I started my day with a blog post from fellow Hoosier blogger Erik Deckers - Tools Don’t Make the Expert, Knowledge Does. I’m going to quote the quote that he used from Chris Brogan:

No one ever asked Hemingway which pencils he used to write his books. The tools aren’t the thing. The effort and the content and the promotion and the connection and the networking and the building value are the thing.
(From Chris’ post “Hemingway’s Pencils“)

In the education world, you might say, “The tools aren’t the thing. The learning and the thinking and the knowledge and the understanding are the thing.”

Are we pursuing tools without looking at the bigger picture of our schools’ academic visions? What Chris said is very similar to a core principle of education today – it’s not about teaching kids how to read and write; it’s about teaching them to think critically and solve problems and develop their character.

There has to be a balance between that push for progressive education and the pull for traditional excellence. My school is currently in the process of searching for a new head of school, which has spurred great discussions among our faculty about this tricky balance. On the one hand, as an independent school, we should be leaders in innovative education, but on the other hand, we are deeply rooted in tradition. How do we find our place between these two opposing forces? And where do we see these ideologies taking us into the future?

If we are pushing for innovation, then we need to create balance by pulling back a little and critically evaluating the tools that we are using in schools. It’s not enough to say “I read about another teacher at another school using Twitter in her classroom and it sounded like a good experiment.” You have to know the benefits (and the risks) of each tool that you use. When your students assemble a portfolio at the end of the semester, does it matter if their most thoughtful responses were in a written essay or a blog comment?

Technology tools can be very useful assets in a classroom, but they are merely different ways of looking at the class material and initiating discussions. At the core of education is the idea that we are developing students to think for themselves. Don’t let some flashy tool distract you from that purpose. Keep in mind the bigger picture. Don’t lose sight of the academic vision.

Let’s just say I’m looking forward to going back to normal work hours and getting a full night’s sleep again.

For this redesign, I took on the roles of researcher, project manager, designer and developer. Those of us who work in independent schools or small shops are all too familiar with taking on multiple roles. I had some help from my colleagues – our graphic designer, director of communications and director of technology – but this was pretty much my baby. I stepped up to the challenge and tackled it head on.

Prior to this project, I had a pretty good knowledge of HTML and that was about it. Since then, I’ve learned CSS and worked with ASP.NET and javascript. Entering into this project, I was told that it could mostly be done via drag-and-drop in a WYSIWYG editor (not that I believed it). In reality, I never once dragged-and-dropped anything. For 3 months, I was fully divulged in code, code and more code.

(Oh, and I was also trying to fulfill my daily job duties and prepare the start-of-school information to be posted online.)

So, how did I do it and come out of it with all of my hair still attached to my head?

1. Research, research, research. I would guess that about half of my time was spent researching what other schools were doing, determining what our audiences needed out of this website, and finding solutions to make it happen. Thanks to the collective wisdom of the Internet and the geniuses who share their knowledge on niche blogs, I always found what I was looking for (and often times found solutions that I never would have thought to look for).

2. Learned new things. I knew that I would need to learn new skills – and learn them fast – to be able to complete this project, so I kept my mind open and accepted it as a chance to expand my horizons and learn new things.

3. Played around. I’ve always learned new technologies by getting my hands dirty, so to speak. I played with different colors and graphics, moved stuff around and tried out several scripts. Some things worked, other things made the design go haywire. I kept notes of what I did, and backed up my work to text files regularly so that I could always change it back.

4. Accepted criticism. One of the hardest challenges with this project was that I encountered a lot of criticism from one of my colleagues along the way. But through a lot of communication with each other and lots of late night e-mails back and forth, we were able to work together and come up with a solution that everyone agreed on.

5. Made modifications. When I thought the design was good and ready just in time for the first week of school, I got a big, fat, red “REJECTED” stamp. It was time to go back to the drawing board and find out what needed to be changed. I came up with some different options and eventually, everyone involved agreed on a design and it went live!

Here are the before and after screenshots:

Before

After

The Blog Indiana conference offered 35 sessions over 2 days. I attended a total of 12 – 2 keynotes and 4 sessions per day. My brain (as well as my laptop battery) was drained, and yet supercharged, at the end of it all.

For the sake of keeping this post to an acceptable length, I’m going to narrow down to the top 12 most awesome things I learned at BIN2010.

Top 12 Things I Learned at BIN2010:

12. Companies are acting more like people, and people are acting more like companies. People want to talk to people like themselves. Be human in your conversations online. The Internet is just a tool of communication; talk to people the same way you would over coffee.

11. There’s still a trust deficit among consumers in the digital age. Years ago, people were cautious about what they posted online and the transactions they conducted online. As digital and social become a part of everyday life, people are letting go of that caution and trusting more and more. However, people still don’t trust companies online. People trust people like themselves, but very few trust mass marketing.

10. (Almost) anyone can be a publisher, writer, photographer, video producer or critic. Blogging and social media have lowered the barriers of entry to the publishing world to anyone with “a pulse and scant brain waves” (via @JasonFalls). You, as a marketer, have to compete with millions of other voices online. Some of those voices are saying bad things about you, but on the flipside, some people are saying good things about you, and you can leverage that.

9. Integrate to innovate. This idea comes from @jodaltoniue and @robzinkan from @iueast, and it’s part of their overall communications strategy. Print and online communications are not separate silos. Promote your online accounts – Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. – in your print communications and reach a wider audience who may not know that you are engaging online.

8. Millennials (think prospective students) are attracted to social media engagement. The guys from @iueast shared a staggering statistic from a survey of new students — 91% said that no other college in their search had engaged with them through social media. If you want to attract millennials, peak their interest by engaging with them online.

7. It is possible to measure engagement. BlueFuego, a company that specializes in higher ed and social media, has come up with their own formula for measuring engagement on their client’s Facebook pages. I won’t give it away completely, but I will tell you that it is centralized on the idea of measuring the number of comments or likes, rather than the number of fans or followers.

6. Share your knowledge and ask others to share. Blogging and social media thrive on reciprocity. Retweet others’ content. Share links to other blogs. Comment on other blogs. Ask others to comment on your blog or share the link to your blog. Ask other bloggers to guest blog for you.

5. Internet marketing guys (and gals) know about tons of great online tools. In @DouglasKarr‘s presentation alone, I learned at least 6 new tools for websites that I wouldn’t have even thought to look for: Adobe Kuler, Wibiya, Whereisthefold.com, Seo-browser.com, IUI, and Facebox. Many other presenters shared free and inexpensive tools for social analytics.

4. A simple website with the right information can be the most effective. Your website or blog doesn’t have to be complex or cost a lot of money to be effective. Make sure your site or blog has useful information and a call to action. Provide basic information that will peak a visitor’s interest and encourage them to keep coming back for new content or contact you for more detailed information.

3. Know what people are seeing when they search for you. Jeremy Dearringer (@Slingshot_SEO) presented one of the most talked-about sessions at BIN2010. (Of course people are going to talk about you when you encourage them to blog about your session with the possibility of winning a shiny new iPad.) I didn’t even attend Jeremy’s session, but the #bin2010 hashtag was on fire with revelations from his presentation. When people type your name (or your domain name) into Google, do you know what else Google suggests? Be proactive about the content that you can control and optimize it so that your content is what people see when they search for you.

2. Backlinks are Queen. Chad Pollitt presented “Social Media Infrastructures.” This was the session that floored me. Now I know about using social media to build a network of links to your content and raise your ranking in the search engines. However, I have never seen it used to this extent. In a Google search for “Internet marketing expert” (a widely used term with 13.3 million results), Chad Pollitt not only shows up on the first page, he not only shows up in the top 5; he shows up as #2 AND #7 – two visible spots on the first page of Google! He achieved this by using backlinks on various social networks to drive traffic and increase visibility to his website. By creating a network of direct links among all of your online content, you can basically tell Google that you are important. Also, Chad’s company DigitalHill is the brains behind Facebook TabSite – Check it out now, I’ll blog about it later.

1. A social media strategy can be as simple as Share Good S**t. (@JasonFalls)

Check out my first post on edSocialMedia – One Tool to Tell a Dynamic Story. It’s about how I used nothing but my iPhone to capture a once-in-a-lifetime experience aboard a KC-135 aerial refueling flight mission (read about the flight on my personal blog).

I encourage you to check out the other great posts on edSocialMedia and join the community by sharing your thoughts in the comments.

We all face problems in our work. We all have hurdles that we have to get over and obstacles we have to cross. They wouldn’t call it work if there wasn’t a challenge involved. The fun part is in finding solutions to those problems. This is where the shopping comes in, and who doesn’t love shopping?

Say you want to start integrating your print and web content more. There are many solutions to this – flipbooks, photo galleries, videos, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, the list goes on and on. You need to drill down a little more and figure out what you want to focus on. Then, you can start shopping. Shop around for ideas – look at competitors, read blogs, watch YouTube videos. Start making a list of services that provide the solution you’re looking for.

Once you have a solid list, start comparing. They say that with the age of the Internet, consumers have become comparison shoppers. I don’t know about you, but I fall into that category 100 percent. I compare everything before I decide on a purchase. When I’m at the store, I often pull up my RedLaser or Amazon app on my iPhone to see if there’s a better price out there. When I’m shopping online, I search for coupon codes, or I find another website offering the same product for less. I want the best value for the right price.

An amazing aspect of the digital world we live in is that if you learn how to use the tools available, you can save lots of money. Take social media for example. Want to expand your market reach online? Marketing on Facebook, Twitter and hundreds of other social media sites is FREE. Just keep in mind that the service has to be useful – it has to fulfill a purpose in your organization. Many web services will let you sign up for a free trial so you can test it out before you invest any dollars. But don’t go blazing around the Internet signing up for stuff because it’s free. Evaluate how you can use it, and if it’s not very useful, move onto something else.

In the July issue of BriefCASE, an article pointed to a study saying that advancement professionals feel they lack the financial and staff resources to use technology effectively. It shouldn’t be this way. The resources are right in front of you. You have a computer. You have Internet access. You have goals. The Internet is full of possibilities. Make it a priority to use the resources you have to achieve your goals. You don’t need a gigantic budget to find solutions. You do need time, but if you spend your time wisely, researching solutions that will save you time and money, then that is time well spent.

Ready to get going? Here’s your shopping list:

• Focus on your long-term goals and determine a timeline for each.
• Prioritize your goals and figure out how each one can be achieved with technology.
• Start your research. Use Google (or Bing if you so choose). Try different keywords. Scan the results for relevant information.
• Compare features and prices. Determine what will work with your budget.
• Do a trial run if you can. Get in there and mess around, and find out if it will work for your goals.
• If you need to, get out that shiny credit card and put an investment into your goals.

Photo credit: LuMaxArt.com/Dutch Open Source on Flickr

I was writing an article for the summer issue of our magazine about an alumnus who recently received a prestigious award for computer science. I knew it wasn’t going to be a simple task – the topic was computer science and mobile technology, and I somehow had to translate the story into words that anyone could understand. And I was working on a tight deadline that also coincided with the end of the school year, which is perhaps one of the busiest times of the year for the communications office.

I wanted to write the best article that I possibly could, but with all the end-of-the-year stress bearing down on me, I simply gave it a good effort and sent the draft off to the subject of the article for him to fact-check.

His response was thoughtfully critical of my writing, and I have to thank him for that. His words were, “The article itself feels a little disjointed.” I read it as, “The article’s all out of whack; it needs to be re-organized and re-written.”

I knew he was right. When I had written the article, my main goal was my deadline. But I should have been focused on my readers. It didn’t matter if I made my deadline or not if no one was going to be interested enough to read the article. I filled up my coffee mug and got back to work on the article. It didn’t take much work, just some re-arranging paragraphs and clarifying a few items, and all of a sudden, it started to sound like a cohesive story.

I sent the revised version off to my interviewee, and he responded, “I like this a lot better.”

Because I was open to taking some criticism from my interviewee, I wrote a much more interesting story that I’m proud to have published in our school magazine.

Here are some tips I learned from my experience:

• Remember not to be selfish in your writing.
• Satisfy your readers first and deadline second.
• Ask others to read your work and provide honest feedback.
• If someone criticizes your work, take that as an opportunity for improvement.

Facebook introduced Community Pages at the F8 Conference, where they also introduced the transition from “Become a Fan” to “Like.” These unofficial pages aggregate information from Wikipedia and related posts from Facebook users, i.e. posts that mention the school/brand.

Unfortunately, there was little communication or education for Page Admins to gain an understanding of what these Community Pages are and how they affect the Facebook user experience. I’ve heard from many people that they just don’t understand where these pages are popping up from, or how they can be linked to existing, branded Facebook pages, or how the content can be managed.

First, let me perhaps clear up the source of the confusion. When Facebook released its latest updates, users were asked to update their profiles by changing plain text in their Personal Info section into links to Facebook Pages, whether they’re official, unofficial or community pages.

When your alumni, students or employees make this change, “XX School” in their education or employer info now becomes a link to a Facebook-created Community Page for “XX School” as opposed to the official page that already has a COMMUNITY! Users can’t control which page they’re linking to by listing your school in their info.

If you run a Facebook search for your school or if you’ve already run across some of these duplicate Community Pages under your school’s name, you may have seen this logo with the graduation cap (if your school’s logo wasn’t already aggregated). This is Facebook’s general logo for “Education,” meaning that people have listed your school in their Education info. Also, you may have seen the briefcase logo, meaning that employees have listed it as their employer. Separate pages for separate meanings.

5 big problems that Community Pages have caused for Page Admins

1. Users can’t control which page they’re linking to by listing your school in their info section. Currently, it seems that Facebook is directing Work & Education information only to Community Pages, ignoring the fact that many schools and companies already have pages on Facebook.

2. The aggregated information is worthless. Community Pages are just a dumping ground, a jumbled, unorganized mess. If I wanted to read a Wikipedia article, I’d go to Wikipedia. And the related posts are mostly worthless and sometimes unrelated. Actually, it has caused some amount of stress for some schools and brands simply because the aggregated posts include some jibing and distasteful remarks. This is a risk of social media, though.

3. More pages equal more confusion for users. I did a search for our school and came up with 76 pages — 1 being our official page. (Most of these were the name of the school and a class year.) Our official page is easily identifiable from the rest, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the ongoing list of Community Pages would be confusing to the average Facebook user.

4. No one has editing control over the content of a Community Page. Branded pages have Page Admins who have authority to post content to the wall, reply to wall posts and update information. Community Pages are literally run by the community, which is a good thing and a bad thing. I strongly believe in two-way communication with social media; therefore, contributions from the community are important. But when it’s just being aggregated without any type of conversation, it’s useless.

5. Privacy, privacy, privacy. A few months back, Facebook gave the option to users to share content with EVERYONE, which means that users who choose this option are making their status updates/pictures/links/notes/etc. available to the entire world wide web, Community Pages included. (I’m not sure why anyone would put their settings on “Everyone,” considering the original lure of Facebook is that you limit your information to a select group of friends or networks.) Anyway, if you’re wondering how those related posts get onto a Community Page, it is because that user is basically allowing Facebook to aggregate “Nothing like a little Bob Dylan to get the day started!” onto the Bob Dylan page.

What you can do

If you haven’t already, go to www.facebook.com/username and grab the username for your official page. Then, in all of your communication, you should direct people to that URL instead of saying “Find us on Facebook.”

Check your own privacy settings. If you don’t want that post about your stupid boss showing up in the public feed, don’t set any of your settings to “Everyone.”

When you land on a Community Page duplicating your organization, you’ll see some options laid out in a highlighted box at the top of the page. You can sign up to help out when Facebook wants your help (yeah, right), or you can provide links to the correct Wikipedia article, official site, or official Facebook page. A word of warning, though: Don’t expect immediate results from these actions. I’ve heard from many people that have entered the URL for the official page weeks ago with no results yet.

Related Articles:
Facebook Hates Your Brand by Michael Fienen on .eduGuru
Why Facebook Community Pages Could Be Bad News For Brands on eModeration Blog

It’s impossible to deny that cell phones have become an increasing part of our daily lives in the past decade. They have evolved from an emergency phone line in our cars to a way to get ahold of someone when they’re not home, and now they have become a calendar, task manager, address book, inbox, social networker, news feed, camera and entertainment system all in one handheld device. Oh, and it also works as a phone, too.

People are using their smartphones (as well as plain old cell phones) to access information on the web from anywhere. According to the same Pew Research study, 1 in 4 cell phone users have accessed the web for information via their mobile devices. Forty percent of mobile users surf the mobile web in places other than home or work.

If you think about a school’s primary audience, you’re talking about parents – parents who are always on the go. They want information up-to-the-minute and accessible wherever they happen to be, whether that’s home, work, car, plane or wherever.

If you’re not already tracking analytics for mobile users of your web site, now is the time to start. Talk to your web provider or dig into your Google analytics to find out how many people are accessing your web site from a mobile device.

From there, I think it’s a fantastic idea to dig into the types of devices being used to access your web site on the go. For us, the iPhone far outweighs any other mobile device (averaging 2/3 of mobile views), with iPod Touch falling into second place. (Geek alert: I was very excited to see iPad creeping into the April report.)

A mobile web strategy is going to continue to rise in importance as we watch the evolution of mobile devices and the increasing need to grab information on the go. Start to think about the opportunities that exist for your school in the mobile world. How can you make your current web site mobile-friendly? Do you need a dedicated mobile web site? Should you start looking at mobile apps (iPhone/Droid/Blackberry/etc.)? Which app platform makes sense for your audience?

Most importantly, consider the content that you want to be accessible via mobile. It’s the content that matters, not the technology.

Facebook seems to be attempting world domination of the word “like,” eerily similar to the ubiquitous use of the word “tweet” across the web in the past couple years.

Here are some of the changes Facebook has made in its attempt to use the word “like” more than ever:

• Changing fan pages to “Like” pages (although the jury is still out on whether this terminology has actually changed) – Instead of “becoming a fan” of a page, you now just “like” the page.
• Separating brand pages and community pages – Facebook is hoping that the move to “liking” pages will alleviate some of the problems they faced with monitoring non-branded fan pages (i.e., I <3 sleep, Cooking, etc.). Community pages get their content from users who make their status updates public to everyone. (Another reason to check those privacy settings.)
• Connected profiles – When you “like” a page on Facebook, it will now be linked in the Likes and Interests section of your Info.
• Web-wide “Like” button – Facebook will introduce a button that can be added to any website, allowing users to share their affinity for anything on the web.

What I see as the biggest implication of these changes for school page administrators lies in the slight change from “becoming a fan” to “liking” pages. The latter is easier for users to do. It implies less commitment on their part. Facebook sees this as a good thing, because your numbers will rise more quickly. But social media isn’t all about the numbers. As I wrote earlier, it’s about the relationships.

Another big “dislike” in my book: Page admins have to change the wording in all of their publications and update any old icons. I really wish Facebook would just pick a set of terminology and stick with it for more than a year.