The TWAIN blog

As Twitter has surged in popularity, there have been many stories circulating about how people found answers to questions/complaints within a short amount of time. I have always been amazed at these stories but never really experienced it for myself….until yesterday.

We had a board meeting this week and a board member requested a service to show the policy adjustments from TASB and LOCAL documentation in a way similar to a revision history. The board member described it as a type of transparent overlay to see how the document changes per draft. I know that this can be done by using Word and strikethrough tools but we were looking for something a little more automated.

So…I posted on Twitter: “Any ideas? Trying to find a quick method for viewing TASB policy changes in one document. One file showing all revisions made in three clix.” Within 90 minutes, I received an email from Marvin Long in TASB Policy Services asking me to verify that I was the “mradkins” who posted the question on Twitter. I verified and received instructions on exactly what we needed to do to download this documentation directly from TASB.

We did not need to do anything on our end except login and download the files from TASB. They already have this on their website available for download. I have their instructions posted below if you would like to share with your Superintendents.

I am amazed at how quickly this was handled. I didn’t even have time to ask the question on our TEC-SIG listserv where I would need to wait at least 12 hours for most of the responses. I didn’t hash-mark the TASB question on Twitter either; which usually links it directly to the organization. Marvin informed me that the TASB Communications Director has been very proactive in monitoring Twitter for TASB mentions. Great job! She found me and directed my post to the right person!

All in all, I am still amazed at how great Twitter is working for finding information so quickly. Yesterday I was able to mention to my CTE Director the instant information posted by TEA on Twitter about CTE articulation happening at that moment. I am really pushing the idea of Twitter to my admininstrators to show how instant information is being passed around. With yesterday’s example, it is getting easier to share.

Information is literally at my fingertips and I think that may frighten people….well….until they become Twitter addicts themselves.

Anyone else out there with a personal Twitter experience like this?

Here is the information for viewing draft revisions to board policy:

1. Go to TASB.org
2. Log into their myTASB accounts
3. Access the Policy Service Resource Library and then click a utility called Local Manual Updates.

This will allow them to download documents pertaining to updates of board policy, including a file called “(LOCAL) Policy Comparison.” This PDF file contains annotated copies of the local policies in a given update.

Anyway, by means of Local Manual Updates, the superintendent’s office can retrieve a PDF containing annotated local policies and distribute that to the board, if that’s what’s desired.

On the other hand, if you’re not satisfied with TASB’s proposed text and want to make further changes of your own, you can also download (again from Local Manual Updates) a zipped archive containing the proposed new local policies in Word. These are not annotated. However, you can make your own annotations in a couple of ways:

· You can perform a document comparison of your own between the proposed new policy and a copy of your current local policy (perhaps downloaded from Policy On Line).

· You can use the track changes feature in Word to automatically annotate your own changes. (Combine these two methods, and you can show a combination of TASB’s proposals and your own changes.)