Using Web 2.0 to Communicate with the Public

Evelyn McCormack       Columbia University, Jan. 2010

This presentation is available online at www.slideshare.net/evelynmccormack

Shorewood High School

Social Media Tools for School Officials and Communicators

• Facebook• Twitter• YouTube• Nings and Wikis• Blogs/eNewsletters • Other Web 2.0 Tools and Apps

A Few Social Media Stats• Facebook: 330 million active users, 100m log on

daily. 100,000 age 64+, 310,000 between 45-63.• LinkedIn: 40 million members• Twitter: 30 million members• YouTube: Every minute, 20 hrs of video uploaded• U.S. adults w/profile on a social networking site 

quadrupled in past four years -- 8% in 2005 to 35% now.

• American Dialect Society named “google” word of the decade and “tweet” word of the year.

• Oxford dictionary declared “unfriend” (to remove someone as a Facebook friend) word of the year.

(Sources: TechCrunch, Pew Internet & American Life Project, January 2009.) 

• Publicize your achievements• Drive traffic to your website • Control your own message. An

alternative to print media in getting the word out.

• Develop a Personal Learning Network -- share ideas, collaborate, professional contacts

What Can Social Media Do for Your School or District?

Common Myths About Social Media

1. Social Media is for Teens and Tweens

2. Social Media will compromise our internet security

3. Social Media will jeopardize eRate funding

4. Social Media wastes time

5. Social Media is expensive

When your IT Department says it can't be done, show them this:

--from whitehouse.gov

Big, Scary Places

Facebook, Twitter & YouTube

NYC Schools

Columbia University

White Plains City School District

New York State School Boards

Go to: facebook.com/pages/create.php to create a Facebook fan page.

Make Facebook your Newsroom

1. At 25 fans, can claim username for page. 2. Go to facebook.com/username & click on “Set a username for your pages.” Instead of your page having a super long URL :http://www.facebook.com/yourdistrict

School Districts on Facebook• Durham, NC, Public Schools• Anchorage School District • Blue Valley Schools (Kansas)• Boston Public Schools• Ferndale, Mich., Public Schools• Richmond, Va., City Schools• Pendleton, Ore., Schools• Fort Worth, Tex., Independent SD • Plano, Tex., Independent SD• Portland, Ore., Public Schools • Fort Osage Public Schools (Kansas City, MO) • Yonkers Public Schools Alumni

 …and hundreds more.

Who Else is on Facebook?

• New York State School Boards Assn.• American School Board Journal • President Barack Obama• Stanford University• Carnegie-Mellon University• The New York Times• NYS Association of Foreign Language Teachers• The American Red Cross• Autism Speaks• Columbia University

To Tweet or Not to TweetTwitter in Public Education

Photo credit: chriswallace.com

• Micro-blogging tool (140 characters) that can be used to post news, links, photos and more.

• A tool that can be used (along with others) to drive traffic back to your district website

Edmodo -- Twitter for Educators

Twitter

Janis Krums’ Tweet from his cell phone on Jan. 15, 2009 – aboard a ferry on the Hudson River in NYC

Who’s Using Twitter?

• Largest age group is 35-49, comprising almost 42 percent of the site’s audience. (Nielsen Online)

• Majority visit Twitter while at work, and 62 percent access it from work only. (Nielsen Online)

Haiti

Yonkers Public Schools

Southern Westchester BOCES

More Public Schools Twittering• White Plains Public Schools (NY)• New York City Public Schools• Broward County Public Schools• Mesa Public Schools (Ariz.• South Allegheny Schools (Pa.)• North Hills School District (Pa.) • Forsythe County Schools (Ga.)• Newport News Public Schools (Va.)• Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School • Yonkers Public Schools (NY)• Duval Schools (Jacksonville, FL)• Kent ISD(Grand Rapids, MI)• Fairfax County Public Schools (VA)• Ohio Department of Education @oheducation• Columbus City Schools @colscityschool • Arizona Public Schools @azschools• Royal Oak Schools (Mich.) @royaloakschools• Portage Schools (Michigan) @portageschools

...and hundreds more!

Higher Ed on Twitter

Columbia University Law SchoolColumbia Teachers College Harvard University Stanford Princeton MIT has more than 50 official Twitter feedsGeorgetown University UCLA The Boston University Shuttle Boston College Barnard College  ...and hundreds more!

Retweeting

http://twitter.com/wca4kids

Companies & Organizations Twittering• Ford• Starbucks• Whole Foods• Southwest Air • Jet Blue• The Smithsonian• American Red Cross• Honda• NASA

Government Twittering• Centers for Disease Control• The White House• US. Dept. of Education• 10 Downing Street• U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security• U.S. Senate• U.S. House of Representatives• World Health Organization

Who to Follow?

• Education Week• National Education Association• U.S. Department of Education• Your local newspaper/reporter – http://www.mediaontwitter.com• The New York Times• The Washington Post• Other school districts

Twitter ToolsTweetBeep allows you to get email alerts

about tweets on a topic you choose.

Twitter Search allows you to search for news and conversations by certain terms, ie, Haiti.

Twitter Lists

Where you can see similar Twitter feeds assembled in one place.• http://twitter.com/#/list/schoolpr/k12schools• http://twitter.com/mashable/non-profits

…and one of my faves:• http://twitter.com/cityroom/nyc-street-food-truc

ks

Schools on YouTube

SUNY Plattsburgh

Cambridge University

Check out Youtube EDU for ideas/inspiration

Alternatives to YouTube (in the classroom)

• TeacherTube (gated videos site for teachers and students. Not blocked like YouTube)

• Zamzar (allows you to download videos from YouTube and use them in the classroom without having to go online)

Hi Point Journeys: A High School Social Media Campaign

The Hi Point Flickr Page

The Hi Point YouTube Page

Nings & Wikis• Network with other people with similar interests.

Discuss issues, share best practices, collaborate on projects. Parents, students, staff, colleagues.

• Free and easy to set up. You set privacy levels (closed, open, by invitation only).

• Great gadgets attached to them. Post articles, links, photos, video. Blogs can be "cross-posted" to a Ning site.

• Eliminate one-webmaster problem & outdated internet/intranet content 

•  Ning -- 1 million networks,4.7 unique visitors

Platforms

Ning.com

Free Wiki Platforms:pbworkspbworks campus edition www.wikispaces.comwikispace private label for K-12 educators www.wetpaint.com

Classroom 2.030,000 members

Nings in Education

8,700 members

School Wikis:Three Levels &Two Audiences

• Classroom Level • Building Level • District Level• In-house wikis (staff collaboration)• Public wikis (communicating w/parents &

students)

Manhattanville Comm Wiki

Adams County School District 50

Blogs/eNewsletters• Blog: a diary or journal that chronicles author’s

stories, thoughts, learnings

• Available for others to ‘subscribe’ to (they receive new ‘articles’/‘posts’ automatically).

• Most effective use of blogging is for the creation and publishing of enewsletters.

• As each article is published, older articles automatically drop down lower on the page and are archived.

Free Blog Platforms:

• classblogmeister.com: gated blogging tool• Edublogs -- Wordpress blog tool for educators• Wordpress blogging platform• Blogger -- Google blogging platform• Today.com 

 Paid eNewsletter Services:

• Constant Contact• iContact

Maggie Skau's blog in New Rochelle, NY

Boston Public Schools Blog

Golden Rules for Using Social Media

1.Respect the spirit of the Internet2.Listen, give kudos and be generous.3.Add value. How am I adding value to the

conversation or the community?4.Respond in a timely fashion.5.Do good things. Visit Social Media for Social Good6.Be real. Authenticity is important.7.Collaborate. It's all about community.

--credit: Simona Boucek, Salem-Keizer (Ore.) Public Schools 

This presentation is available online at http:www.slideshare.net/evelynmccormack

Evelyn McCormack, SWBOCES Public Information Coordinator        Email: emccormack@swboces.org    Facebook LinkedIn Blog: School Communications 2.0On Twitter: www.twitter.com/nylady

Thank You!

Resources

Additional Web 2.0 tools, links and more videos

Online Publishing Tools

IssuuLets readers of your publications turn the pages

ScribdUpload publications to this website. Read by 50 million every month, 50,000 documents uploaded every day

Flickr & Picasa: Photo storage, editing and

organization

Bowdoin College Flickr photostream

Photos and slideshows: Photobucket

How it looks on a website.

Cover It Live: cover any event live, host a weekly Q&A, etc.

Clip2Net: Clip and save any web page for use later.

A Long List of Web 2.0 & Social Media Resources

Online Document Sharing:Google DocsScribusWritewith.com (group writing/editing)Piconote -- online note-takingWritewith -- cooperative document editing

Newsletter Creation & Tools:Letterpop (create newsletters for free. A bit clunky.)Issuu (free-post any print document, email, embed, etc.)

Photo Editing:Snipshot (edit your photos online/alternative to Photoshop)FixRedEyes -- fix red eye on photos online

Wikis:Wetpaint Wikis Wikispaces Blog Platforms:WordpressBloggerEdublogs

Organization:30 Boxes (online calendar)Remember the Milk (online to-do list and task management)Evernote (clipping favorite websites and saving online)

Writing:Save the Words -- Vocabulary builder (hilarious and fun)FreeDictionaryGramlee (site that checks your grammar--not free)

Twitter tools:Grouptweet – send private messages to specific groups using TwitterMytweetmap – shows where tweets are coming from on a mapTwitter Search – search for terms and people on TwitterTwitpic – Post photo links on TwitterTwitter 101/A Special Guide Make Use Of's The Complete Guide to Twitter

Miscellaneous Web 2.0:VisualCV – Create a visual resume onlineThe Common Craft Show (video how-tos)  Great explanation of Nings by a Boston teacherA-Z Glossary of Web 2.0 TermsSlideshareNSPRA Facebook PageKansas State University's Mediated Cultures WebsiteBig Think

Go 2 Web 2.0 – great resourceDigital Nation on Frontline (PBS Project)PR 101 Blog14 Technologies Educators Should Watch in 2010 

Related Presentations: Four Social Media Sites Schools Can't Ignore -- Lorrie JacksonDive Deep into Facebook -- Lorrie Jackson 

Free Webinars: eSchoolNewsClassroom 2.0Burrelles Luce

Online Tutorials:

Click's Guide to Using Facebook -- New South Wales SchoolsClick's guide to Using Flickr -- New South Wales SchoolsTwitter in Plain English

Higher Education on Facebook

Wikis in Plain English--A How-to

The Internet has a Face -- Student video about YouTube vloggers

Who Are Your Students?