Loathing the Embrace
"Conversation with friends" by Pingu1963-very busy!
In the last month, I’ve been reading all of the positives about social media that I forget there is always a naysayer caught in the middle between wanting to embrace a new technology and loathing the prospect of that embrace. It is interesting that this person talks about creating relationships. Many of the top social media leaders (Well, mine, at least - Chris Brogan, Shel Israel, Scott Stratten, Mitch Joel) talk about nothing else except relationship building (read: Trust Agents). Of course, we still have to have face-to-face relationships, but we can’t meet face-to-face with every potential student or client. Consumers have so many media choices that we have to use every possible media, including social media, in a smart way to reach them, tell our story, involve them in the conversation, and, ultimately, create a relationship that will translate into a valued customer (and, yes, for my higher ed compadres – students are customers). Mass, interruptive media is dead.
What do you think?
29+ Days Later: Seth Godin
An Idea by aloshbennett
On Friday, Nov. 6, I had been blogging for exactly one month. To celebrate, I wanted to play my own version of #FollowFriday, or #FollowFive, and give shout-outs to some real experts who have helped me get started on my blogging adventure. So, before I move on to other topics, I need to finish. Today, Seth Godin.
I’ve been following Seth long before there was anything called Twitter. The route to his marketing advice goes something like an article I downloaded from the 2004 HOW Design Conference web site by Tom Peters which led me to Fast Company magazine which led to Seth Godin. I first read Purple Cow and then, Unleashing the Ideavirus. Since then, I’ve followed Seth’s blog and found his thoughts, though aimed at business, very applicable to higher education and continuing education, in particular. Most recently, I read The Dip and, again, found it very prescient to a year spent mulling over my career, my life and my education. Thanks Seth. One can usually find a Seth Godin quote on my office wall. Currently, I have one that reads: “By the time you’re told the right answer, it’ll be too late.” Another favorite is “Sell just one thing. Go deep. Then stop.” (or something to that effect)
So, thanks Seth. I’ll definitely keep following.
Tell me. What have you learned from Seth?
28 Days Later: Chris Brogan
'Change Direction' by Phillie Casablanca
This Friday, Nov. 6, I will have been blogging for exactly one month. To celebrate, I wanted to play my own version of #FollowFriday, or #FollowFive, and give shout-outs to some real experts who have helped me get started on my blogging adventure. Today, Chris Brogan.
In my office, I have a whiteboard that is now filled with what one might call a mindmap. It was a way for me to get a handle on the structure of what I do, the many areas I manage, and how those sometimes disparate areas could come together to form a blog. While talking to an experienced, blogging co-worker (more on her Friday), she mentioned that I had to follow Chris Brogan. Taking her word for it, I searched for Chris on Twitter and followed him. Boy, am I glad I did. Chris’ posts, tweets and videos have all served to make a sort of mini-blogging boot camp. I get his RSS feed into MyYahoo!, I follow him using on Twitter, and I have his book, Trust Agents, waiting for me on my Kindle. He is truly someone who takes to heart the idea that sharing one’s knowledge and experience garners more attention and followers than simply using social media to sell a product. Digging deep into Chris’ archived posts, I even put together my own blog “cheat sheet” (the idea for these ‘anniversary blogs’ are a variation on something Chris posted about blog topics).
So, thanks Chris. I’ll definitely keep following.
27 Days Later: Shel Israel
"Holmes" by graham
This Friday, Nov. 6, I will have been blogging for exactly one month. To celebrate, I wanted to play my own version of #FollowFriday and give shout-outs to some real experts who have helped me get started on my blogging adventure.
Shel Israel
A Twitter link led me to Shel Israel. Starting this blog was difficult. I needed help on social media, marketing and what to talk about. As my blog title says, I’m a ”master of none”. I’ve really struggled to find something coherent to discuss among the many subjects (products) that I manage. Mr. Israel’s blogpost today on personal brands within the corporate structure really got me. It’s exactly what I’m attempting and experimenting with, only within higher education, not the corporate world – just replace the word ‘corporate’ with ‘college’. The scary part is that, so far, the “college” hasn’t caught on, yet. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’ll definitely be following. Thanks Mr. Israel.
The Latest Scapegoat for the “Education Crisis”
Photo by George Eastman Collection
I didn’t think I would have time to write a post today, but a late afternoon tweet from Edutopia brought me online. Apparently, last week, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called for a “revolutionary change” in teacher training programs, calling them, according to The New York Times, a “cash cow” for their respective colleges. Duncan reportedly went on to cite conversations with teachers about their training in which they said that they were not adequately trained to meet the demands of teaching.
Scapegoating
First, this kind of fingerpointing and scapegoating goes nowhere to solving the problem. Teacher training programs are in no way “cash cows.” At least in alternative programs, paying for counselors is expensive. And, in Texas, at least, programs are being told to reduce prices so that they can finally be eligible for state reimbursement. Second, most teacher training programs, both traditional and alternative, are heavily regulated by state education agencies. Duncan did say that government was partly to blame, but I would say all the blame should rest on the government. Only when schools finally move away from an industrialized education model and begin to embrace the type of knowledge-based models students will ultimately find themselves in once they are in the workforce, can fingers be pointed at teacher training programs that are not keeping up.
What do you think?
Environmental Consciousness
I always thought that when a true economic argument could be made for environmental awareness, then, it would hit the mainstream. Though it would be great for “green” training programs to claim that a by-product of the training is a rise in environmental consciousness on the part of employees, there are other drivers. More and more businesses are seeing the competitive advantage of ‘greening’ and, more importantly, by raising awareness of green or sustainability issues at the worker-level, employees may develop a greater awareness of the economics of greening. Namely, they should gain understanding of how reducing, recycling and reusing impacts the bottom-line of a company and, ultimately, their jobs.
Social Media in Higher Ed
For some, like me, the use of social media in higher education is a whole new frontier. With budgets so tight, what more could we be doing to tap the marketing potential of social media? Are we, at the community college level, being slow to catch on? The topic is rarely discussed at meetings when everyone is wondering how we’re going to promote our programs.
The “Hardcover Books” of Lifelong Learning
I won’t begin to enter into the student-vs-customer debate in higher education, but Seth Godin got me thinking this morning about whether or not some students/customers are better than others. In lifelong learning, we have to treat our students as customers because our existence within the college depends on it. (Although, we can easily revert to policy-driven administrators when we want to.) What we don’t do a good job of is knowing who those best customers are, what they’re “buying” and why they chose us when they could have accessed any number of training or personal enrichment opportunities in the area. Do we know what our “hardcover book” is in lifelong learning?
Employer-Employee Disconnect
In an article from Talent Management magazine, a study by Spherion Corp. details a continuing disconnect between what employees expect of their employers and what employers think employees want. Number one remains compensation and benefits, but the study also shows that employees want a commitment to work-life balance and growth potential. Most interestingly, the study shows that employees want to believe in the reputation and mission of the company for which they work.
In today’s information-saturated society, the inability of leadership to define, commit and carry out a well-framed vision and mission, leaves employees disconnected and wondering what they might find just over the horizon.
Greening the Workplace
An article from MyGreenEducation today is very timely. Can the average worker be encouraged to reduce, reuse and recyle without a mandate from management? We, in Continuing Education at Lone Star College, have begun a project to green our workforce programs. Our goal, for now, is to embed learning objectives into one course in each of our programs. We face a few challenges in trying to do this: 1) finding credible sources of information, 2) developing curricula that is to the point but offers a general overview (we’ll save in-depth learning for future phases), 3) gaining faculty “buy-in” to add the learning outcomes to their classes, 4) educating faculty on green initiatives, and 5) measuring the outcomes of student learning (i.e., Are students actually recycling at work?)
According to the article, it will be difficult because “professional services firms, which are dominated by people with degrees, are held to higher environmental standards by their staff than manufacturing firms who have a lower level of education per capita.” The key to the success of greening our curriculum will be get students to understand how the viability of the industries in which they work depend on the amount of and commitment to green/sustainable initiatives that take place at their worksites.
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