Group items tagged

2 minute video on why Connected Learning is critical. While it's oriented to "younger" learners, and how learning needs to change for them, the principles apply just as compellingly for working adults far removed from their high school and college education eras. It's the world that's changed (s_____d!)...and we need to change with it.

Blog post by Sylvia Browder at the Story Exchange--where women mean business. "Challenge 2: Undefined Niche To Niche or Not to Niche…that is the question. What is a niche? A niche business is one that targets a very specific group of people with specific shared interest. A business with an undefined niche is like a ship sailing in shallow water. By creating a niche business allows you to market to your ideal clients. For example, if you were a behavioral psychologist targeting teens, you would market your services in places where parents are likely to find out about you; such as advertising in parent magazines, providing resources to local middle and high schools or joining organizations geared towards parents. Solution: By understanding who and where your ideal customers are; it is easy to craft a marketing plan to target them. Here are three easy ways to target your potential clients: * Improve your website's SEO with specific key words * Generate exposure locally and virtually with professional speaking, seminars or publishing a book or articles. * Craft a clear message that speak at the heart of your customer " Challenge 4: No Social Media Plan Random tweets and meandering Facebook posts will result in a lot of time devoted to zero results. Before making another useless post, sit down with pen and paper and make a list of what you want to achieve from social media. To which social media do you belong? What are some social media marketing strategies that you have noticed from other companies? What do you have that will offer value? You may find that your company is spread a little too thin across the social media spectrum. Quality truly is superior to quantity in this respect. Solution: Create a social media marketing plan and stay the long haul. Establishing a strong presence can be a very time consuming process. It is unwise to expect your list of fans, followers or subscribers to grow overnight.

Blog post by Joe Rominiecki, June 11, 2014, on how staid organization--American Neurological Association--changed admission requirements and found new-"old ways" to engage with younger, newer members in the course of the first year of membership. 300 out of 1,880 at end of 2013 were new, often younger members. ""We have quite a few committees, and the committee work is a lot. The annual meeting programming is extremely scientific, so their participation in our interactive lunch workshop committee or our faculty development committee or our scientific programming committee is critical to the success of the meeting," Smith says." Excerpt: I'm a strong believer that the type of volunteering offered to young members is crucial, too. It has to be meaningful work. If I'm offered a choice between joining a group for young professionals or joining a planning committee for a particular association function (event, publication, education, etc.), I'll take the latter. I'd rather not just be lumped in with other young pros, fenced off in a separate little play area. I want to be doing some real work for the association. And DTV says I'm not alone: In that study, "I can do something for a profession or cause that is important to me" ranked as the most important reason for volunteering in associations, and that was true for all generations.""

Pretty amazing list of skills you need to be successful in life by Robin Good, June 3, 2014. This is the last five of 35 skills that he will make sure his kids know how to do. Also includes excellent resources to improve one's skills in each area. These five are: 31. How to Search 32. How To Navigate 33. How To Calculate with Numbers 34. How To Rest 35. How To Cure Oneself Excerpt (rationale) Made exception for some basic math (though learned and understood with a completely different approach) and for dwelling deeper into truly understanding how to "read" something or knowing more about one's own body and physiology, the thirty-five skills that I have explored in this guide share very little similarities, if any, with those that you can gain in the 13 years of basic traditional school education. My key selection criteria in considering, evaluating and finally choosing anyone of the skills that I have here listed, has been a rather simple question: does the mastering of this skill significantly affect my probability to live a meaningful, constructive and rewarding life experience independently of the time, part of the world, social class, and group that one could be living in? And when my answer has been positive I have included that skill. Link: http://www.masternewmedia.org/what-to-learn-to-be-successful-p5/#ixzz37SVB5qTR

Site gets a glowing recommendation from Richard Bolles, What Color is Your Parachute? They call themselves "The Web's premier gateway for job search, career exploration and school information, since 1994." Offer over 1600 resources, pointers on job search, networking and support groups, and lists of recruiters and job sites.

Love this intro to a faculty meeting for keeping educators focused on best practices to carry out the mission/vision of a school.

interesting video of Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor Helen Riess speaking about empathy and its importance to our society. To have EMPATHY means to employ: E--eye contact or gaze to see each other M--Muscles that make up facial expressions P--Posture--are you with your arms folded tight against your body or slumping because you don't want to be there? A--Affect-analyzing the expressed emotions of the other person T--tone of voice. Tone of voice and facial muscles are controlled by same place in brain--allow emotions to leak out H--Hearing whole person--context Y--Your response

article on problems with LA school district not making good use of technology and dismissing its value because it did not change test scores

From jobsearch.about.com. Interesting that listening to your gut is on this list, as is a toxic work environment, going back to school, getting another job, changing careers.

This woman, Shellie Riley, advertises concierge servicees that consist of consulting, coaching, placement, FAQs, Pro bono financial aid, and contact us. A www.nerdconcierge.net service is advertised to start Spring 2013 but does not look active yet. Excerpt: "Our EDUCATIONAL CONCIERGE SERVICE packages comprehensive and customized support to families navigating any and all educational queries, concerns, choices and decisions from Pre-School to Post-Secondary learning. "

My Learning Springboard offers a Learning Concierge(R) which "brings together subject matter experts and curriculum specialists to develop customized programs for individuals or groups of all sizes and ages, including adult learners. Services include private tutoring, enrichment teaching, test preparation, field trips, independent study, after school programs, and summer programs in our direct service areas and beyond."

Great blog post by Holly Clark on Edudemic connecting education & technology, September 24, 2014. She suggests: Find another class to do a project, blog or twitter chat with. Change the classroom set up to allow for more student movement & interaction Have students create blogs to foster global interactions Use Skype to promote interaction with the outside world If your class has 1:1, look for other schools to collaborate with Tweet your learning with another class Understand that learning is happening through networks--not textbooks--"Textbooks are a solitary and isolated learning source and their days are numbered. Learning will become about networks. It will be about the people and information you know how to access and create. Your students are not quite savvy enough to do this effectively on their own, so show them how to interact with a network of experts from your subject area. ..."

interesting blog post, lots of food for thought about PD for compliance reasons and how to support growth long-term, Peter DeWitt, August 18, 2015

very nice list of areas and steps to stay aware of in administering/leading a school to help students and teachers the best they can do, John Wink, principal, May 29, 2015 on his blog. Lists "leveraging collaboration" and scaffolding teachers' PD several times as steps that must be taken.

article by Kevin Bushweller, June 10, 2015 in EdWeek, good guidance for adult ed programs and informal adult learning as well IMO.

Has important considerations for choosing right digital devices based on purpose and nature of work to be done--Robin L. Flanigan, EdWeek, June 11, 2015.

"take our professional and personal development into our own hands" Jacob Morgan Forbes August 2015

Education Week published online 6.10.15 on why districts put OERs to work in their schools. Commercial publishers fighting back saying that curriculum is more than content; C.P.s offer "wraparound support" for their resources to educators.

blog post by Sean Cavanagh, 6/19/15, EdWeek, with very interesting Prezi with sources for momentum in school districts to adopt Open Educational Resources (OERs) and how long it takes to make the shift. It doesn't save much money--they project $500,000 in savings over a ten year period if the district doesn't regularize and buy textbooks--in districts with $200 million annual budgets; need to do more research on why they choose OER. Do know that two huge OER interests are driving development of these resources but aside from that?

Volume XI, Number 4, Winter 2005/2006, Evaluation Exchange newsletter, Harvard Family Research Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education.