Guidelines for Posting Like A Role Model in Social Media

More and more district and school staff are catching on to the advice of Superintendents like, Joe Sanfelippo who encourage staff to take every opportunity to say good things about their school. 

Never give up the opportunity to say something great about our school. #spsleads pic.twitter.com/kpURivieS7

— Joe Sanfelippo (@Joe_Sanfelippo) July 25, 2017

Sanfelippo's not alone. Supt Daniel Frazier has put together a list of more than 1500 Tweeting supts. When the person in charge takes seriously the power of telling our own stories staff start to follow suit. 

However, they also need guidance. When educators share and celebrate successes, they serve as role models. It's important to provide some direction on what to keep in mind when posting to social media.
  

Guidance On Posting Like A Role Model

Some advice on how to post responsibly and in ways that garner engagement. 

Remember the Golden Rule 

• Praise and celebrate publicly, advise or criticize privately 

Help others be better

• Ask yourself this: After people read our posts, are they better than when they started to read? If so, post freely. If not reconsider. More on this at this post from Cool Cat Teacher Vicki Davis 

Be consistent 

• Remember to convey your brand / image 

Tag 

• Tag people (with permission) 
• Places 

Hashtag 

• Know the right hashtags 
• Limit hashtags to one or two for more engagement
• Tweets with more than two hashtags have less engagement 

Use Images 

• Posts with images draw more attention
• They are twice as likely to have engagement
• Use original images

Include Links

• Tweets with links receive a higher retweet rate 
• Let's people know where they can learn more

Post Accessibly 

• Use alt text for images 
• Use plain language 
• Use camel case for hashtags First letter of each word in caps i.e. #EdTech

Your Turn

What do you think? Can you keep this guidance in mind when posting? Is there anything you'd do differently? Anything missing?

Checklist for Inclusive Tweeting

Twitter is an important platform for sharing stories, ideas, and connecting with others. However, many Tweeters are unintentionally leaving out 15% of the world’s population who have disabilities by not composing accessible Tweets.  Fortunately, making accessible Tweets only requires awareness in a few areas.

Camel Case Hashtags

When you use hashtags, make them camel case.  This means the first letter of each word is capital. This then becomes discernible to a screen reader allow the words to be read individually rather than a nonsensical word.

The example below shows an example of using camel case for the #GovTechLive conference.

3 Programs & 3 Strategies to Retain Millennials via @SaysGabrielle at #GovTechLive https://t.co/0zQLnzxyV6 pic.twitter.com/dTTWlhHXrG

— Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) October 30, 2018

Avoid URL Shorteners

In the early days of Twitter, we shortened URLs because of the character limitation. Today URLs are no longer judged by characters, so it is not necessary. When you use a URL shortener, the screen reader says every letter. If you use the original URL most screen readers can read the words in the URL.

Plain English

Write using plain English. Some ways to do this include avoiding acronyms and writing below a 9^th grade reading level. Most word processing programs have readability checkers built in. Online documents such as Google have extensions you can add.

Alt Text

Use alt text (short for alternative text) to tell those viewing your Tweet what is in the image. On Twitter you can set this up by going to “Settings and privacy,” then selecting “Accessibility” and checking “Compose image descriptions.”

The next time you compose a Tweet with an image, Twitter will ask you to "Add description" to your images. It will look like the screen shot below.

To see if someone has added alt text to their Tweet, you can inspect the image by right clicking. Once there you can check accessibility to see if there is a description. The screenshot below shows what this looks like.

Your Turn

What do you think? Are you already including some of these checklist items into your Tweets? If not are these checklist items something you would consider incorporating into future Tweets?  

#NYCSchoolsTechChat: New #EdTech Tools for the New Year - Thursday at 7 pm EST

Want to get some new ideas for new tools or resources you can use in the New Year to make teaching and learning more effective? Then join us for our monthly Twitter chat at 7:00 pm EST where #NYCSchoolsTech educators will share the favorite #EdTech tools they've been using this year.

#NYCSchoolTech teacher Eileen Lennon moderates with me throwing in my two cents. We will also be joined by some leading ed tech companies who will share what  you can look forward to in 2019.

You can prepare for the conversation by thinking about answers to these questions:

Q1 Share your favorite #edtech tool for this school year w/a link & why you love it. #NYCSchoolsTechChat

Q2 Look at the #EdTech 11 tools fr @CommonSenseEd. Share which you <3 the best & why #NYCSchoolsTechChat https://www.commonsense.org/education/blog/the-edtech-eleven-this-months-must-know-tools

Q3 Connect w/ someone who has shared an #edtech tool you’re interested in by asking them a question abt the tool #NYCSchoolsTechChat

Q4 What are the most important factors you look at when choosing #edtech tools? https://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2016/12/choosing-right-edtech-resources.html #NYCSchoolsTechChat

Q5 Give a shout out by RT, like, or reply to someone who has inspired you in today's #NYCSchoolsTechChat

Chat details are below:

Date: Thursday, January 3

Time: 7:00 pm

Topic: New #EdTech tools for the new year.

Your Host: @eileen_lennon (@NYCSchools)

Co-Host: @InnovativeEdu (@NYCSchools)

Remember to respond using the hashtag #NYCSchoolsTechChat and include the number of the question you are answering in your response i.e. A1 and your answer.

We hope you can view the chat live, but if you are unable, please visit our archive at https://www.participate.com/chats/nycschoolstechchat. 

Checklist for Accessible Teaching & Presenting

Innovative educators usually know the basics of ensuring their tech works before presenting to students, staff, and families. Check the sound. Check the monitor. But that's just the beginning. If we really want to ensure we are including everyone in have access to what we are presenting, technology can take us even further.

Here are some ideas based on recommendations from WC3 Website Accessibility Initiative to you get started.

1) Invite Technology Use

Too often those without accessibility needs demonize technology, yet technology may be just the tool that is needed to include everyone. Of course set parameters around expectations for those in the room, but do NOT tell them how to access content. Technology can be used as a tool to focus, access information in a visual or auditory way and much more.

2) Ensure All Material Is Available in Accessible formats

Create all content digitally. Then send participants a link to all material in advance. At the event ensure there is an easy way to access the link to the content in case they didn't receive it in advance. If they have the material in advance or during the session this will enable all participants to access materials in the way that suits them best and meets their needs.

When creating materials, ensure they follow accessibility guidelines such as proper heading structure, alt text, correct hyperlinks, color contrast, and closed captioning.

3) Check the Mic!

Some people don't like presenting with microphones and do a very cursory check to see if folks can hear them without the mic. This puts those who can't hear in an uncomfortable situation. Rather than just using the mic so everyone can hear, you put the onus on the participant who may have hearing issues. Don't do that. If you're presenting in a large room, put the burden on yourself.  Use the mic. Then still work to ensure everyone can hear well and let those who might need assistance in hearing know where the speakers are amplifying the sound.

4) Have Participants Use the Mic or Repeat

Does a participant have a question or something to contribute? Make sure that what they are sharing can be understood by the room. You can do this in a few ways. Here are some options:

• Have the participant come to the mic
• Have a way for participants to submit questions digitally
• Repeat the question or contribution (though this takes extra time)

5) Create an Accessible Presentation

Make text and visuals large enough to read or understand. Use an easy-to-read font. When in doubt, keep it simple. Use sufficient color contrast. 

6) Close Caption Your Presentation...in Multiple Languages

Use tools like dictation or MS Translator to provide captions in your language as well as the language your audience speaks. This works well to help those with cognitive or language issues access information.

7) Describe Media

If you are showing images make sure that all participants know what appears in the image by describing it. Work this into the natural flow of what you are presenting by talking about the image you are showing i.e. as we can see in the title of this headline story from the Wall Street Journal that reads...

If you show a video ensure it has closed captioning.  If your video does not have words, but instead is just images, ensure you describe it as it is playing.

8) Use Plain Language

Presentations are not the time to show off your vocabulary or knowledge of jargon, acronyms, or idioms. Not only will those who are new to the language or have cognitive disabilities have difficulty accessing the information, it is also harder for the information to be picked up by dictation or translation tools.  

Your Turn

What do you think? Are you using any of these strategies when you present to students, staff, or families? Are there some ideas you see here that you may incorporate into your practice? Are there strategies that you use that are not listed here? 

5 Unplugged Holiday Game Recommendations from Innovative Educators

Even innovative educators recognize the value of unplugging a bit during the holidays for family games. Here are some recommendations that may not be on your list. This list is gathered from a group of innovative educators who gathered over the holidays and shared some of their favorite games to play with family and friends.

Games for the Holidays

The Metagame

The Metagame is the ultimate cure for awkward silences. It sparks conversation about everything from high art to trashy entertainment and everything in­ between. It's not about knowing facts — it's about having opinions and sharing them with your friends.

Pandemic

Pandemic is a cooperative board game in which players work as a team to treat infections around the world while gathering resources for cures. First published in 2007, the game's unique combination of cooperative gameplay, engrossing premise, and compelling design have proved a hit with everyone from hardcore gamers to casual players. 

Zombie Dice

Zombie Dice is fun for any zombie fan (or the whole zombie family). The 13 custom dice are your victims. Push your luck to eat their brains, but stop before the shotgun blasts end your turn! Two or more can play. Each game takes 10 to 20 minutes, and can be taught in a single round.

Monopoly Game: Cheaters Addition

Lean into those iconic (yet unspoken) Monopoly moments in which rules are bent, money is borrowed, and funny business is welcomed. The outlandish suggestions on the board, cards, and rules encourage players to express their inner cheater to own it all while they buy, sell, dream, and scheme. Fake a die roll, steal some bills from the bank, and even skip out on rent. Complete a cheat to get a reward, but fail a cheat and pay the consequences! No houses in this edition – only hotels – and pretend handcuff unit may leave players ""chained"" to the board. 

Mindtrap
Two teams try to solve logical riddles and moves on a board (which actually is a paper from a block with a "racing track"). Each time team comes up with the right solution they may move one step and demand another question or throw a die (0-3) and let the turn continue to the other team.

Your Turn

What do you think? Have you played any of these games? Are any new to you? What are some non-traditional games you might add to the list?

Preparing Students for the New Collar Workforce

College and career readiness was popularized in 2009 under the Obama administration's Race-to-the-Top initiative and it is what fuels the Common Core Standards. College and career readiness is the directive under which most government schools have been operating since then. 

The problem is that honoring, respecting, and preparing our nation for college and career readiness leaves two thirds of our nation's adults (according to the most recent census bureau statistics) as outcasts. Unworthy. Disrespected. Less than.

Most of the generation of parents who raised us and the parents of our students did not graduate college. The college and career readiness mantra is a constant reminder that they have failed in some way even if they did not feel like failures before.

Not only that, but the college degree today has become devalued. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that the underemployment rate for recent college grads was 43.5 percent. A report issued  by the Pew Research Center found that only 46 percent of employed Millennials believe their education was very useful in preparing them for a job or career.

The dependence on college clearly is not keeping up with workforce demands.

If not college, then what?

At this year's World Maker Faire Ed Forum in New York City speaker Sarah Boisvert author of “TheNew Collar Workforce" explained to the attendees that educators embracing the "College for All" mindset are neglecting the majority of the population for whom college graduation is not a reality. That doesn't mean given up on students. It means recognizing it is okay if college graduation is not a goal. It doesn't need to be. 

That's because today's workforce has many positions available that don't require a traditional college degree. Instead these are skills students can learn in fab labs, maker spaces, and tinker studios. Maker educator Kevin Jarrett, gives them a more familiar name: Digital shop class. There students make things that matter using tools like laser engravers, 3D printers, robotics, and more. These are relevant vocational skills that can prepare students for what some are calling "new collar jobs." These are jobs operating and maintaining machine tools that look a lot different than the blue collar jobs of the past. Instead they have a new set of required skills. Knowing how to operate the machines commonly found in the digital shop class is key for success.  

In her work with the Fab Lab Hub, Sarah Boisvert is using a different strategy than college to prepare students for the new collar workforce. She is developing a digital badge micro-certification program that provides new collar job training. To do this she and her team spoke with 200 large, medium, and small employers in the industry. These employers said they need people with hands-on experience in making things and knowledge of how to repair faulty equipment. The exact activity that happens in these digital shop classes. 

Digital Badges for New Collar Jobs Include:

• Design for 3D Printing
• Introduction to CAD Design
• Fundamentals of SLA 3D Printing
• Troubleshooting FDM 3D Printers
• Laser Safety in Manufacturing
• Master Badges as 3D Printing Operator or Laser Service Technician are a stack of Digital Badges that certify a higher level of skill.

Digital Badges were developed by a collaboration between IBM and Mozilla. They are a secure platform to recognize achievement.

Boisvert, along with Dale Daughtery who created the World Maker Faire suggested that this college obsession was one of the factors that led to our current president being elected into office. He understood that there was a large segment of the population for whom college is not the holy grail.  He saw these people. He spoke to them. He respected them and told them they were important too. Even if they had not graduated college and even if the old factory jobs were gone, there would be new opportunities available.

Possibly influencing Trump is IBM CEO Ginni Rometty who when he was running for office, advised President-Elect Donald Trump of the importance of this new collar workforce. Her letter expressed what she shared in her opinion column for USA Today which urged politicians and business leaders to not think in terms of white collar or blue collar jobs, but to broadly consider these future unfilled positions as “new collar” jobs.

Rometty stresses the importance of looking beyond the four-year degree and instead looking to whether a potential employee has “relevant skills, often obtained through vocational training.” She explains that there is a current talent shortage in the tech industry. IBM alone plans to hire 25,000 new employees in the course of four years and that’s just one company. Code.org says we have 570,926 jobs nationwide and only 49,291 qualified workers.

A New Educational Model – Pathways in Tech Early College High School

Preparation of the workforce for these new collar jobs, many of which don’t require a four-year degree, is crucial. While the Micro credential certification Boisvert’s Fab Lab Hut is putting in place is one path, IBM has designed a new educational model that many other companies have embraced. It is six-year public high school that combine a relevant traditional curriculum with necessary skills from community colleges, mentoring and real-world job experience. The first of these schools – called Pathways in Technology Early College High School, or P-TECH has achieved graduation rates and successful job placement that rival elite private schools. 35% of students from the first class graduate one to two years ahead of schedule with both high school diplomas and two-year college degrees.

Your Turn

How are you or your school preparing students for the new collar workforce? In what ways do you ensure all your students have opportunities to develop hands on experience? What type of new learning spaces are being embraced by your school are district? What conversations are you having with students and families about some of the new paths to success that are now available to them?