The TWAIN blog

I have been an avid user of Facebook since it went public in 2006. Originally it was designed only for college use to link students together at Harvard. Back in 2004, the social network was linking only Harvard, Stanford, and Yale in a way to create a “living yearbook”. I remember reading about it in an article when it was originally title The Facebook and its address was thefacebook.com. From 2004 to 2006, it was only open to college students and accounts were generated based on students having an email address recognized in the system. It was impossible to get in on it unless you had that @edu address.

In 2006, the site opened up to allow non-university users and the floodgates opened. I joined up when I read it allowed us all to have access and I have been keeping up with friends, family, colleagues, old church youth group pals, former students, and so on ever since. My network consists of over 400 “friends” and I post videos, links, blogs, notes, games, etc. in what I consider a living blog.

It is different in many ways to this blog because of the instant response it generates. I get more response to a funny video post there than any post I generate here. Instant-gratification! I don’t have to Twitter that I posted a new blog post either. I don’t have to publicize my new posts there because it auto-feeds my note to the entire network.

I see colleagues in my profession with profiles on the site but they don’t seem to take full advantage of what Facebook offers. Some have it set to receive and feed their Twitters and/or Plurks. But to me that seems like it isn’t proactive enough. It seems like it is just another feeder for the same information. There isn’t interaction in the same way as a blog itself. There doesn’t seem to be the two-way or even 30-way communication when something is shared with commentary on the timeline.

I wonder if people are still adjusting to Facebook and take it way too seriously?

I don’t see it as a professional tool though I do see how it can be used that way. I see it as a way to share the things I find in my daily web travels. From the interesting to the sublime, there are some really interesting things to share on the web. I keep my commentary to a minimum and let the conversation build from the social circles I have developed over the years.

It is blogging-lite! It’s crass and baudy at times but I think it keeps it interesting. I get comments asking me where I find such odd items to post and I share how I harness the web with so many tools. I still get to teach my former students and co-workers but it isn’t planned. It’s live conversation taking place on the timeline.

My hope is that more people take advantage of the possibilities to use Facebook in a way that reaches out beyond streaming what they post on other timeline tools like Twitter and Plurk. Integrate some fun into your timeline! Share a funny YouTube video you found and start a discussion on why it made you laugh. Talk about the social activities you engage in outside your professional world. Take pictures of what is in your yard or something interesting you found in your town. Yes, be concerned about social media professionalism but don’t be stodgy!

It’s okay to have fun every now and then. Anyone else enjoying Facebook?

My profile is http://www.facebook.com/mrjadkins. Stop by for some fun!

I have designed a site just for school secretaries on NING.

School secretaries and receptionists are the ones really running the schools…right? I mean, these people know everything and are the gate keepers for who gets what information. They are also the last ones to get training. We train teachers. We train students. We work with our administrators. We have NETS*S, NETS*T, and NETS*A along with STaR charts, LoTI, and other tech assessments for these groups. We provide tools for them to use to connect to the world-wide network. We develop e-plans and technology integration tools for them; but we neglect the areas that need more than just Microsoft Office tips.

Welcome to the Human Network. http://schoolsecretaries.ning.com/ Welcome to proactive training.

I have always held secretaries in a special place in my heart since I used to work for a church and worked very closely with the secretaries there. I have also worked at campuses with many secretaries who say they want to learn to do things easier and better. They attended those trainings for teachers and then implemented some of the tools in their own job. They were also so amazed that teachers were given training opportunities but more amazed when teachers refused to attend them.

There is little training for school secretaries. They don’t have time to leave their desks. They don’t get subs.

I have seen secretaries who do no more than handle one person’s agenda, phone calls, and typing. I have also seen secretaries who are the secretaries for an entire campus and they handle…..everything.

Truth is….we don’t appreciate them enough to consider them worth training. And our skill-set for training often doesn’t include office management tools either.

So, with that being said, what can be done? What can we do right now to start training secretaries and providing them with tools to help them do their job better? Immediately, I believe we connect them to each other. Secretaries have their own ways of managing their own time and the time of others. They have resources we cannot imagine at their fingertips. The best trainers for them….are going to be each other. So, connect them to each other to let them share what works best. NING allows them to do this.

Let them start small: Share something you do to keep your desk organized. Share a humorous experience. Share something to the group that is a time saver.

Easy things to get them to start conversing with each other.

The question for later is – how will them having a NING impact their campus? The person the administrator relies on for handling their communication is now using Web 2.0 tools to engage and collaborate with others. Will this impact their office communication? Will this help them see other ways to communicate? I am going to bet yes on this one.

So, I offer up the http://schoolsecretaries.ning.com to anyone else out there who would like to get this ball rolling for our most under trained staff at our campuses who could benefit getting the word out the most about technology.

November 4 marked the introduction of a new president-elect for our nation. It also marked the end of equality in California as defined by the act of marriage for both heterosexuals and homosexuals. The campaign funding for both opponents and proponents raised $35 million for proponents and $37 million for the opposition to Prop 8. Close gap for funding. The vote was close as well: 52% voted yes for Prop 8 and 48% voted no.

Whether you are for Proposition 8 or against it doesn’t matter here. This message is about the rise of a civil rights movement under our noses but using the technology to connect nationwide. I ran a search on Facebook this morning and found over 108 groups already setup to join members of Facebook to petition against “Proposition H8″. Over 500 with the use of the words “Proposition 8″ and another 500 using the phrase “Prop 8″. I ran a Google search on these titles and found many wikis, blogs, websites, and videos for and against Proposition 8. I also found sites that were actively recruiting for future planned events for protesting these causes as well.

This past weekend, major cities (and some smaller ones as well) had protesters at their capital buildings voicing opposition to California’s reversal of marriage rights. How did all these protesters organize? And what’ next for them?

They organized using the same tools we are using in education – Web 2.0, social networking, social streaming. They too are part of the “Human Network” as Cisco calls it in their commercials.

Without listing different sites and all different perspectives here, just know that there is a network supporting or protesting the movement for same-sex marriage nationwide. There is a civil movement taking place around us. And they are planning more events and more ways to spread the message using these social networks and social impact resources.

Imagine 1955 if Rosa Parks had a wiki or a Twitter about her day on a bus. What if the Million Man march in Washington was advocated on a NING, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.? How would the anti-war demonstrations of the Vietnam war gone if they had Web 2.0 tools?

Beyond just this current movement, our president-elect has plans on his site to deliver a weekly video state of the union address using YouTube embedded videos. He already used Twitter to cover his movements in the campaign. Now, he is embracing change using the technology tools.

Now is the time to get our teachers and administrators onboard. The world is passing all of us by when we are limiting the access to these tools to our students and teachers. The world is connecting around us and we are still in the “one-room schoolhouse” mentality. A civil-rights movement is underfoot here in the US of A. What better time to introduce the idea of collaborative network environments than with the movement of civil action? Now is the time to share about “Personal Learning Communities” as these protesting communities are developing and working together world-wide.

Now is the time for our teachers, administrators, students, etc. to connect to connecting.