Bullying today takes place in many different places. One of the hardest places to monitor is what goes on outside of the school walls, but still affects our school's community. Cyber-bullying takes place with younger and younger kids. A recent example is a YouTube video that two sixth graders put together called "Top Six Ways to Kill Piper." But Cyber-bullying happens in ways we cannot always see.
What kinds of policies does your school have in regards to cyber-bullying? How has cyber-bullying affected your school?
Articles of Interest:
Cyber-bullies post video showing six ways to kill their classmate
No charges in ‘ways to kill’ classmate YouTube video
STOP Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying.org
Monday, May 25, 2009
TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop
If you are not using an application, you should definitely consider a desktop application. It allows you to make Twitter more useful with columns that you can customize toward your needs. For instance if you wanted to see who was tweeting about your school you can set up a search about your school and it will be constantly searching within the application.
I wanted to share my experience with two twitter Desktop Applications: Seesmic Desktop and TweetDeck. Both applications are very similar in the face that they are layed out horizontally. The people you are following are in one column, there is another column for direct messages, another for Replies and so on. Both applications are great, but there are some key advantages of Seesmic for a school.
Seesmic Desktop is a great alternative and provides a couple key enhancements that would help with day to day tweeting. The first is that it allows you to monitor multiple twitter accounts, so you can deal with your personal one and your work one in one place. This saves so much time! It's also great because someone you are following on one account might have something you want to share on the other account and it's easy to do that. Another advantage of this application is that it integrates with Facebook much better than TweetDeck. It allows you to see the full message and TweetDeck cuts off the messages.
Try these applications out:
Seesmic Desktop
TweetDeck
You will need Adobe® AIR® in order to run these programs.
I wanted to share my experience with two twitter Desktop Applications: Seesmic Desktop and TweetDeck. Both applications are very similar in the face that they are layed out horizontally. The people you are following are in one column, there is another column for direct messages, another for Replies and so on. Both applications are great, but there are some key advantages of Seesmic for a school.
Seesmic Desktop is a great alternative and provides a couple key enhancements that would help with day to day tweeting. The first is that it allows you to monitor multiple twitter accounts, so you can deal with your personal one and your work one in one place. This saves so much time! It's also great because someone you are following on one account might have something you want to share on the other account and it's easy to do that. Another advantage of this application is that it integrates with Facebook much better than TweetDeck. It allows you to see the full message and TweetDeck cuts off the messages.
Try these applications out:
Seesmic Desktop
TweetDeck
You will need Adobe® AIR® in order to run these programs.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Using Social Media Tools to Listen In
Using social media is not only about creating content. It's about listening. It's important for schools or organizations to listen in on the discussions taking place online. Hearing the messages out there can help development of your schools online profile and help you figure out how your messages might transmit (even if it is something you do not begin). Listening in on the conversations taking place can help to generate content or even guide the messages we send out. You might find that there are conversations outside of your normal methods of transmission that you might want to participate.
It's important to remember that monitoring is not about controlling the messages out there, but rather about making use of what is being said. Sometimes the best marketing comes from those one-line messages such as "I miss XXX school."
Conversations may not just take place across one type of social media, but rather in six different venues. It can be overwhelming, but there are a number of tools that you can set up to search to find out what is being said and most of the tools are free.
It's important to remember that monitoring is not about controlling the messages out there, but rather about making use of what is being said. Sometimes the best marketing comes from those one-line messages such as "I miss XXX school."
Conversations may not just take place across one type of social media, but rather in six different venues. It can be overwhelming, but there are a number of tools that you can set up to search to find out what is being said and most of the tools are free.
- Free Social Media Monitoring Tools (Very Comprehensive)
- Free Social Media Monitoring Tools Blog Entry
- Social Media Monitoring Tools: 26 Free Online Reputation Tools
- 8 Essential Free Social Media Monitoring Tools
- 19 Free Social Media Tools for Your Dashboard
- Best Buzz Tracking and Social Media Monitoring Tools Comparison Table
Monday, May 18, 2009
Questions for Discussion
Does your school have a formalized marketing plan for Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs, etc.?
Do you have long-term and short term goals?
How does your plan fit into the strategic goals of the rest of the school?
Do you have long-term and short term goals?
How does your plan fit into the strategic goals of the rest of the school?
Friday, May 15, 2009
Adding Twitter to Your Facebook Fan Page
My husband has just started twittering for his school. He was trying to figure out how to get his tweets to show up on his fan page in a way that would display nicely. I had tried before, but had been unsucessful. He was definitely persistent and found a great solution.
A lot of schools have used Socializer or the RSS Feed to get their Tweets onto the Facebook. A better solution is a Facebook Application called Involver Fan Page. It automatically adds your tweets to your Facebook Fan Page under a Tab called Twitter. It even creates a link to your twitter account. I was even able to sucessfully connect the same Tweet with two different fan pages.
A lot of schools have used Socializer or the RSS Feed to get their Tweets onto the Facebook. A better solution is a Facebook Application called Involver Fan Page. It automatically adds your tweets to your Facebook Fan Page under a Tab called Twitter. It even creates a link to your twitter account. I was even able to sucessfully connect the same Tweet with two different fan pages.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
How to Unfriend People on Facebook
Over the last couple days I got a couple of people who asked about how to unfriend a person on Facebook.
The first question I always ask is why do you want to unfriend that person? Is it because you just don't want to read all of their millions of status messages? You can simply hide those messages from other people seeing them.
I ask that question because I think it's important to think about the ramifications of unfriending someone. As a school or even as a teacher, I think it is important to think about what unfriending might mean to that person. By unfriending them are you cutting off your relationship with them forever?
They do not get a notification that you are no longer friends. But they can no longer look at your profile and if they would like to request your friendship again they are unable to do that. You have to re-friend them.
If you want to limit what they see of your profile with out cutting them off, you can always limit their access to what they can see by using the limited profile or friend lists option.
How to Unfriend
If you decide to unfriend them go to the top of your screen and click on All Friends.
Next down to the friend you want to get rid of and press the X next to their name.
Resources
The first question I always ask is why do you want to unfriend that person? Is it because you just don't want to read all of their millions of status messages? You can simply hide those messages from other people seeing them.
I ask that question because I think it's important to think about the ramifications of unfriending someone. As a school or even as a teacher, I think it is important to think about what unfriending might mean to that person. By unfriending them are you cutting off your relationship with them forever?
They do not get a notification that you are no longer friends. But they can no longer look at your profile and if they would like to request your friendship again they are unable to do that. You have to re-friend them.
If you want to limit what they see of your profile with out cutting them off, you can always limit their access to what they can see by using the limited profile or friend lists option.
How to Unfriend
If you decide to unfriend them go to the top of your screen and click on All Friends.
Resources
Monday, May 11, 2009
Facebook: Hiding Messages on your Feed
Since the update of the latest Facebook design, I have seen and talked to a number of people who are frustrated and overwhelmed by the feeds.
A user experiences:
A teacher who is friends with former students was frustrated with their constant status changes and the excessive use of profanity in their status messages. She wanted to maintain the relationship with them, but didn't want to see their away messages and didn't know how to get rid of them without "un-friending" that person.
Often when individuals post to their facebook account, they do not think about who is necessarily reading on the other end. When our facebook friends post things they are not necessarily thinking about who is looking at that picture. This holds true even for a personal account. You might only intend for your friends to see you drinking or wearing an interesting outfit, but perhaps their 9 year-old son or daughter walks in while they are browsing through the pictures.
Within a school, your teachers might have similar experiences to the teacher above. Or even your school presence might have that same experience. A student who is your facebook friend might posts a picture of something you would rather not see or creates so many messages that your feed is inundated.
It's very easy to maintain that relationship, but not see their feeds.
How to Hide Feeds
Facebook Resources
A user experiences:
A teacher who is friends with former students was frustrated with their constant status changes and the excessive use of profanity in their status messages. She wanted to maintain the relationship with them, but didn't want to see their away messages and didn't know how to get rid of them without "un-friending" that person.
Often when individuals post to their facebook account, they do not think about who is necessarily reading on the other end. When our facebook friends post things they are not necessarily thinking about who is looking at that picture. This holds true even for a personal account. You might only intend for your friends to see you drinking or wearing an interesting outfit, but perhaps their 9 year-old son or daughter walks in while they are browsing through the pictures.
Within a school, your teachers might have similar experiences to the teacher above. Or even your school presence might have that same experience. A student who is your facebook friend might posts a picture of something you would rather not see or creates so many messages that your feed is inundated.
It's very easy to maintain that relationship, but not see their feeds.
How to Hide Feeds
- Take your mouse and drag it over the status message and a little button will appear that says Hide.
- Click on Hide and then Hide Person's Name.
- And then their feeds will no longer appear in your News Feeds.
- If you make a mistake or want to see who you have hidden, you can scroll to the bottom of the feed and click "Edit Options."
Facebook Resources
Questions for Discussion
Teachers are on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Linkedin, etc. Do your teacher have concerns with following the school? Do they have concerns by the school following/friending them?
What about with Parents?
What about the connections they make with students? Does your school have guidelines for how to interact with students in the digital world?
What about with Parents?
What about the connections they make with students? Does your school have guidelines for how to interact with students in the digital world?
Friday, May 8, 2009
Twitter Applications
I wanted to share a few Twitter Applications that could be used to make Twitter more interactive.
TwtPoll for adding polls to your Tweets
TwtCard For sending invitations or card to your followers
TwtVite For Creating Invitations
What is a Twitter Party?
Twitter Parties are growing in popularity. They are virtual parties where people on sign on at the same time and chat. They usually last 1-2 hours and are an opportunity for people to connect and discuss a topic. Twitter users tweet at the same time with a specific Hashtag (eg. #schoolfourm). Other users do a search for that term and join in on the conversation.
The benefit of a twitter party is that it engages followers and makes Twitter a real interactive experience.
Possible Uses in a School: Discussion with Principals/Head of School about What is Going on in School and a Forum for Questions, Class Discussions, Event Discussion, Policy Discussions
Resources
TweetDeck (MAC & PC)
What is a #Hashtag
Twitter Application List
TwtPoll for adding polls to your Tweets
TwtCard For sending invitations or card to your followers
TwtVite For Creating Invitations
What is a Twitter Party?
Twitter Parties are growing in popularity. They are virtual parties where people on sign on at the same time and chat. They usually last 1-2 hours and are an opportunity for people to connect and discuss a topic. Twitter users tweet at the same time with a specific Hashtag (eg. #schoolfourm). Other users do a search for that term and join in on the conversation.
The benefit of a twitter party is that it engages followers and makes Twitter a real interactive experience.
Possible Uses in a School: Discussion with Principals/Head of School about What is Going on in School and a Forum for Questions, Class Discussions, Event Discussion, Policy Discussions
Resources
TweetDeck (MAC & PC)
What is a #Hashtag
Twitter Application List
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Continuing with Twitter
How often should you post to Twitter?During a meeting with constituents, the general feeling was that we should make updates 3-5 times a day. On a typical day, I can probably come up with at least 2 different tweets that I haven't posted about before and then 1 or 2 more reminders that I want to post. As more people at the school learn about our Twittering, I am beginning to get more tidbits of information that I can share with the outside world?
Who should you follow?
A great idea that I saw from another school was following local papers and radio stations. I also am following several local writers. I think this is a great idea because not everything that we do at school merits a press release. But it gives the local media an idea of what we are doing and perhaps they will find something interesting that they might want to write about that we wouldn't have thought would get any coverage.
Scheduling Tweets
It's possible to schedule your tweets ahead of time and not have to worry about making sure you update every day. This is great for the the tweets that you already know about like events, important announcements, etc. And then you can fill in the extra tweets as you get inspired. Scheduling tweets is a great way to make sure you stay updated especially when you know you will be out of the office for an extended amount of time.
Here are a few places that will allow you to schedule ahead of time:
Resources
How to Set up a Twitter Account
NY Times Article: "All You Need to Know to Twitter"
Make a Tweet Plan to Get the Most from Twitter
10 Easy Tips with Twitter Beginners
6 Ways to Maximize your use of 140 Characters
10 Things Every Nonprofit Should Know About Social Media and Online Communications
Who should you follow?
A great idea that I saw from another school was following local papers and radio stations. I also am following several local writers. I think this is a great idea because not everything that we do at school merits a press release. But it gives the local media an idea of what we are doing and perhaps they will find something interesting that they might want to write about that we wouldn't have thought would get any coverage.
Scheduling Tweets
It's possible to schedule your tweets ahead of time and not have to worry about making sure you update every day. This is great for the the tweets that you already know about like events, important announcements, etc. And then you can fill in the extra tweets as you get inspired. Scheduling tweets is a great way to make sure you stay updated especially when you know you will be out of the office for an extended amount of time.
Here are a few places that will allow you to schedule ahead of time:
Resources
How to Set up a Twitter Account
NY Times Article: "All You Need to Know to Twitter"
Make a Tweet Plan to Get the Most from Twitter
10 Easy Tips with Twitter Beginners
6 Ways to Maximize your use of 140 Characters
10 Things Every Nonprofit Should Know About Social Media and Online Communications
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
What is Twitter? and Social Media Resources
Over the past four months I sat in several meetings with other independent school representatives about using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other Social Media tools. The number one question amongst most of the representatives (prodominately women ages 40-60) was "What is Twitter?" and why should I use it?
In short, Twitter is a mini-blog. In 140 characters, you can post anything you feel like. These messages are called Tweets and people who are following you (or are your friends) get updated when you post a message. In essence, it is like the status messages that people post to their e-mail, Facebook, or instant messenging accounts. It gives people a glimpse of what is going on.
How is Twitter Used?
Twitter is used to direct people to different places such as websites or news articles. It is used to give an insight into what is going on with a person or organization. It is used to make connections. Sometimes with people in a similar field or sometimes with constituents. Many companies are beginning to use it to respond to customer complaints or concerns. Twitter is used to report news. The airplane in the hudson was captured on an iPhone and posted through TwitPic and Twitter well before any of the news stations had the story. Basically, Twitter can be anything you want to make of it.
David Pogue, a columnist for the New York Times, has a good article about using Twitter that was published in January 2009.
How can Twitter be Used in Schools?
Since Twitter can be whatever you want to make it, schools use it differently. Here are some examples of how schools are using Twitter:
Twitter & Social Media Resources
In short, Twitter is a mini-blog. In 140 characters, you can post anything you feel like. These messages are called Tweets and people who are following you (or are your friends) get updated when you post a message. In essence, it is like the status messages that people post to their e-mail, Facebook, or instant messenging accounts. It gives people a glimpse of what is going on.
How is Twitter Used?
Twitter is used to direct people to different places such as websites or news articles. It is used to give an insight into what is going on with a person or organization. It is used to make connections. Sometimes with people in a similar field or sometimes with constituents. Many companies are beginning to use it to respond to customer complaints or concerns. Twitter is used to report news. The airplane in the hudson was captured on an iPhone and posted through TwitPic and Twitter well before any of the news stations had the story. Basically, Twitter can be anything you want to make of it.
David Pogue, a columnist for the New York Times, has a good article about using Twitter that was published in January 2009.
How can Twitter be Used in Schools?
Since Twitter can be whatever you want to make it, schools use it differently. Here are some examples of how schools are using Twitter:
- One school uses it as a mini-blog, where a teacher or administrator gives a glimpse to parents, grandparents, or donors about the day to day activities.
- Another school uses it as a way of connecting followers (parents, alumni, and students), with their main web page.
- Another school uses it exclusively to post important announcements such as School Closings, Forms due, Reminders on Payments, etc.
Twitter & Social Media Resources
- 30 Essential Twitter Tutorials for Newbies & Experts
- How to Twitter Like a Pro
- How to Twitter (Jargon Explained)
- Twitter 101: Part 1 Part 2
- TwitterSpeak
- Final Site Social Media Resource
- Lorrie Jackson Message Matters Blog
Lorrie is a communications specialist who is a great resource on using Social Media in schools and using it for marketing & communications.
Welcome
I am starting a blog about Web, Social Media, and Managing Information in Schools. My experience is K-12 schools and so that will be predominately my focus. My intentions are to provide resources to how these tools are being used in schools. I also hope to spark conversations about some of the issues regarding embracing 21st technology and invite you to comment and join me in my explorations.
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