Location: Portland, Oregon
Date: July 14-16

First impression this AM after a relaxing commute to downtown Portland from my home in Hillsboro is that this workshop has a HUGE binder! The thing must weigh about 10 pounds… AND there is no wireless access in the session. The wireless session is available but…. no code is provided to give us access to the network! Grrr… what a pain! So I am blogging offline!

Shanghai American School has a nice contingency of almost 20 people. I am so proud to have reps from each of the divisions and a wide variety of departments and grade levels. I am hoping that we can use these folks’ new found enthusiasm and knowledge

Keynote address from Rudy Crews, currently Superintendent of Miami-Dade Public Schools. For a good summary go to Amanda DeCardy’s blog www.sometechsense.com for a review.

My first of a concurrent session is Tapping the Full Potential of Assessment FOR Learning, presented by Rick Stiggins. I have been reading and rereading Rick’s book for several years.

Some important notes from Rick’s presentation-

A Revolution in Assessment Dynamics:

What STUDENTS think about and do with assessment results is as important as what adults think about and do with them…

Kids should go first when it comes to learning. What they think and do with their learning as a profound effect on the learning process. There is a thought process that goes into this… to build confidence with their learning and their own learning process. We need to encourage self-efficacy.

Self-Efficacy

Self-Effective People see themselves as:
-learners who are enhanced by human accomplishments
-Challenges to be mastered
-intrinsic interest in things they do.
-they contribute failure to insufficient effort, deficient knowledge and skills

In contrast… people who are not….

- shy away from difficult tasks
- Low aspirations
- dwell on personal deficiciencies
- slack in efforts
- view failure as a deficient aptitute

3 ways to develop academic self efficiacy
Student experiences real, credible success at learning
See other who are like me experiencing success
Talk learners into believing they can succeed.

To improve, students must:

- Know what good work looks like
- Compare their work to that standard
- Understand how to close the gaps

Know what good work looks like-
- Start instruction with student friendly versions of the target
- Accompany that with samples of student work

Compare their work to that standard-
- Provide continuous descriptive feedback (NOT JUDGEMENTAL)
- Teach students to generate their own feedback and set goals (self assessment!)

Understand how to close the gaps-
-Help them improve

Assessment Collaborative

Teachers

• make key decisions
• define targets
• provide models
• Assess
• Provide feedback
• Promote growth
• judge sufficiency
• Gain self -efficacy

Students

• Make key decisions too
• Understand those targets
• Understand the models
• self assess
• Generate feedback
• Understand growth
• see sufficency
• feel self-efficacy

4 assessment methods

• selected response
• written response (essay)
• performance assessment
• direct personal interaction

Why we assess?

1. Inform instructional decisions- a quality system gives quality information

Always begin by asking:
What decisions?
Who’s making them?
What information will be helpful to them?

Information needs vary profoundly:
- Classroom level users
- Program-Level Users
- Institutional/Policy Users

We should build balanced assessments to meet the needs of all three groups, as they are important to all.

Why classroom?: Promote learning for all with FOCUS of mastery of pre-set standards. PREP for ASSESSMENTS: Standards arrayed in learning progressions to unfold within and across grade levels. ASSESS CHALLENGE: To know where each child is in their learning.

Classroom Assessment:

-Decision- What comes next in learning
-Who: Student, Teacher and Parents
Helpful Info??- Continuous information on learning progress

Program Level Assessment:
-Decision- What Standards mastered?
-Who: teachers, principals, curriculum specialists
Helpful Info??- Periodic but frequent information/evidence summarized across classrooms indicating standards being met.

Institutional Use:
-Decision- How many kids are reaching standard?
-Who: Community, Board, etc
Helpful Info??- % of sucess, annual reports, etc.

A revolution in assessment dynamics: BALANCED Assessment means …. If assessment isn’t working well in the classroom– if poor decisions arise from unsound assessments DURING the LEARNING– The other assessment levels don’t matter; THEY ARE WASTED; THEY CAN’T FIX THE PROGRAMS THAT RESULT…

A belief in balance in the power and quality of classroom assessment. We need to support the classroom teacher in quality assessment training.

• All assessment must cent on high quality standards.
• All assessment must yield accurate evidence
• All assessments must lead to further student learning.

2. Encourage students to try to learn. (more on this in other session)

BOTH #1 and #2 are equally important.

Rick Stiggins has identified 5 Doors to Excellence in Assessment

Door 1: Clear Achievement Targets
Door 2: Meet ALL user needs (teacher, parents, students, admin, board, etc.)
Door 3: Assessment Quality
Door 4: Communicating Effectively
Door 5: Setting Sound Policies

What is behind Door 1: Clear Achievement Targets Essential Conditions

- Quality Standards?
- Appropriate number given the available resources?
- In learning progressions? From beginning to end?
- Each been deconstructged oinot scaffolding?
- Transformed into student friendly versions?
- TEACHERS are masters of the content they are expected the teach?

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=door%2C%20creativecommons&w=all&s=int

What is behind Door #2: Meet ALL user needs?

Who needs:

• Annual Accountability test scores? Why?
• Interim assessment results? Why?
• Classroom assessment results? Why?

What is behind Door #3: Assessment Quality

• Do we gather dependable information?

A poor quality common assessment is worse than NOT doing it at all!
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/47/137194122_820d3dbd4c_m.jpg

What is behind Door #4: Communicating Effectively

“Report card reporting systems are a throw back to a time when we rank ordered students for further placement”

• Agreed upon achievement targets?
• Accurate information?
• Balancing descriptive information and judgmental as appropriate?
• Symbols have common meaning?
• Message receiver open to hearing and acting on results?

http://flickr.com/photos/tiggywinkle/420446132/

Communications Options

• Test Scores
• Letter or number grades
• standards-based report cards
• portfolios
• conferences

What is behind Door #5: Sound Policies to Guide Sound Practices

• Curriculum Policy?
• Assessment Policy?
• Communications Policy?
• Personnel Policy?

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/150/411212338_29d09bc56e.jpg?v=1173094453

“Are there any policies about a student’s role in assessment reporting?”

Questions for our team at SAS to ask each other are:

• - Is our standards house in order?
• - Are we meeting all information needs?
• - Are all of our assessments accurate?
• - Are we communicating effectively?
• - Are we guided by sound policies?

Technorati Tags: ATI, Assessment training institute, Portland

Tags: assessment, assessment literacy

My computer was not connecting and where I was sitting was crowded so I didn’t get to the live blogging portion, but….

Thanks to Cliotech for some great notes here: http://cliotech.blogspot.com/2008/07/live-blogging-when-and-if-i-get-solid.html

I found the session very well done with quick recognition of award winners, after some comments from the ISTE CEO and then the presentation first from Mr. Lester Holt of NBC news and then Canadian educators who are doing great things with kids in their school.  What was most noteworthy to me was that what they were doing with their kids was SO, SO, SO in reach of each and every person in the very large room, yet they, in their own way were able to connect us to the power of digital communications (ICT) and the beauty that is found when you connect children with children from other places in the world.

My deepest compliments to Mali Bickley and Jim Carleton. Well done!!

Tags: NECC, NECC08

Live blog of presentation by Director of Technology, Howard Levin

Presentation available at http://howardlevin.com/disappearing/index.html

SF school in Haight Ashbury neighborhood. Private School.

Fully blocked schedule.

Laptop school 7th year— 9th year working toward 1:1.

10th year of wireless access.

1st school using Apple laptops with wireless.

They are leading a symposium- 3 days- for leaders (admin)- Superintendents.

Reasons:

• new tools enhance student and teacher organization – and therefore learning.
• new tools enhance communication - and therefore learning.
• new tools enhance access to information - and therefore learning.
• new tools provide many new opportunities for student production -and therefore demonstration of learning.

1:1, effectively used can address the areas that hinder performance.

Movie
suggestion: Born into Brothels. About a woman who gives children born
in brothels cameras and seeing how it changes their lives.

How does 1:1 help organization?
- access to schedules
- calendars
- No real need to organize… it is ubiquitous.
-Student video: “I would be pretty unorganized. Everything is on my laptop”. Student is described as unorganized. Dyslexic, learning issues.

Inspiration: A quality tool for non-linear concept mapping. Teachers do not point to it as a tool (required) but is often a recommended tool. About 1/3 of the students and teachers use it to bridge communications gaps.

Collaboration via communications… What happens when the ease of organization allows ease of collaboration via communications.
The foreign language dept. was the most resistant, but after discovering audio file exchange along with smartboards. The nature of the homework is now changing, the work is richer in content but also skills.

Math classroom example: Smartboards in conjunction with 1:1 is a strong link. Using the tool to demonstrate, or to link to prior day’s work provides a sense of security to the students. They have access to the notes, and in some cases play back the sequences.

English 2nd most resistant dept. Now 2nd most intense users. Writing is the key… using 1st Class Client as a collaboration tool.

Music department: using garageband, the tool allows for take home assessments and more rehearsal time.

Lab reports: Using virtual laboratory teacher gives laboratory directions in advance and student can go back to the directions during the lab if necessary. Advanced directions work in many of the classrooms… history, art, music, English, Mathematics, etc.

Production: uses the tools available on the laptop… audio, video, animation, etc. There is something important to arm the students and teachers with the tools to teach each other, especially the abstract concepts.

“Authentic Doing”
- Students as active participants
-Work has real meaning
-Students participating with a world wide audience… www.tellingstories.org

More information at www.howardlevin.com, hlevin@urbanschool.org

Thank you Howard!

Technorati Tags: necc, n08s295

Tags: NECC, NECC 08

Kids are different today!

They are maturing 2 years earlier.

Evidence is mounting that due to digital experiences OUTSIDE of school their brains are quickly adapting to the experiences that are aware. The kids are becoming “screenagers”. They understand that things on screens are suppose to be manipulated. They understand the medium as a place to interact with and not to passively sit and take in. Essentially, Digital is their first language. They are DFL (Digital as a First Language). They are digital natives while we (adults) are digital immigrants… we come from another country where no digital was (is) spoken.

This change in children is both physically and chemically different than us! They have “hyperlinked” minds. We don’t understand all of this as of now, but there are some things we do understand.

When we are born we have only about 50% of the brain functions. It was believed that the other half happens after birth. It WAS believed that by about 3 or 4 years the brains stablize… they are essentially the same. This belief has been changed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorelei-ranveig/2294885420/

INSTEAD… it is now believed that the brain is reorganizing itself based upon:

• INPUTS
• DURATION and INTENSITY

What that means is that we can improve our memory. Improve our intelligence. The brain exhibits Neuroplasticity.

Four books Ian recommends:

The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, M.D.

Brain Rules, By John Medina <– Includes a DVD with 10 brain rules!

Everything Bad is Good For You, by Steven Johnson

A Whole New Mind, By Daniel H. Pink

Going back to Inputs and Duration/Intensity….

MMORPG…. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games and Video games and the internet and TV and iPods and computers is changing children’s brains.

A brain is like a tree. As it grows it grows it gains roots and branches and leaves, etc. If parts are not used (neural pathways) are pruned away. Pathways that built in early life and used most often are the strongest and the ones that will last the most time. If a student is using their brains only for sports, or reading, or music then those will be the most useful and which will withstand pruning. If they are interacting with and in digital environment then those are the ones who become the strongest and the most effective. Thus kids in the digital environment (and that is most kids today)… they build strong visual memory, strong auditory memories.

AND… note to self…. if you don’t USE IT YOU LOSE IT! (ouch)

Special note from Ian… “I don’t ever want to see kids in primary grades going to computer labs. If kids are going to watch TV, we should watch TV with them. Same holds true with Computers. We are looking for balance.”

Human Brain Project: Thanks to FMRI (Functional Brain Imaging)

Recently introduced the “Brainbow“… allows for color coding and better understanding how the brain connects with itself and operates.
Introduced the idea that game playing and digital interaction is changing the way people are interacting with visual images. Essentially, the young humans who are being trained to take things in visually.

60,000 time faster with photos than text.

Brain capacity…
Visual 30%
Touch 3%
hearing 3%

87% in most classrooms are visual kniestthetic

Non-Digital natives use the Golden Mean in the way they read… in a Z curve.

Thanks to Presentation Zen for this image and you should check it out Garr Reynolds wonderful entry. This is a great blog! Buy his book! I hear it is great!

He states:

The “rule of thirds” is a simplified version of the golden mean. The rule of thirds is a basic technique that photographers learn to frame their shots. Subjects placed exactly in the middle can often make for an uninteresting photo. The golden mean would be wonderful to apply when taking snaps, but obviously this is not practical. But a viewfinder can be divided by lines — real or just imagined — so that you have four intersecting lines or crossing points and 9 rectangles that resemble a tic-tac-toe board. These four crossing points (also called power points, if you can believe it) are areas you might place your main subject, rather than in the center.

Digital kids: Scan in an “F’ pattern. They look at things differently. They are into fast information. They prefer parallel processing and multitasking. They can do “continuous partial attention”. We can all do this but kids need for speed, they can do it faster and and with multiple inputs. Then… they go to this…

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/96/224456132_12a1791aea.jpg?v=0

Or this…

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/33/40938444_7866509a31.jpg?v=1126042394

This just in from the blogger cafe posted from Christian Long: I’ve just posted this UStream vid to my Facebook profile. ALL my students are now watching you guys. They love everything you’re doing. One kid just chatted: “Man, those are some forward thinking teachers. Mine still use overhead projectors to read notes. Wish I could be in San Antonio…”

Kids need, want and expect “just-in-time” learning. Schools want to test “just-case-time”. The kids need to aquire the skills they need to know. They want rewards. Immediate rewards. They need to have rewards that are not necessary for us, but for them it needs to be intrinsic and immediate.

Ok.. enough for now. Time to go to Blogger’s cafe!

More from NECC later!

Technorati Tags: NECC, NECC08, ISTE, Ian Jukes, Digital Literacy, Digital Fluency

Morning Session: Live Blogging from NECC– Ian Jukes- Digital Literacy in the Age of Infowhelm

Schools are bound by TTWWADI… This is the way we always have done it!

4 Exponential Trends that are affecting our lives….

1. Moore’s Law (Gordon Moore)– Examples

1979- Ram: 8K, storage: 128K , speed: 2mhz, Cost $5000.00
1984- Ram: 128K, storage: 400K, Speed: 10 mhz, Cost $3900
2008- Ram: 2 gb (or more), storage 100+gb, speed 2000+ mhz, Cost $700

The trend seems pretty obvious (duh!) Ian Jukes claims that Moore states that the trend will continue although this particular article from 2005 says otherwise, but.. one could extrapolate that in 2019 that….

RAM: 208, 064, Storage: 40640 GB, Speed: 1224000 MHZ, Cost $.18

Jukes claims that the trend is soon to be doubling every 6 months according to Gordon Moore.

Educators believe that we are immune to this type of change although the world changes around us.

Trend #2: Photonics

2400 baud modems?? Remember??

Some people believes that we are in the stoneage of bandwidth. New stuff Wimax, etc are about to explode.
The obvious trend is that we will be online any where, anytime, etc. The death of distance… there has never been a time before that distance means less. Economies are not bound by state and national borders.

We all must be on a educational technology diet… a digital diet because of the HUGE amount

Teaching for Tomorrow: A Reading Suggestion!

Trend #3- The Internet (Don’t laugh… he’s serious!)

1.9 billion regular users on the internet. With an increase of 113 people per minute!

Information is tripling ever year.

Examples:

• YouTube: 65000 new videos every day! Video is becoming the new way of communcating by kids.
• Ebay: Now has 23000 employees! 230 million customers! Estimated 10 million people make their living buying and selling on ebay!
• Skype: Ahem… guys this is everywhere!
• 2nd life: Ahhh yea… except I first want to master my 1st life before I take a 2nd one on… (smile) IBM thinks this 3D internet could be a new meta’verse. People are getting rich??!!! off of 2nd life??
• Podcasts: 2004 search for the word podcast- 11 hits, 2008… 154,000,000 hits
• Online music: Apple, Inc is the largest music seller in the world.
• Blogosphere: A new posting every second! Digital content be shared any time anywhere!

Buzzword of 2008: Web 2.0!—- social networking, RSS, Gaming, Streaming, Java, mashups… web learning tools for mass collaboration.

Computers and the web are not for just geeks anymore! G3 cell phones…. under 150 bucks. Less than my Nikes! Why are schools banning cell phones. Phones and computers– live audio transcription over phones and computers…. the end of typing and beginning of speaking…. a change in the writing process. I just checked out a review of “Dictate” on the Macitosh. Great review here from a lawyer. I am compelled to put out some bucks for this… on this guys word which states:

Why is this important for you? Well, I’m not sure that it is. But, this
is ridiculously important for me because it means I can now rest my
hands for the better part of the working day. And, I honestly believe
that this software has extended my career by at least a few years.
Unfortunately, it also means that I have no excuse for being more
productive during the day.

Back to the presentation…

The content of the internet is extrapolating in huge ways. The effect of Google alone is scary. Looking at the end of the continuum. What will be next. The kindle is out. HUGE libraries infront of you in a 1.5 pound package.

Another reading: The Singularity is Near, by Ray Kurzweil

4th Trend: InfoWhelm… more on this in the PM

Technorati Tags: NECC, NECC08, Ian Jukes, 21st Century Literacy

Tags: Add new tag, NECC, NECC08

A couple of months ago my wife got her Chinese drivers license. Today she decided that she wanted to drive downtown to see the new baby of one of our teachers.. The baby boy was born on Friday morning (very early!). So, she is driving and I am enjoying some time to write a blog post. The kids are in the back of the van. The baby is asleep, and the 4 year old is coloring in her Hello Kitty coloring book. Life is good.

__________________________________________

“The U.S. Department of Commerce ranked 55 industry sectors by their level of IT intensiveness. Education ranked was ranked 55- the lowest. Behind coal-mining.”

This is the opening line in the video embedded here. I think it is certainly worth watching. The video from the Consortium of School Netwoks (CoSN) and Pearson Publishing features a pretty impressive cast of speakers addressing the idea of “Learning to Change” and “Changing to Learn”. Interviewees in the video include Keith Krueger, CEO for the Consortium for School Networks, Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, Yong Zhao- Executive Director of the Confucius Institute, College of Education, Michigan State University, Chris Dede, Professor of the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, author of “A Whole New Minds”, Daniel Pink, Ken Kay, and President of Partnership for 21st Century Skills- E-Luminate group to name a few.

As digital leaders we must address the gaps listed in this video. This isn’t new information. This isn’t something we have not heard before. The problem is not that the gap exists; it is that the progress toward addressing the changing needs of our school communities is changing slower than the school community themselves.

My daughter will go to school next year as a kindergartner and we should be ready to launch her education career with goals for her centering on creation, creativity, personal growth, collaborative environments to enhance her learning. She will (hopefully) graduate with some sort of certificate (will we call it a diploma in 12 years). She will turn 18 and will be an adult. I fear that she she experience a set of schools in which she has to power=down and slow-down and perhaps dumb-down her learning to meet the needs of the schools and communities. Are we the reason these schools continue to operate. Do we as leaders continue to perpetuate by default or perhaps fear?

Some people want schools essentially be museums of schooling from our childhood, and yet the tools we have to change the way we do our work and learn in our work has changed dramatically. If students are finding an environment that is more rich and filled with more opportunities to collaborate, learn, share and socialize in constructive ways outside of school, what role does school play in the child’s and their families learning environment. Is the role of the school simply to be the gatekeeper of learning? Are schools the watchdog of assessment? Why does it need to be a place at all? Do schools operate so that the rest of the world can go on with children under foot and requiring supervision?
These are just a few of the questions that came to my mind as I watching this set of interviews. Believe me the more questions I ask the more I have to ask!

_____________________________

Watch the video. 5 minutes 35 seconds of time that I think you will find is well spent.

On a side note…
This is a very well done video on many levels including some nice camera angles and high quality sound. The best part about it is the fact that the message does not get lost in the video itself. A viewer is engaged into a conversation. My compliments to the producers!

Learning to change
Technorati Tags: Learning to Change, Changing to Learn, 21st Century Literacy

Tags: Changing to Learn, Learning to change

My school is pulling efforts together on both campuses to raise funds for Myanmar (Burma) relief are part of the international school community efforts that are taking place around the globe. We are receiving frequent updates from the school director of the International School of Yangon outlining some of the efforts that are being taken on behalf of the people of that country. His last message passed on to us said…

Right now we are running truckloads of food, water, medicine to monasteries, orphanages and schools in the delta. Though foreigners are not allowed, our local staff can make deliveries when accompanied by a monk to clear roadblocks. We have about forty students shopping, packing and loading trucks. Money is often difficult to bring into Myanmar so we are working with a local NGO managed by one of our parents. Funds are needed to continue the effort.

- Director International School Yangon

Note to your right on my blog is a widgit that is tracking our donations. Click on the widgit if you are interested in donating. Every little bit helps and there are plenty of ways to pay. All funds will be directed through International Development Enterprises which is run out of the United Kingdom and is the NGO mentioned in directors’ message above.

Our thoughts and prayers to the people of Myanmar (Burma)!

Tags: Cyclone Nargis, Justgiving, Myanmar

Educational Origami author has done a nice job of summarizing some of the characteristics of the 21st Century Educator.

They ask..

But what about the 21st Century Teacher, what are the charactoristics we would expect to see in a 21st Century Educator. We know they are student centric, wholistic, they are teaching about how to learn as much as teaching about the subject area.

I ask…

As Digital Leaders how do these change?

What are our obligations to the greater organization and how do these attributes expand or contract when taken to a leadership level?

If we assign the attributes of the 21st Century Learner to the effective Digital Leader we could ask…

What does being a Collaborator, an Adaptive Leader, and an information, media and technology savvy leader look like in practice?

How does being a communicator, a visionary, a risk taker and a model for the above attributes contribute to more effective student learning in classrooms?

Your thoughts on these questions would be appreciated. Other questions to consider would be embraced!

Technorati Tags: 21st Century Learner, 21st Century Learner, 21st Century Digital Leadership

Tags: 21st Century Digital Leadership, 21st Century Learner

I just finished reading Shaun McElroy’s posting to U Tech Tips about the horrible earthquake catastrophe in Chengdu in Central China. Things like this happen and sadly we all have our stories. My family and I missed the tsunami by a mere few hundred miles and a random vacation decision. My wife and daughter were in the sub-third floor off of Nanjing Lu in downtown Shanghai when they evacuated the building due to the earthquake yesterday. Meanwhile 1100 or so miles away 10,000 or more people lost their lives.

BBC News reports that:

Right away, guys like Robert Scoble, the uberblogger who’s a huge evangelist
for Twitter and is followed by over 20,000 people, were “retweeting”
messages from people on Twitter in China. Within an hour or so, using
Twitter location and search tools, people had identified two
English-speaking young men, and soon after a third, who were using
Twitter in Chengdu, about 95 kilometers east of the epicenter. Their
eyewitness accounts, with aftershocks reported in near-real time and
reassuring accounts that the damage — at least in Chengdu — didn’t seem
severe, were really useful.

Thanks to twitter… a simple message was sent from Shanghai and my entire network of family, friends and fellow tweets knew that Shanghai was ok. Whoever thought that a mere 140 characters could be so powerful.

Check out Shaun’s posting for a full story about how Twitter has become a positive force for global communications.

For a report from two expats (one international school teacher) go to: http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/accounts_from_americans_in_che.php

My last post, I noted that I often fail at buying/getting gifts for my wife in a weak attempt to make a point.

I apparently made the point, but my wife told me I “never fail” at giving gifts! Marriage is a humbling experience, but it is that sort of positive feedback that makes a guy wanna go out there and buy his wife more gifts just for more positive feedback!

I have been writing a lot lately about the benefits of leadership in schools incorporating blogging into their professional practice. Frankly speaking, I am afraid the message continues to be passed along to the admin in the schools out there by the teachers and tech leaders who can see the forest for the trees and occasionally have some success. Christopher D. Sessums recently did a great post on the “Beginner’s Mind Blogging: A Brief Reflection” that is very well done! The best part of the post, besides to summary text is the YouTube flick of some teachers describing their best efforts to use the Web 2.0 tool in their own professional practice. As he states…

“…a set of fresh eyes, ears, and minds, sharing their reflections on blogging and their “business”

Check it out here.

Following up on the video, Mr. Sessums outlines what he feels is the best part of blogging for himself as an educator-surveyor (I think I will write him to find out what exactly that means), is that he finds his work as a blogger a promotional part of his work. His blog has lifted him to new work and found him able to ply his trade in new ways, in new places, with new people.

Scott McCleod notes in his CASTLE project materials that one of the main reasons for digital leaders to blog is for “Branding”. In a sense, this is what Mr. Sessums is doing in his work. Scott states,

As real estate agents know, perhaps the first question that relocating families want answered is “Where are the good schools?” Certain school districts, and certain schools within districts, have reputations for providing high-quality learning experiences for children. These school organizations are the ones that attract families with high social capital and high-achieving children.

Parents are increasingly checking out school web sites as part of their relocation decision- making. As noted in previous posts, the same messages from the principal that create warm, fuzzy feelings of community, belonging, and academic excitement also are perfect for outsiders who want to see what the school is all about. It would be fairly difficult for a relocating family to acquire several months worth of newsletters, e-mails to parents, etc., but the public availability of a blog ensures that everyone - existing stakeholders, relocating families, realtors, potential corporate partners, and other outside community members - can see the wonderful things that are occurring in the school building.

In my world of competitive school marketing, this is more true that I care to think about day in and day out. The fact that the school down the road gets more kids because of location is hard enough, but if we start to lose clients because of the lack of brand awareness– well– I don’t even want to go down that road with a demanding parent community and board. Parents not only want quality education, they want their school they investing their children’s education into to be a recognizable and highly touted organization as well. In the states it was about allocations of funding. The more kids, the more budget one had to work with through the year. Either way, we want kids in seats till we are full.

Digital leaders do have a bit of a problem though. The problem is that the commitments they hold may prevent them to completing those blog posts. Time is the resource we never have enough of and when we get it we spend it quickly! MIT professor, Dr. Henry Jenkins notes in his blog post Why Academics Should Blog that,

The crucial point is that running a blog is a commitment, and has to be
understood as part of a larger set of professional obligations. When I
first began blogging as an academic, I sought advice from other
bloggers. They stressed that it was important to set a schedule for
publication for your blog and stick with it. It mattered less whether
you blogged once a week or once a day, so long as you were consistent
in putting up material.

Principals and school leaders note the last paragraph carefully. Announce your posting schedule and stick to it! It is NOT about posting daily. It is about posting and posting consistently. Making it part of the professional life and seeing it become “the place” to learn about the school.

Thank you to Scott McLeod, Christopher D. Sessums, Dr. Jenkins and Drew

Tags: Blogging, commenting, Digital Leadership