school life and home life and have made their personal Facebook accounts open to their school communities. It is important to be able to research bullying that occurs online, especially when it impacts your school community. By being Facebook friends with students and parents, you can see what they’ve posted on Facebook.

Becoming aware of what students already know can help you be more “in tune” with issues impacting your school community.

How to market to me

January 16, 2012 in Life and Work with 0 Comments

Today I received an unsolicited email trying to sell me Toshiba computers. Although I am a “Mac Guy”, we actually bought Toshiba computers for all of our teachers this year. In the next few months, we’ll need to buy another 10 or so for our new staff who will be joining us over the summer. So I am THE PERFECT CUSTOMER for this email. But this email really hit a nerve. Instead of just blasting the sender, I thought I’d also include a few tips for how to market to me. But before I share the how to’s, let me share the how not to’s:
1. Undisclosed recipients. 
The sender could have used a program like Mailchimp or ConstantContact to personalize the message to me. Instead she just blind carbon copied everyone. (Likely the statewide principal list). This may have saved her a bit of time, but it screams SPAM, as the message could have been sent to thousands of people (which is very likely).
2. Poor grammar.
If you are going to send a message to a thousand potential clients, check it over. Read it twice. Print it out and read it again. Have someone else go over it. Mistakes in the first sentence (as was the case here) is a great reason to press the delete key.
3. No unsubscribe link.
Since it was clear that this was a commercial message, there is very clear law to follow, which she did not. Here’s the link:
http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business One of the rules is that there is an unsubscribe link. Say, for example, that I am not the person who makes computer buying decisions. I should be able to click a button and no longer receive these messages.
Now here is what works when you are trying to sell me something. I know these tactics work because they have been used to sell me products or programs over the last 30 days.
1. Referrals from friends and colleagues
The best way to sell me anything is to have someone I know and trust recommend it to me. When my buddy Jared Loftus recommended I check out a recent deal from App Sumo on building your small business they had my attention.
2. Great reviews from bloggers and sites I trust
When a product is featured on TechCrunch or on Tim Ferriss’ blog, it is likely to get my attention. This is how I bought my Vibram shoes and Lytro Camera
3. Build a relationship with me
If you can’t get recommended by one of my friends or be featured on a blog I read, the next step is to build a relationship with me. A recent example is my new friend Ryan Sides who first friended me on LinkedIn with a very nice intro message. He took the time to get to know me before talking about his social media consulting business. Although we haven’t worked together officially yet (building relationships takes time), I refer people to him frequently, just because of his approach.
I know that all of this sounds like hard work, but that’s how we need to approach marketing our products and services these days. It’s all about relationships.
Whatever term you use, it’s the way to get me to buy your stuff.

225 magazine people to watch

January 3, 2012 in Teaching Tips with 0 Comments

At the start of the year last August, students at Mentorship Academy met for classes at LSU. “Start at college, end at college,” was the message executive director Brian Dixon was sending to his ninth- and 10th-graders.

Dixon began the school two years ago at the corner of Fourth and Florida streets downtown as a Type 1 charter school focused on technology and projects. Students have a choice of two technological directions: the digital arts, including creative filmmaking, website creation, graphic design and computer programming, or science, including engineering, chemistry and math. Projects trump lectures, says Dixon, because they foster critical thinking, problem solving and team building.

The son of a clergyman, Dixon grew up “all over,” living in California for seven years before he came to Baton Rouge. His original ambition of becoming a rock star morphed into sharing his creativity with kids. He spent eight years teaching English, theater arts, filmmaking and digital production, authored The Innovative School Leader’s Guide to Social Media, and still runs a website devoted to helping small businesses with social media marketing. brianjdixon.com —M.H.

Waking up on the app side of the bed

December 19, 2011 in Life and Work with 0 Comments

Most school leaders wake up between 4:30 and 5:30 to get ready for a school day that starts at 7am. Waking up groggy and tired is something that every school leader struggles with; and often educators welcome any advice for better waking and managing sleep. Well, there is an app for that!

SleepCycle is a smart alarm clock that measures your movement throughout the night. There is a correlation between your movement and your state of consciousness. Most alarm clocks are set for a specific time. People who wake up at 5:15 every day find that on one day they’re wide awake at 5:15, and on another day they’re very groggy. Without getting too far into the science, the basic reason for this is that on days that you feel awake, the 5:15 is at the end of your 30-minute sleep cycle. The days that you are feeling groggy, you are being awoken in the middle of your sleep cycle, out of deep sleep.

The SleepCycle app measures your sleep cycle and intelligently wakes you up when you are most awake. Simple choose a 30-minute window to wake up, with the absolutely latest time as the highest number.

For example, if you traditionally wake up at 5:15 but don’t mind waking up at 5:30, set the alarm for 5:00 to 5:30.  SleepCycle will measure your movement and wake you up at the optimal time during that 30-minute window. One day you will wake up at 5:25, and one day you will wake up at 5:03. I have used SleepCycle for over a year, and I always wake up energized and refreshed. Often, I open my eyes, look around, wonder “What time is it?” – and that’s when the alarm goes off. SleepCycle knows when I am awake (based on movement) and intelligently wakes me up.

Waking up rested and ready for your day can make a dramatic impact on your outlook. Your attitude and behavior towards colleagues will set the tone for your school. This one app alone could completely change the attitude and behavior of your entire faculty. When you are positive and alert, you inspire others to be the same.

The next step for Kinect

November 15, 2011 in Teaching Tips with 0 Comments

Code Space — the next extracurricular activity for the gaming controller which sees it teaming up with smartphones and laptops to present information on a shared screen. — This could be revolutionary when it comes to classroom presentations. If we are to finally “Think Beyond the Ban“- how might we use mobile tech to share student created presentations? This could be a first step.

Following models, engaging mentors through Twitter

October 27, 2011 in Social Media with 0 Comments

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library

One way to use Twitter with students is to have them follow five luminaries in the field of their choice in the local area.  If, for example, Janie wants to be a veterinarian, Janie should follow five veterinarians.  Perhaps she even makes a Janie vet account on Twitter specifically for these conversations.  Her assignment is simply to check Twitter once every few days, read the tweets of the mentors, respond when appropriate, and ask intelligent questions.  By showing that you have done your homework and are willing to work hard, students make an impression on the professionals and are much more likely to win scholarships, build relationships, and get connected to others in the field.  This takes work and effort but can be well worth it.  Twitter is still, for the most part, an unfiltered communication tool, with the actual experts checking their own account.  Gaining direct access to notables in the field is a rare commodity these days, so students should be encouraged to use this direct access wisely.  A student who wants to be a news reporter can follow five local reporters and comment on their stories, send them article ideas, and post links to their own stories from their own local newspaper.  These posts may gain some traction with the local reporter who might be thinking of doing a special interest piece.  The possibilities are endless.

 

 

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