Social media

Thinking Big Ideas

Eduflack accountability, ESEA, Social media, technology
What is the new normal in education?  What was the old normal?  What are the levers for improvement?  What is the role of the knowledge industry in such reforms?  Can we actually ask K-12 to do more with less?

For the past few days, these were the sorts of questions 150 or so of the nation’s leading education consulting groups, foundations, and issue organizations have been contemplating at the Knowledge Alliance’s Big Ideas Retreat 2011.  As one can suspect, particularly in the current policy environment, there were far more questions than answers.  But it was an interesting discussion of the major questions the space is facing nonetheless.

Over at Education Week, Big Ideas participant Sarah Sparks has some of her observations from the retreat.  And over at Twitter, you can check out live tweeting from the past few days, all with the #bigideas11 tag.
Rather than try to summarize the takeaways, Eduflack prefers to offer us some of my favorite ideas or quotes coming from the event’s panelists (a greatest hits list from my live tweeting over at @Eduflack).  They include:
  • How do we harness the power of technology while keeping focus on an equity agenda? (Mass. State Ed Chief Mitch Chester)
  • We are now at a point where we need to think about how we can do school differently.  And the answers come from the classroom. (DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson)
  • DCPS used to “lay down” and let charters “roll right over us.”  DCPS has now woken up (Henderson)
  • Teach for America “needs to have evidence of its efficacy.” (TFA’s Heather Harding)  
  • “Performance has now been defined in our sector.  It’s been defined by how students are doing.” (ED’s Jim Shelton)
  • With Race to the Top, “whether it will be money well spent or now, we will have to wait and see.” (Shelton)
  • We need to bring a scientific discipline to promoting local answers to education challenges. (IES Director John Easton)
  • We have to build a demand for change in education.  Supply isn’t the problem.  (Education Week’s Virginia Edwards)
  • Education research is only as good as how well we get it into the hands of educators to use it. (Edwards)
Despite how some of the comments may read, this was a group that was relatively optimistic about where public education was and could head.  While we tend to focus on the negative, plenty of folks wanted to focus on the positives.  While some may question whether real improvement can happen at scale, most acknowledged that real, lasting improvement was best left to the states and localities.  
There was also a great deal of talk about reinvesting in the notion of public engagement in public education.  How do we better involve parents?  How do we better involve practitioners?  How do we better involve students themselves?  How do we maximize social networking?  How do we change the rhetoric so it is more constructive?
What a refreshing line of thinking …

Go to Pell!

Eduflack higher ed, Social media, Students
Three years ago, President Obama boldly proclaimed that the United States would have the highest percentage of citizens with college degrees in the world by the year 2020.  To get there, we need to address a few things.  One, we need to reduce the college dropout rate (with more than one in three failing to graduate college within six years of entering).  Second, we need to get more kids in the pipeline, increasing those entering and thus increasing those successfully completely.  And third, we need to make sure that students have the funding to actually seek and complete a college degree, a challenge proving more difficult in our struggling economy.
The federal Pell grant program was established to provide “need-based grants to low-income undergraduate and certain postbaccalaureate students to promote access to postsecondary education.”  Currently, Pell grants are capped at $5,500 per student per year.
As part of the CR earlier this year, Congress acted to slash total Pell funding by nearly a third, while reducing that individual grant maximum by a sizable amount (as the cost of attending postsecondary education continues to rise).  And the current fight over the debt ceiling and future budgets signals that Pell may be facing even deeper cuts.
Second Act.  The education community rises to act.  Reformers and status quoers joining together to protect Pell funding, protect college access, and protect our national commitment that any one can and should pursue a postsecondary education.
Over at Education Trust, they are promoting their Save Pell Day, where next Monday advocates will take to Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms to defend the Pell grant program.  The Education Equality Project is encouraging friends to sign a save Pell petition.  Even groups like USPIRG are getting into the action, lending some voice in defense of Pell.
(Of course, for those who think the fight is already over, you can take a look at this letter some academic scholars prepared for the College Board, outlining how to move forward following a complete cutting of such an important program.)
With most education policy issues, we struggle to see how a specific decision affects individual people.  Will a family in Tonawanda, NY really feel the state’s Race to the Top grant?  Did that second grader in Jackson, MS really benefit from Reading First?  Will changes to the Title I formula really be felt by that specific elementary school in South Central LA?  In most cases, no.
But Pell is one of those rare issues where we can clearly see the specific people affected.  We can name the kids who may have to drop out of the local college because of a $2k cut to their Pell.  We know the specific student who isn’t applying to college because she head Pell grants are being reduced.  We can put a very real face on a very serious problem.
In communications, it is often said the most effective of communication strategies are storytelling and personalization.  In the Pell fight, it is both an engaging story and thoroughly personal.  Just take a look at the voices rallying to Save Pell before the U.S. House of Representatives’ first vote on the issue next week.
      

A-Twitter About Edu-Tweeting

Eduflack Marketing, Media, PR, Social media

Can one really have an impact discussing education policy in 140 characters or less?  That seems to be the question that Michael Petrilli (@MichaelPetrilli) asks over in the most recent edition of Education Next (@educationnext).  Following up from his piece on influential bloggers, Petrilli takes a close look at the edu-Tweeters, looking at Klout scores and total followership to determine a Top 25 Education Policy/Media Tweeters and a Top 25 Educator Tweeters.

How did those of us on the soapbox do?  Top ed policy/media Tweeter is Diane Ravitch (@dianeravitch), posting a Klout score of 73.  She is followed closely by Education Week (@educationweek) at 72, and then the U.S. Department of Education (@usedgov) at 65.
And what about dear ol’ Eduflack?  Well, I clock in at 23rd on the list, with a Klout score of 53 and total followers of 7,014 (more than Arne Duncan, I might add).  Obviously, these numbers are a snapshot from a particular moment in time (noted to be last month).  As of this morning, @Eduflack has a Klout score of 57 and 7,146 followers, which would place me 13th on the list, just ahead of the National Education Association StudentsFirst, and Randi Weingarten of the AFT.
Perhaps the more interesting list, though, is Petrilli’s compilation of the top 25 Educator Tweeters.  Here, he looks at those honest-to-goodness practitioners in the field who are sharing information, best, practice, and encouragement with other educators.  Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) tops the list with more than 20,500 followers and a Klout score even Ravitch would want (75).  She’s followed closely by Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby) who has a 74 Klout score.  An Eduflack fave, Larry Ferlazzo (@larryferlazzo), comes in at number 6.
Particularly intriguing about the educator list is how many followers so many of the educators have.  Breaking 5,000 followers seems to be a monumental achievement for many of the policy folks, but it is common place for the majority of the educators.  Why is that significant?  It means they have the ability to get information out to a wider range of people, and to those who may actually put it to use.
And for those critics?  Yes, the Klout score isn’t the only measure of Twitter strength, but it is a pretty damned strong one.  And while some may run numbers now, saying that they should have made the list based on today’s Klout scores, we need to remember that this was a snapshot from a particular date in June, reflecting general trends.  The NEA’s numbers, for instance, will have spiked this week, due to its annual convention in Chicago.  Same is true for those ed tech teachers that were particularly active at last week’s ISTE conference.  
Regardless, such lists are useful in better understanding who is using social media and how they might be using it.  And Klout helps you see that, explaining the type of Tweeter an individual is.  For instance, @Eduflack is a specialist.  It means I focus on “a specific topic or industry with a focused, highly engaged audience.”  Sounds about right.
So thanks to Education Next and Petrilli for their analysis.  Hopefully, folks will visit the two lists and follow the 50 Tweeters highlighted.  
But let’s start a little East Coast/West Coast here.  Who wants to develop a dueling Twitter list, with different measurements?  Anyone?

Conveyin’ the Message in the Big Easy

Eduflack Arne Duncan, Media, Social media

Eduflack hits the road again this week, destination New Orleans.  The Education Writers Association will be meeting down in the Big Easy this Thursday through Friday, celebrating its 64th Annual Seminar.  This year’s theme?  Recovery and Reform: Aiming for Excellence in Uncertain Times.

The agenda includes a relative who’s who in education.  EdSec Arne Duncan will be there.  So will AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel.  EdTrust’s Kati Haycock, New Orleans’ Schools Paul Vallas, and Alliance for Excellent Education’s Bob Wise are also in the house.  But the spotlight will really be on the reporters in attendance and on the program.  Banchero, Toppo, Jaschik, Willen, Turner, Alpert, Otterman, and all the other names we read.  We even have those pesky bloggers like Hess and Russo.
Amid all those moves, shakers, and bylines we hunger to see at such conferences, dear ol’ Eduflack is also on the program.  This Thursday (1;15 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. local time), I’ll be part of a panel discussing, “Using Social Media to Convey Your Message.”  I’ll be joining the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Peter Panepento and Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, former EdWeek shining star and currently with the Hatcher Group, to talk about the Tweets, blogs, FB fans, dailies, and everything else in the SM universe.  
So if you’re in NoLa (and if you’re at EWA) be sure to stop by the session.  And if you aren’t in the neighborhood, be sure to check out all the action on Twitter.  Just look for the #ewa2011 hashtag.

Top Academic Educator Blogs

Eduflack Social media, teachers
We often hear the question, can educators effectively use new media and social media to help improve instruction?  Today, it looks like we have a new resource to help inform the question.  The good folks over at eCollegeFinder announced their Top 50 Academic Educators in the blogosphere.  Surprisingly, Eduflack is one of the blogs recognized.
When asked to provide advice to teachers out in the wonderful world o’ blogs, I opined:
“Avoid the jargon.  Education issues, particularly online education issues, are complex topics requiring serious discussion.  Jargon simply limits the debate while stifling true engagement.  When we communicate in terms that primary and secondary stakeholders can understand, we can ultimately improve the reach and impact of the education reforms we are trying to deliver.”
Regardless of what you may think of this blog and its impact on teachers, the list is worth checking out.  There are some terrific blogs, many of which don’t necessarily get the edu-spotlight but all of which offer some terrific content and guidance for those on the front lines of school improvement.
And special thanks to eCollegeFinder, a great little organization that helps folks find online teaching degrees from accredited colleges, for compiling the list and showing us some love.  Always appreciated. 

All the Edu-News …

Eduflack Social media

Back in late 2007, when Twitter was first coming on line, Eduflack thought it was one of the most ridiculous formats I had seen.  Who could communicate anything of value in just 140 characters?  And who would want to read such communications?

Of course, I was terribly wrong.  As 2009 started, I was forced to embrace Twitter, primarily because I had a number of organizations I was advising on social media and it seemed wrong to counsel them on Tweeting when I wasn’t doing it myself.  So I invested in the process.  The @Eduflack Twitter feed was launched.  And I’ve truly come to love it.
I entered the Twitter-sphere with a particular purpose.  I wasn’t going to use it to opine or be snarky (that’s what this blog is for).  Instead, I was to use Twitter to share all of those news articles, opinion pieces, research studies, projects, and events that I found interesting, but may not be able to blog about.  By taking this just-the-facts approach, and focusing only on education issues (instead of my personal issues), I like to think I’ve built something.  And my followers seem to think so to.
I realize, though, that no everyone has time to sift through countless Tweets to find the education ones between those from Charlie Sheen and Lady Gaga.  So I’m happy to announce the launch of The Eduflack Daily.  Through the terrific paper.li application, I’m able to launch a daily online newspaper that focuses on the top education stories found in the education posts I make and feeds I follow.  The Eduflack Daily comes out seven days a week, and you can subscribe to it so it is delivered to your email box each and every day, requiring zero actual effort (other than opening or deleting the email).
So if you want to see what those 6,000+ folks who follow @Eduflack are looking at, sign up for The Eduflack Daily.  Happy reading!