6 Things We've Learned from Social Media Mashups

We've been doing a lot of work in this area with a number of universities at this point, and we've learned a lot. The funny part is that none of what we've learned has to do with how a mashup is managed, designed or created. It all has to do with how it provides VALUE to the university. These 6 things are the biggest factors that affect the success of your mashup.

1. You have to promote them. Like any other page on your university website, if you don't help people get there, they won't. A SMASHUP is no different. You can't create this wonderful interactive page, and not promote it in your website. It just doesn't work that way. You have to TELL people how to get there. Create a cool image like YSU did, and put it in your university website footer. You'll easily promote it from EVERY page!

2. You have to have quality content. Do you care about content that isn't relevant to you? You can't expect students to care either. This kind of goes without saying, so I'll move on to the next one.

3. You have to have a lot of content. It's ok to start small. Maybe you just have a couple official university-wide accounts that are done really well. That's great. But, it can't and won't last forever. Showing that you have a lot of active accounts that provide a lot of content shows that your university is dedicated to social media in a big way. People want and like to see that.

4. You have to have frequent updates. Don't you love Twitter accounts that have a last update of 265 days ago? Me neither. If you're going to do it, do it right and keep those suckers updated. Show how you interact with students. Give away a t-shirt from the department every now and then. Keep people engaged, otherwise, you're doing it wrong.

5. You have to have a plan. Are you going to incorporate more location based social media and have students check in on campus? Are you going to have a Twitter contest? Have an idea of what content works where. For example, maybe for all student organization events, you're going to create the event on Facebook, then use Facebook and Twitter to promote it. But all content does not work in all media. Save the long editorials for blogs. Use photos on Facebook. Use Twitter for quick updates, alerts and reminders. The worst is when schools connect all accounts together, then none are original. Imagine a mashup with a Facebook feed and a Twitter feed on the same page, and all the recent updates are the exact same content. If this is you, you're doing it wrong.

6. You have to have standards. Ever heard of a social media policy? You should have one, especially if your university is one of those that is constantly discovering new rogue accounts from different departments and entities across campus. Some of the schools we work with require all accounts to follow a set of standards before they can be featured on the social media mashup. It's a good way to just set a baseline for acceptable conduct and make sure everyone is on the same page.

What are some of the things you've learned through your social media mashup or just working with social media at the university level in general?

Kent State University Launches SMASHUP

Check it out here: http://social.kent.edu/

KSU will be featuring a monthly account on the homepage - this month, they're featuring the Fashion school, which is one of the top in the U.S.! Also be sure to check out their social media directory - they have more than 100 social media accounts, and are constantly adding more. This is definitely a social media friendly school - and we have loved working on this project with them.

What do you think?

Leave us feedback in the comments - we love reading them!

University of New Haven Launches SMASHUP

I'm so happy to announce that the University of New Haven has announced the official launch of their SMASHUP. I've been anxiously awaiting the unveiling of this website. This is our fifth university SMASHUP to go live. Kent State University will be the next.

See it at http://social.newhaven.edu/

As part of this particular project, we also worked with UNH to develop a new social media policy for all stakeholders to follow, which will promote safe use and best practices in social media.

As part of the SMASHUP website implementation, we worked very closely with UNH to ensure consistent branding in regards to the university website, emphasis on main "official" social media accounts, and integration of all university-wide social media into one interactive hub.

Click here for more about this particular project.

Is your university interested in becoming a part of this elite group of universities that are setting the standard not only for university social media and social media mashups, but social media mashups as a whole for any sector? Send me a note at kbrosious AT allofe.com.

The Latest: Our SMASHUP Partnership with Kent State University

We recently partnered with Kent State University for our latest university SMASHUP project. The SMASHUP will serve as the university's social media hub, giving students, parents, faculty, staff and the community a place to interact with the university through social media.

The Kent State SMASHUP, or social media mashup, will aggregate all of the university's social media accounts in one place, giving all accounts from across the university the exposure they deserve. KSU wanted a way to make its social media more interactive and to bring its online brand to a whole new level. Since the university already uses a lot of social media, this is really a natural progression for it to make what it's already doing a lot more successful and the university's social media will reach a lot more people.

Kent State is the sixth university that has selected SMASHUP as its choice of social media mashup. Kent State joins Youngstown State University, Northern Illinois University, DePaul University, Our Lady of the Lake University and the University of New Haven (launching soon) as AllofE's latest SMASHUP implementation.

You can find out more about the SMASHUP project at http://higheredcms.info/SMASHUP/home or send Katie an email at kbrosious@allofe.com.

DePaul Interview About SMASHUP

Recently I had the chance to speak with Kris Gallagher from DePaul University on how their SMASHUP has changed social media for their school. DePaul’s SMASHUP was launched in October and is one of the first live SMASHUP sites. Kris oversees the social media for the school and manages the SMASHUP.

Q: Why did you want a SMASHUP for your university?
Kris: “We had a lot of people doing social media at DePaul. We maintained a directory page but it was not exciting visually. The SMASHUP made a live feed from everything, showed the most recent posts and the video was much more accessible. By displaying content as it is done in SMASHUP someone could immediately say, ‘Yeah, that’s useful to me.'"

Q: What benefits have you experienced from having a SMASHUP?
Kris: “The SMASHUP is a good central place to have all the University’s social media. It has made the maintenance much easier. People really like it. Also with Google Analytics [integrated] on the SMASHUP it’s now easy to track what’s being looked at - how many visitors the site has, which tools are being used the most and where traffic is coming from.”

Q: What do you like most about SMASHUP?
Kris: “It’s easy to update. You log in, put the info in, and you’re ready to go. Even if I’m gone I can turn it over to someone else and they can manage it easily.”

Q: How often do you make changes to the DePaul SMASHUP? How much time would you say you spend on the SMASHUP monthly?
Kris: “We only make changes about once a month. Mostly we just make sporadic changes when we need to add a new group or change the focus on the main page to a different group. On average it only takes about 3 minutes to make a change. “

Q: Are you using your social media sites more frequently because of SMASHUP?
Kris: “No, but we are pushing out the SMASHUP through social media. By using the SMASHUP we are able to gather and promote information faster and more broadly than before. And now people are more aware of our social media sites.”

Q: Have you pushed the SMASHUP out to your students? If so, how have they responded?
Kris: “We’ve pushed it out through Social Media and there have been no complaints. Students are used to seeing things in this way, so no news is good news. They aren’t complaining about how behind the university is. “

Q: What expectations did you have for SMASHUP? Did it meet them? Exceed? etc?
Kris: “One of our biggest expectations was to create more traffic. SMASHUP has exceeded that. We’ve had about 1700 page visits with each person viewing two or more pages, spending an average of 2 or more minutes on each. SMASHUP has increased the exposure rate. Another expectation was to improve on the directory visually and now with a SMASHUP it looks sharp.”

Q: Do you feel that your SMASHUP is unique to your university? Why?
Kris: “It’s unique in a way; there are other universities that have it but it shows how our university is using our social media compared to other universities. The SMASHUP fits well with our website and by working with the design team at AllofE we were able to incorporate our logo and colors to reflect our overall university site.”

Mobile App Revolution

Back in the early days of social media, I remember getting on Facebook and Myspace from my laptop and “socializing” online. It’s funny to think about how far social media has come in just a few short years. Many new social media innovations coincide with the popularization of smart phones like Blackberries, Android phones, and of course the iPhone. In the beginning, users would just hop onto their small-screened mobile web browsers and squint their eyes to read content and struggle to click around. I’m sure many users experienced a similar experience I did, such as accidentally “like”-ing something on Facebook while trying to navigate on my phone’s web browser.

Thankfully, someone came up with the wonderful idea of social media mobile applications. These apps are an amazing tool that have certainly broadened social media horizons. With so much time being diverted to social media it would only make sense that users would access social media from anywhere possible, especially their phones. Obviously many location based social media sites are actually best used on mobile phones, such as Foursquare and Gowalla, because users can check in using the GPS on their phone. Other social media sites are becoming more and more popular on mobile phones. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo recently announced that 40% of all Tweets come from a mobile phone. That’s up from 20-25% from a year ago.

Phone manufacturers have even realized the fact that many are using their phones for social media. Phones are beginning to become more focused around social media and staying connected (Remember the Kin?). Microsoft, for example, introduced the Windows 7 Phone, which is all about social media. On its “people hub” not only can you view your Facebook feed or contacts from Facebook, but with the “Me Card,” you can even update your status and change your profile picture across multiple social networking sites. For many phones, social media apps are pre-installed. Smart phones and social media seem to be a perfect combination. Phone manufactures like to market on social media sites, and social media sites love to be on cell phones - it’s a pretty mutually-beneficial relationship.

Another great thing about mobile apps for social media is the fact that different apps are being developed every day and if you don’t like one, another is probably on it’s way. With the abundance of twitter applications out there you can basically choose what information you want coming to you from Twitter, from only the latest tweets, to full site functionality, or even Twitterfeed, which offers to automatically tweet posts published on a blog using RSS.

It’s amazing to think where social media and cell phones will be in only a few more years, but for now, I’m content with social media apps.

What do you access you social media from, phone or computer?
Any thoughts on what phones best incorporate social media?

7 Ways to Effectively Use Social Media in the Classroom and Examples

To say that social media has become a vital part of today’s world would be an understatement. But social media is no longer just a fun way to connect with friends; it has become a learning tool with endless possibilities. K-12 education is most certainly gravitating towards these 21^st century tools because lets face it, if we want today’s children to be educated and ahead of the curve, we need to give them the most current tools to learn. Just as the times are constantly changing, so should schools and their teaching methods because adapting is the only way to assure that students do not fall behind the learning curve.

Here are some exciting and engaging ways to incorporate social media in the classroom:

1. Connect with other classrooms: collaborative learning can be fun for students and extremely beneficial. Facebook allows for a class to connect with another class in the building or a class across the world to collaborate and learn together. Try Facebook groups to create class discussions - you can even live chat with other group members - no matter where they are.
   
2. Keep up with current events: Part of educating students is keeping them up to date with what is happening in the world. What better way to keep students up to date than by using twitter? By using twitter, students and teachers can be instantly updated with the most current events of the world. Reading current event tweets in class can start a class conversation about various real world issues. Students can even contribute to discussions using their own accounts and perhaps a unique hashtag for the class.
   
Connect with parents: Technology has without a doubt become an integral part of people’s lives. By using social networking sites or Skype, teachers can stay connected with parents to ensure that parents are aware of how their children are progressing in the classroom. Skype can even become a tool to host parent teacher conferences quickly and easily without the necessity to schedule face-to-face meetings.
Facebook book reports: Students can use Facebook to create interactive projects such as book reports and engage other students with what they have learned. Creating Facebook pages for characters is a great example of how students can use today’s technology to communicate in the classroom.
Encourage class participation: Teachers can use Twitter to engage students in class discussion. Learning really takes off when students are engaged with one another, but for some students speaking up in class is difficult. Shyness in the classroom can result in a timid student never sharing what could be great insight. Twitter gives students the opportunity to tweet comments or questions to teachers during a discussion.
3. 100% student created projects: One Tucson, Ariz., science teacher used Facebook to spread the word about a community service project that was important to students. Students chose a relevant problem in their community and used Facebook to get the word out to make the necessary changes to better their community.
4. Facebook and twitter as a tool to learn a foreign language: Facebook pages have been created to facilitate conversations in different languages in order to help students practice with native speakers. Here's an example: http://www.facebook.com/pages/French-Language/47934424368

By keeping up-to-date with new social media trends, teachers can enhance their classroom and create a supportive, engaging learning environment. The time has come to allow social media into the classroom rather than fear the possible repercussions of opening the door to social media. We only fear what we do not know—so teachers need to be knowledgeable when it comes to social media to be the best educators they can be.

Universities Don't 'Get' Social Media....Yet

Well, that got your attention, didn't it? There is so much buzz surrounding the university social media mashup concept, but there is a huge disparity in how universities are actually using social media and promoting those accounts. With all the buzz about social media, many schools make 'Social Media Library' pages or directories, but then do nothing more with them. It's almost as if it's a 'necessary evil.' Glancing at a university site, it often isn’t obvious what, if any, types of social media they use. We know many have some social media, but how much? And are they using it the best way possible?

What is obvious is that more and more universities are opening up to the world of social media. There are a vast array of social media sites that can be used. For example, a university athletics department can simultaneously tweet scores of an athletic game on Twitter, post video of the game on YouTube, and post pictures of the game Flickr. The possibilities of what can be covered, and how it can be used, are endless.

What a university SMASHUP (social media mashup) can do is take this one step further and bring all these forms of social media together. One example is on the DePaul SMASHUP site -- you can check upcoming game times, get updates of basketball scores on Twitter, and view YouTube videos from those games all on one page!



Searching many universities websites to find social media pages is tricky and can become quite frustrating sometimes (especially ones that don't even have a search bar!). But after finding a school has sufficient social media to proceed with, it is very exciting to tell them about SMASHUP. It’s even more exciting when a university already has a social media link page but doesn’t seem to know what to do with it. Imagine what that page would look like within the SMASHUP concept instead!

Finding qualified schools for the SMASHUP project may not be so easy, but once found, I'm not having any problem finding ones that are interested! So far, many schools have shown a ton of interest and I can't wait to see how many more would be willing to join in on this amazing opportunity!

And so the search continues. What universities do you think have great social media? Do any of them have what it takes to become a social media "master" by using SMASHUP?

4 SMASHUPs now LIVE!

The Youngstown State, DePaul, NIU and OLLU SMASHUPs are all now LIVE! Here are the links:

• YSU: http://web.ysu.edu/smashup/home
• DePaul: http://depaul.edu/smashup
• NIU: http://smashup.niu.edu/
• OLLU: http://smashup.ollusa.edu/

These four universities wanted a more effective way to display their social media content, and wanted to set the bar very high, becoming leaders in university social media management. We partnered with these four universities to create a central branded hub for all of their social media activity that displays content in more interactive and interesting ways - pulling in the audience, and keeping them on the university site - instead of sending them to other locations.

This has been a fun project so far and I'm looking forward to working with more universities in the coming months.

NIU SMASHUP goes LIVE!

NIU social media initiatives find common home (via NIU Today)

As the Internet and its applications continue to evolve at a dizzying speed, most websites now offer a veritable smorgasbord of tiny icons that link users to various social media pages.

NIU now has risen above the din of square-shaped logos clamoring for attention.

The university’s Web Communications Team this morning launched smashup.niu.edu, a one-stop shop for all of NIU’s social media initiatives, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and foursquare.

SMASHUP is a social media expansion of the Internet concept of “mashup,” the word for a website that combines data feeds from several sources.

Read the full release from "NIU Today" here.

DePaul University SMASHUP Launches

The DePaul University SMASHUP is now LIVE! Check it out here: http://depaul.edu/smashup.

The university SMASHUP will replace a social media listing of all of DePaul's social media accounts (which can be seen here: http://www.depaul.edu/socialMedia/index.asp).

Pretty cool, huh?

You can click on the picture to the left to see some screenshots of the SMASHUP - or better yet, go to the SMASHUP itself.

Seeing a transformation like this makes me wonder why any university would put stagnant links to their social media accounts on a page. To me, it really defeats the purpose of the dynamic, fluid nature of social media.

Read the Press Release here.

ANNOUNCING: The 2011 SchoolE Awards. Nominations Begin Next Month!

I am oh-so-excited about this upcoming year's SchoolE Awards contest to find the best school district website, I couldn't wait until November to start talking about it!

RECAP FROM 2010:

The inaugural year was a giant success. There were more than 1,600 nominations made from across the U.S., and we received more than 26,000 votes during the last two weeks of the contest. We are so thankful for all of the comments and feedback that members of these passionate districts left and we are using that to make this year's contest even better! Congratulations again to HEB, Clear Creek and Friendswood ISD for coming out on top last year.

Here's a video that recaps the highlights of last year's SchoolE Awards:

WHAT'S NEW FOR 2011?

Where do I start?

• Categories based on student enrollment to make the nomination and voting processes more fair. The top fifteen districts, based on nominations, for EACH category (Whew - that's 45 total!) will be judged, and based on the judges' scores, the Top Seven for each category will move on to the voting phase. That means we'll have THREE top-place winners, and THREE runners-up!
  
• Bigger and Broader Judging Panel - This year's judges have backgrounds in everything from K-12 instructional technology to higher education web design to graphic design expertise.
  
• More ways to nominate and vote - Including by e-mail address, Facebook and Twitter! You'll be able to spread the word to your friends and the community SO much quicker - and easier!
  
• Longer time to vote giving districts more time to get the word out.
  
• Even more recognition for districts.

The SchoolE Awards contest is not just about a good design. It's about districts with websites that the community can get excited about and join together to support deserve to be recognized as well. That's what defines a SchoolE Award winner. A great website and great support.
_________________________________________________________________

To check out the SchoolE Awards 2011 contest, you can check out the awesome NEW site here: http://schoole.allofe.com.

Stay tuned for more details! We'll be announcing our 2011 judging panel members and more details about this year's nomination process very soon!

YSU SMASHUP Launch - The First of Four University-Wide SMASHUPs to Launch

Today is the day! Today marks the launch of the Youngstown State University SMASHUP, the first of four university-wide SMASHUP Beta projects that will launch over the next few weeks.


You may view the SMASHUP website at http://web.ysu.edu/smashup/home.

YSU’s SMASHUP site will help increase interaction between the university and current, past and future students and other stakeholders, bring more attention on their university, and catapult them into a leadership position in university social media, said Ross Morrone, YSU's web developer and creative director for new media.

"With so many options out there when it comes to Social Media, it seems redundant to post the same tweet or status over and over. You also need to understand that with so many departments we have several Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube accounts." Morrone said.

"Mashups will allow our users to go to one place a read all university tweets, watch our newest YouTube videos and connect with us on Facebook. It doesn't get much easier or cooler than that."

AllofE Solutions worked to design, code, implement and analyze YSU's social media initiatives to create a customized solution to increase the effectiveness of YSU's social media.

Looking forward, AllofE will be launching three other SMASHUPs for DePaul University, Northern Illinois University and Our Lady of the Lake University over the next few weeks.

For more information about the SMASHUP project, please contact Katie Brosious at kbrosious@allofe.com.

Higher Education and Social Media Mashups

Mashup: a Web page or application that uses and combines data, presentation or functionality from two or more sources to create new services (See the Wikipedia article).

Put an emphasis on the social media and out comes the SMASHUP. To us, that means: a branded, customized, and high-end social media site to aggregate all of a university social media activity and accounts into one well-designed central hub.

Its main purpose is content aggregation and social media integration. It displays actual feeds on the site - not just a list of 20 Twitter accounts, 30 Facebook pages, 10 blogs, etc. It keeps users on your site longer, and gives them what they want in a way that forces them to do less work to get there.

A SMASHUP streamlines a university's social media accounts, is more user-friendly and best of all, it sets your university apart. It's completely branded to fit with the university's brand. It's fluid and it's always current. You're already tweeting, facebooking, blogging, YouTube-ing, etc., so why not make those accounts more effective? Why not make it easier for yourself to put it in front of your audience, students, alumni?

Read tweets without going to Twitter. Check out Facebook updates without going to Facebook. Watch YouTube videos without going to YouTube. Look at Flickr photos without going to Flickr. That's what a SMASHUP does. It aggregates everything and puts it in front of your audience. You're already updating these accounts frequently. A mashup makes the deployment easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be launching four university-wide SMASHUPs. We're really excited about it. And you should be too. Stay tuned!

You Have a New Friend Request...

As a recent addition to the AllofE team, I thought I'd introduce myself. My name is Rachel and I am in my first year of a PhD program at the University of Kansas in Rhetoric & Composition. This past year I received my undergraduate degrees in English & Spanish and I hope to teach at a University in the future.

I know it sounds like a different profile than you might have expected of a person writing to you from AllofE, but I am confident that my personal style and varied interests bring something unique to the already exciting direction we're going right now.

And, well the truth is, I feel that I am a lot like the people AllofE Solutions works with, so let's connect! This past year I made a promise to myself that I would actively seek out knowledge about social media, technology, and ways to be a better connected teacher in the future. When I found the opportunity to work with AllofE Solutions and continue working toward my graduate degree, I knew it was the perfect fit. I represent many of the people directly affected and influenced by ContentM systems, higher education, and of course, social media. I want to learn outside of the classroom over the next few years and stay ahead of my colleagues. I hope ultimately I'll be more marketable as a teacher and socially connected as a person with this knowledge and experience that is necessary for success today in the U.S. I want to be connected: with other teachers, administrators, and most of all - my students.

Who am I?
I am a student. My weekly agenda, both academic and social, are run by these systems - I communicate, receive information, research, and spend every day working with social media and higher education curriculum management systems.
I am a future teacher. As early as next year I will be teaching my own classes, and as late as five years from now, I will be done taking classes and ready to be a full-time teacher. I need to know what is going on with these systems, how easily accessible they are to teachers, and how I can keep up with technology at the pace my students will be in their lives.
I research Language and Writing. Just last week, the professor of one of my classes stated that technology is changing the way language works in society, and the current generation (oh, that's me...and you!) needs to evolve with it in order to understand and work with it in the future. I'm here to keep evolving with this language. Too many times I have heard teachers concerned about holding onto the way they learned about language & books, assuming they cannot keep up with the changes in technology today. Why not learn how to "keep up" with it and use it to my advantage? If my students write differently because they communicate more via Twitter, Facebook, and texting, I won't turn my nose up and act as if it's not legitimate, because most likely it's the most legitimate language in their lives! I want to study and collaborate with them to see what writing can and will be in the future.
I am an alumna. Not only have I now entered a huge network of graduates from undergrad, I am also an alumna of a sorority, service fraternity, and a number of other social networks. Why wouldn't I want to keep up with those people, learn from others who have been out of school longer than me, and know how to utilize social media to connect in ways my parents couldn't have even imagined when they graduated from the same school almost 30 years before? That's just exciting. I can keep in touch with friends, connect with new colleagues, and continue to expand my social "network" exponentially each year.

So here I am. I love to write, I love challenges, and I love connecting with others. You may hear from me quite a bit about the exciting things that we have going on here at AllofE: about what I'm learning and how we can connect and evolve together. Survival of the fittest isn't so threatening when you know there are people like AllofE to make sure you come out on top.

Becoming a Branded Educator

Lately I've been working more and more closely with school district administrators and I'm seeing more and more benefits of establishing a strong, collective--yet focused--web presence as part of your personal brand. Furthermore, I'm really starting to see how those benefits relate to the schools and districts these educators represent.

Take the two I've worked most closely with, Eric and Patrick. These two have really got something going with their websites (Eric's // Patrick's). They have been amazing to work with so far and the three of us will now be hosting a Webinar talking about creating branded websites for educators, how it can be done, why it's important and the benefits of having a central hub for all aspects of your virtual brand (click here if you'd like more information about the Webinar). With their websites, not only do they keep the community, students, and parents in-the-know, but their entire Twitter PLN knows what's going on. They are better able to collaborate with schools from across the country. They can get their school in the news. But the best part is that the same sort of website will work for teacher too, not just administrators. The possibilities are endless. Just see below for a Prezi I created about building branded websites for Administrators:

Creating Branded websites for Administrators (ContentM for Administrators) on Prezi

And here's one for teachers:

ContentM for Educators: Teacher and Classroom Sites on Prezi

Social media affects every single one of us (student, educator, teacher, professor, or administrator--and all those outside of education), whether we realize it or not. It's a conversation, it's news, it's now.

We are working to establish a platform that enhances the use of social media in education and brings together all aspects of an educator's brand. It will harness the sheer power of social media and add immense value to an educator's brand. It is so exciting to me to see all of the educators I chat with on Twitter (both K-12 and Higher Ed.) that are working to form this sort of revolution in education. These educators are using tools to better their students, their schools, and their districts. And to increase learning, engagement, and excitement about education.

As a current student myself, I have yet to see anything even relating to social media in any of my classes (neither as a topic nor a tool), and it's very disappointing to me, as I can see daily the affects of using social media in real-world application through the amazing educators (both K-12 and Higher Ed.) that I've met THROUGH social media. Such a disappointment. So many educators are lacking in [student engagement, making things more interesting, getting creative, trying something new, and the list goes on and on]. And also, not only are some educators unwilling to give social media a try, they put bans on things like YouTube, Facebook, etc. in the classroom and some even ask parents to ban all social networking at home.

Instead of all of this, teach students to use it safely, teach students in a way that engages them and gets them more involved in the lesson. The key is to use it well. It's not social media or technology for the sake of social media or technology, but it provides added-value to the lesson. It gets students excited about learning. Here's an example of one educator (Mr Haines) that realizes that students "don't care what they are taught, they care about how they are taught": Twanimal Farm.

It's so inspiring to me to have met so many educators that want to make a difference, and I'm glad that I've had the opportunity to talk to those that are passionate, and that are willing to try new things. The longer we keep up the conversation, the more people we get involved, and the more things change, this conversation becomes even more pertinent and more focused.

Reflections on the 2010 Schoole Awards

by Katie Brosious

As the craziness of the past few weeks for the Schoole Awards subsides, I find that it's important to reflect on the past few months that were the Inaugural Schoole Awards.

In January, we started accepting nominations for the best school district websites. We received more than 1,600 total nominations. Districts began to get more and more excited about the contest, and we started receiving questions, suggestions, and excited messages from people making nominations. 30 districts with the most nominations moved on to selection.

In March, our Industry Expert Panel chose the top 15 school districts that would represent the Schoole Awards finalists. Ken, Steven, Tom and Shelly offered some great feedback about the sites, and were able to identify the district sites that represented best practices for district websites.

The last two weeks of the contest were quite a whirlwind! More than 26,000 votes poured in from across the country over a two-week span, and comments crowded the contest website. People left suggestions, questions, motivational messages and it was clear how much passion people shared for their school districts, regardless of vote count.

In the end, Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD came out on top, with Clear Creek ISD in a close second place. Friendswood ISD rounded out the top three. Districts have been receiving a ton of recognition, as the top three and the rest of the 15 finalists have received a badge to display proudly on their district website, and news sources like eSchoolNews and Education Week have featured stories about the Schoole Awards.


Some of the biggest and most common feedback points we can give to the semi-finalists is that use of Web 2.0 (and social media) along with great design and organization can really bring a site closer to its full potential. Design, organization, and interaction with the audience makes it easier for the audience to navigate the site and engages their attention throughout.

Some of the biggest questions and suggestions people had to improve the Schoole Awards was that student count should be considered. We listened to comments, answered questions, and are taking into consideration everything that happened this year in planning for next year's Schoole Awards. For example, we realize the need for categories based on student count, which will be one change made in next year's awards.

I'd personally like to thank everyone involved in the awards. All of your involvement, support, questions, comments, suggestions--you name it!--is what really made this year's contest a success. I look forward to all of your involvement in next year's awards, and beyond!

Jump on the Bandwagon!

The debate as to whether or not social media sites have an educational benefit seems to be never-ending, but as studies continue, there is more and more reason to believe that there is a lot to learn from social networking/media. Sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, and YouTube are teaching students the kinds of 21st century technology skills that professionals are expected to exude in the real world.

"Students are developing a positive attitude toward using technology systems, editing and customizing content and thinking about online design and layout,” said Christine Greenhow, a learning technologies researcher at the University of Minnesota. “They're also sharing creative original work like poetry and film and practicing safe and responsible use of information and technology. The websites offer tremendous educational potential."

Colleges spanning the country ranging from Stanford to Duke are choosing to use popular social media sites as part of their curriculum. The following is a list of schools that are using social media in a new and innovative way:

At the City University of New York, Professor Jeff Jarvis is teaching a class that focuses on the use of social media for newsgathering. This is a class only offered to graduate students in the Graduate School of Journalism and it teaches students that they can find breaking news with the use of real-time searches.

There have been numerous times throughout my college career when I’ve been given an assignment, but just can’t get the creative juices flowing and can’t seem to get an idea together. But luckily for the students at Stanford, that will never be an issue for them. Faculty and student projects can be found on the school’s Facebook page, so if you find yourself looking for inspiration, the page is filled with videos, pictures, and other previously done works.

The use of Twitter and Facebook is one thing; though incredibly useful, neither requires much effort. But the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found a way to take things to the next level. They created their own channel on YouTube and packed it tightly with information and educational videos. These videos relate to topics such as health care, medicine, business, and information technology, all of which serve as aids in the classroom.

Colleges and universities aren’t the only ones hopping on the social media bandwagon. Chris Copeland, a Birmingham language arts teacher at Vestavia Hills H.S., uses Twitter to tweet his lesson plans. Not only does he feel that his tweets make it easier to keep up with what’s going on, but he also feels that sharing lesson plans on Twitter can help other teachers get good ideas for their own lessons. Furthermore, tweeting keeps a record of what has been happening in the classroom, which proves to be extremely beneficial for absent students.

Although there is no doubt that these social media sites can prove to be more than beneficial, some teachers would argue that they can be incredibly distracting. A recent and very popular trend has been to live tweet in the classrooms. Some say that it is engaging and encourages students to take part in interactive learning who might otherwise sit in the back corner of the classroom and not say anything. However, others say that Twitter is too fast paced; everyone must fully understand it to make it work, and the extreme multi-tasking can be unhealthy for students.

“Students have to ‘get’ Twitter before live-tweeting,” Kris Aylett from Ocean Springs, Mississippi said. “I found it a distraction in class. Students would tweet two times and text or use Facebook the rest of the time.”

The debate will continue to rage on, but where do you stand? Are you a socialite?

Why a Great CMS Helps Build Your School District's Brand

by Katie Brosious

In response to both Eric Sheninger's post about the importance of branding in education, and Trish Rubin's blog, EdVentures in a New York Minute, about branding in education, I started to think about how, with a CMS, schools can use their district Web site to establish a brand.

The Importance of a Brand in Education

Although I will leave this part mostly to the experts (Thanks Eric and Trish!), I will say a few words about the importance of a brand in education. Education is a service. Education is just like any other service in that it must exude value in the business that it is in, in order to attract new students. In education, school districts must show academic value. Bad or good; clear or not, everything--person, place, or thing--has some sort of brand attached to it. It's what others think and feel about what you have to offer.

Why doesn't education take advantage of this? Especially K-12 school districts! Universities have come a long way, and seem to be working on establishing their own individual brand. However, many school districts do not put their best foot forward...To network, to evolve, to improve, and to show the world what they are accomplishing.

But how would they spread their message? It's not like school districts have the advertising budgets of McDonald's or Coca Cola. They have the label of 'school,' which implies education, but it's extremely obvious that no two schools are the same. Its important for schools to build their brand because school districts, more than any other educational institution, need to stay updated and in the know. Today's K-12 students are tomorrow's leaders. It is essential for schools to have a cohesive mission, a set of values, and a sense of pride within the district, which can be done by establishing a brand.

Branding on the Web

More and more, school districts are using social networking sites like Twitter to extend and enhance their brand. Some Twitter accounts are for the whole district, some just for a school, and some are from teachers, staff or administrators from the district. Each Twitter account is another point of contact for that district. It improves community outreach, makes the district more personable and personal, and helps to spread the district message. Social media sites like Twitter are great. And they're an extension of the district brand. But they just aren't enough. Even if a district has a great media presence, consistency throughout the district all-inclusive WEB presence is key.

Aside from social media, the school district Web site is often the most important point of contact for the school district. If community members want to know what time the football game is on Friday, the district site is the first source of information. The district Web site is like the Encyclopedia for that district. Students, parents and community members expect to have all of their questions answered simply by clicking over to the district Web site. It must support a cohesive brand and mission along with all other point of contacts for that district on the web.

Using ContentM K-12 to Brand your District

The best and easiest way to build a school district Web site is with a CMS like ContentM K-12. Not only will you be able to design and implement your school district Web site with ease, you (or anyone else) will be able to maintain it with a few clicks. You will be able to update your Web site in seconds when you need to (i.e., for snow day cancellations or delays). You can spread the word about your district's overall academic accomplishments. You can show your students' accomplishments. The best Web sites are dynamic and fluid; they are always changing as new things happen. School district Web sites should be no different.

Aside from being able to update and maintain the district site easily, you can use a CMS like ContentM K-12 at any level of your district, including individual school sites, individual classroom/teacher sites, Web sites for the PTA or Athletics, etc., extending your brand through all sectors of your district by keeping the theme and message fluid throughout each site. There's an eSchool News article about a school district that got it right. Recognizing the need "to leverage our entire digital environment, to bring in tools for all our teachers, principals, and staff to communicate with all our stakeholders, and to provide a way for our stakeholders to engage in communications with us," this California school district implemented a CMS to improve its communications with parents and the community.

After establishing a branding network for your district, you can use all those Web 2.0 goodies that will make your district look great and that students will love to view and create, building their exposure to technology as well as your own.

YouTube, Twitter, and Blogs, Oh My!

These tools are really underutilized and overflowing with potential. Our CMS offers these tools as part of our panel-based technology, so you can easily upload your Twitter feed or a YouTube video you posted. Kids love the Web 2.0 stuff because it's a break from the norm, and so do teachers and administrators, like the ones that I meet every day on Twitter. Instead of having students write a paper, why not create a blog discussion about it? Teamwork is a key skill, and blogs and comments promote it in a fun way. With a CMS, teachers can easily post the blog on their Web site and have their students contribute.

As another example of using Web 2.0 in the classroom, take a video camera on a field trip and interview the kids about their opinions on where they are. If you take them to a museum, what was their favorite part? And why? Better yet, let the kids ask the questions! Putting these videos up on your classroom site is a great way to get students involved in using technology and reaping the benefits, and parents will love it so they can see what their kids do all day.

All of these ideas will show your audience (students, parents and community) that you and your school district have a dedication and commitment to using technology. Even if you only posted these on your own classroom site, a classroom site is simply an extension of the district brand.

Why Build a Brand?

When my family moved from New York to Texas, my mom had to figure out where to send my brother, sister and I to school. However, just by looking at a few Web sites she easily chose a school district for us to attend, because she couldn't get a feel for what some district Web sites were trying to say, couldn't sift through the clutter, or just really couldn't get a feel for the school's goals or values. How else would you choose a school district from 1,000 miles away other than calling the school? I wouldn't want to be the school district to get overlooked based on a poorly designed Web site with no purpose. District Web sites mean more than some may think.

A brand sets you a part. It differentiates your school district from the next. It's an experience. Why not be the best? Your school district works hard to fulfill its potential. Don't fall short because your Web site doesn't perform, become a "Brand-Ed" school district.

Of Google Analytics and Nightmares

The following post was written by Mark Van Tilburg, the executive director of marketing and communications at Youngstown State University.

Before anybody dreamed up the term “Web-too-point Oh,” when having a fax machine of my own and three buttons on my desk phone made me a state-of-the-science communications executive, I carried myself with such great confidence and a kind of light-footed romantic sense of the world that all problems, great and small, were manageable. I slept every night straight through, certain that the next day’s challenges would be easily conquered.

What a lovely dream.

Yes, my days as an Olympic-class sleeper (able to log a solid 9 to 14-hours in nearly any circumstance) are now but a distant memory, lost to the cold sober reality that one of my jobs as a university marketing director is to manage the never ending development and deployment of the university’s website.

I fear that those halcyon nights of yore, will likely never be mine again, because everybody is looking to me to ensure that the institutional branding goals and web content integrity meet their expectations. Every one of our faculty, all alumni, donors and current students (not to mention the universe of web surfers, IT geeks, high school students, parents and grandparents) has 24/7 accesses to monitor our progress.

It’s no wonder, me thinks, that many days I just want my pillow and a couple – seven stiff shots of Black Jack. As John Keats (the greatest English poet of all times, period!) so aptly put it:

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been

Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,

………

With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,

And purple-stained mouth;

That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,

And with thee fade away into the forest dim….

Is anyone else out there suffering, even mildly, from flights of fancy and distraction or similar symptoms?