Using Web 2.

0 to Communicate
with the Public
Evelyn McCormack Columbia University, Jan. 2010
This presentation is available online at
www.slideshare.net/evelynmccormack
Shorewood High School
 Social Media Tools for
School Officials and Communicators

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Nings and Wikis
• Blogs/eNewsletters
• Other Web 2.0 Tools and Apps
 A Few Social Media Stats
• Facebook: 330 million active users, 100m log on
daily. 100,000 age 64+, 310,000 between 45-63.
• LinkedIn: 40 million members
• Twitter: 30 million members
• YouTube: Every minute, 20 hrs of video uploaded
• U.S. adults w/profile on a social networking site
quadrupled in past four years -- 8% in 2005 to
35% now.
• American Dialect Society named “google” word of
the decade and “tweet” word of the year.
• Oxford dictionary declared “unfriend” (to remove
someone as a Facebook friend) word of the year.
(Sources: TechCrunch, Pew Internet & American Life Project, January 2009.)
 What Can Social Media Do
for Your School or District?
• Publicize your achievements
• Drive traffic to your website
• Control your own message. An
alternative to print media in getting
the word out.
• Develop a Personal Learning
Network -- share ideas,
collaborate, professional contacts
 Common Myths About Social Media
1. Social Media is for Teens and Tweens

2. Social Media will compromise our internet security

3. Social Media will jeopardize eRate funding

4. Social Media wastes time

5. Social Media is expensive

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

--from whitehouse.gov
 Big, Scary Places

Facebook, Twitter & YouTube

NYC Schools
Columbia University
White Plains City School District
New York State School Boards
 Make Facebook your Newsroom

1. At 25 fans, can claim

username for page.
2. Go to
facebook.com/username &
click on “Set a username for
your pages.” Instead of your
page having a super long URL
:
http://www.facebook.com/your
district

Go to: facebook.com/pages/create.php to create a

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

…and hundreds more.

 Who Else is on Facebook?
• New York State School Boards Assn.
• American School Board Journal
• President Barack Obama
• Stanford University
• Carnegie-Mellon University
• The New York Times
• NYS Association of Foreign Language Teachers
• The American Red Cross
• Autism Speaks
• Columbia University
To Tweet or Not to Tweet
Twitter in Public Education

Photo credit: chriswallace.com

 Twitter
• Micro-blogging tool (140 characters) that can be
used to post news, links, photos and more.
• A tool that can be used (along with others) to drive
traffic back to your district website

Edmodo -- Twitter for Educators

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

• Largest age group is 35-49, comprising almost 42

percent of the site’s audience. (Nielsen Online)
• Majority visit Twitter while at work, and 62 percent
access it from work only. (Nielsen Online)
Haiti
Yonkers Public Schools
Southern Westchester BOCES
 More Public Schools Twittering
• White Plains Public Schools (NY)
• New York City Public Schools
• Broward County Public Schools ...and hundreds more!
• Mesa Public Schools (Ariz.
• South Allegheny Schools (Pa.)
• North Hills School District (Pa.)
• Forsythe County Schools (Ga.)
• Newport News Public Schools (Va.)
• Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School
• Yonkers Public Schools (NY)
• Duval Schools (Jacksonville, FL)
• Kent ISD(Grand Rapids, MI)
• Fairfax County Public Schools (VA)
• Ohio Department of Education @oheducation
• Columbus City Schools @colscityschool
• Arizona Public Schools @azschools
• Royal Oak Schools (Mich.) @royaloakschools
• Portage Schools (Michigan) @portageschools
 Higher Ed on Twitter

Columbia University Law School

Columbia Teachers College
Harvard University
Stanford
Princeton
MIT has more than 50 official Twitter feeds
Georgetown University
UCLA
The Boston University Shuttle
Boston College
Barnard College

...and hundreds more!

 Retweeting

http://twitter.com/wca4kids
 Companies & Organizations Twittering
• Ford
• Starbucks
• Whole Foods
• Southwest Air
• Jet Blue
• The Smithsonian
• American Red Cross
• Honda
• NASA
 Government Twittering
• Centers for Disease Control
• The White House
• US. Dept. of Education
• 10 Downing Street
• U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security
• U.S. Senate
• U.S. House of Representatives
• World Health Organization
Who to Follow?
• Education Week
• National Education Association
• U.S. Department of Education
• Your local newspaper/reporter –
http://www.mediaontwitter.com
• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• Other school districts
 Twitter Tools
TweetBeep allows you to get email alerts
about tweets on a topic you choose.

Twitter Search allows you to search for news and

conversations by certain terms, ie, Haiti.
 Twitter Lists
Where you can see similar Twitter feeds
assembled in one place.
• http://twitter.com/#/list/schoolpr/k12schools
• http://twitter.com/mashable/non-profits

…and one of my faves:

• http://twitter.com/cityroom/nyc-street-food-
trucks
Schools on YouTube
SUNY Plattsburgh
Cambridge University
Check out Youtube EDU for ideas/inspiration
 Alternatives to YouTube
(in the classroom)
• TeacherTube (gated videos site for teachers
and students. Not blocked like YouTube)
• Zamzar (allows you to download videos from
YouTube and use them in the classroom
without having to go online)
Hi Point Journeys: A High School Social
Media Campaign
The Hi Point Flickr Page
The Hi Point YouTube Page
 Nings & Wikis
• Network with other people with similar interests.
Discuss issues, share best practices, collaborate
on projects. Parents, students, staff, colleagues.
• Free and easy to set up. You set privacy levels
(closed, open, by invitation only).
• Great gadgets attached to them. Post articles,
links, photos, video. Blogs can be "cross-posted"
to a Ning site.
• Eliminate one-webmaster problem & outdated
internet/intranet content
• Ning -- 1 million networks,4.7 unique visitors
 Platforms

Ning.com

Free Wiki Platforms:

pbworks
pbworks campus edition
www.wikispaces.com
wikispace private label for K-12 educators
www.wetpaint.com
 Classroom 2.0
30,000 members
Nings in Education
8,700 members
 School Wikis:Three Levels
&Two Audiences
• Classroom Level
• Building Level
• District Level
• In-house wikis (staff collaboration)
• Public wikis (communicating w/parents &
students)
Manhattanville Comm Wiki
Adams County School District 50
 Blogs/eNewsletters
• Blog: a diary or journal that chronicles author’s
stories, thoughts, learnings

• Available for others to ‘subscribe’ to (they receive

new ‘articles’/‘posts’ automatically).

• Most effective use of blogging is for the creation

and publishing of enewsletters.

• As each article is published, older articles

automatically drop down lower on the page and are
archived.
 Free Blog Platforms:

• classblogmeister.com: gated blogging tool

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

Paid eNewsletter Services:

• Constant Contact
• iContact
Maggie
Skau's
blog in
New
Rochelle,
NY
Boston Public Schools Blog
 Golden Rules for Using Social Media

1.Respect the spirit of the Internet

2.Listen, give kudos and be generous.
3.Add value. How am I adding value to the
conversation or the community?
4.Respond in a timely fashion.
5.Do good things. Visit Social Media for Social Good
6.Be real. Authenticity is important.
7.Collaborate. It's all about community.
--credit: Simona Boucek, Salem-Keizer (Ore.) Public Schools
 Thank You!

This presentation is available online at

http:www.slideshare.net/evelynmccormack

Evelyn McCormack, SWBOCES Public Information

Coordinator
Email: emccormack@swboces.org
Facebook
LinkedIn
Blog: School Communications 2.0
On Twitter: www.twitter.com/nylady
 Resources

Additional Web 2.0 tools, links and

more videos
Online Publishing Tools

Issuu
Lets readers of your
publications turn the
pages

Scribd
Upload publications to
this website. Read by 50
million every month,
50,000 documents
uploaded every day
Bowdoin College Flickr
photostream

Flickr & Picasa: Photo

storage, editing and
organization
 Photos and
slideshows:
Photobucket

How it looks on a website.

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

Clip2Net: Clip and save

any web page for use
later.
A Long List of Web 2.0 & Social Media Resources

Online Document Sharing:

Google Docs
Scribus
Writewith.com (group writing/editing)
Piconote -- online note-taking
Writewith -- cooperative document editing

Newsletter Creation & Tools:

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

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

Blog Platforms:
Wordpress
Blogger
Edublogs

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

Writing:
Save the Words -- Vocabulary builder (hilarious and fun)
FreeDictionary
Gramlee (site that checks your grammar--not free)
Twitter tools:
Grouptweet – send private messages to specific groups using
Twitter
Mytweetmap – shows where tweets are coming from on a map
Twitter Search – search for terms and people on Twitter
Twitpic – Post photo links on Twitter
Twitter 101/A Special Guide
Make Use Of's The Complete Guide to Twitter

Miscellaneous Web 2.0:

VisualCV – Create a visual resume online
The Common Craft Show (video how-tos)
Great explanation of Nings by a Boston teacher
A-Z Glossary of Web 2.0 Terms
Slideshare
NSPRA Facebook Page
Kansas State University's Mediated Cultures Website
Big Think
Go 2 Web 2.0 – great resource
Digital Nation on Frontline (PBS Project)
PR 101 Blog
14 Technologies Educators Should Watch in 2010

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

Free Webinars:
eSchoolNews
Classroom 2.0
Burrelles Luce
Online Tutorials:

Click's Guide to Using Facebook -- New South Wales

Schools
Click's guide to Using Flickr -- New South Wales Schools
Twitter in Plain English
Higher Education on Facebook
Wikis in Plain English--A How-to
The Internet has a Face -- Student video about
YouTube vloggers
Who Are Your Students?