Ragan.com
[online@ http://www.ragan.com/]
By Michael Sebastian
michaels@ragan.com

Ranging from who should write your blog to the value of images, here are 10 lessons from business blogs that have flourished...

Maintained by Meg Secatore and Joy Beckwith, Massachusetts Teachers Association, for MTA and NEA workshop participants.

Visit: Job Hunting Tips for the Happily Employed

online@ LookupPage Blog

Creating a web presence and building your Google CV is extremely difficult without using social, consumer generated media. Here is some insight into areas for optimisation and interaction:

[online@The Providence Journal]

ORONO, Maine (AP) -- Twitter, the online social networking service that's become popular with celebrities and politicians, is linking second-grade classes in two Maine towns.

Mrs. White's class in Orono has been Twittering for about a month with Mr. Thompson's class in Greene, exchanging messages that can't exceed 140 characters.

Debbie White said she decided to bring the micro-blogging site to her classroom to help her pupils learn writing skills by composing messages, known as Tweets.

Most of the students seem to be enjoying the exercise. Some say it's like having pen pals online.

DMEA has created a Wiki to manage content aimed at supporting first-year teachers. Check it out...

http://dmea.wikispaces.com/

by Heather Mansfield

Published March 11, 2009 @ 06:42AM PST online@http://nonprofits.change.org

Newsweek said it best: "Suddenly, all the world is a-Twitter." Simple and powerful, Twitter is a must for nonprofit organizations. I created and manage a portal to nonprofits on Twitter @nonprofitorgs and based on my experience using site, I have crafted ten of my favorite Twitter Tips for beginners:

Gateway to 21st Century Skills Update

March, 2009 - 83.5% of visitors add the Gateway to 21st Century Skills to browser favorites!

Over 80 % of the visitors to the Gateway to 21st Century Skills added our Gateway site to their browser favorites or bookmarks in the month of February 2009. Mid month of March, 83.5% have added the Gateway to their favorites or bookmarks.

Facebook: NEA Fan Page statistics. 69% of participants are between the ages of 18 and 44 years old and 73% of all activity is generated by females...

Twitter

If you've ever had a question for President Obama that you wish you could ask at a press conference, you're in luck.

A new initiative called Ask the President aims to do just that. The site lets you post a video or text question for President Obama and vote on your favorites. Then the project's three partners -- Personal Democracy Forum, The Nation, and The Washington Times -- will get a credentialed journalist to ask one of the most popular questions at every press conference. (Change.org is also a sponsor.)

Strategic Guy; Online@ http://strategicguy.blogspot.com/2008/04/spielberg-lonelygirl15-and-entertaining.html

Public relations has traditionally been defined by education and engagement. Communications executives excel at forming meaningful, mutually beneficial relationships with an organization’s key stakeholders. Often mischaracterized as spin or influence peddling, public relations practiced ethically presents a perspective, opinion or corporate story, and then encourages dialogue and debate. That's how relationships are formed.

The requirements of PR professionals have changed more rapidly in the past year and a half than at any time[.] In addition to education and engagement, we need to add a third "e" to the public relations skill set -- entertainment. The ability to capture and hold an audience's attention in unique and innovative ways is a must for any communications program to achieve its benchmarks. It's comparable to the creative spirit that permeates Hollywood, Broadway or the Web 2.0 start-ups in Silicon Valley.

[Continue reading @Strategic Guy]

Broward County Public Schools has initiated a Twitter account to keep students, parents and the public updated with the latest news and information about the nation’s sixth-largest public school system. The District’s free Twitter account provides a variety of information, including the latest press releases, notifications, changes in School Board schedules, emergency updates and more.

There are over 100,000 C-level executives on Twitter today but it's difficult to know how to find them, which to follow, and where the most important conversations are happening. Not anymore. Now Federated Media, Twitter and Microsoft have created ExecTweets, a real-time tool that helps you to find, follow and engage with the world’s most prolific and successful business executives on Twitter.

ExecTweets cuts through the clutter and provides only the most relevant and insightful business-focused conversations - all curated and aggregated into industry verticals like Healthcare, Retail, Finance and more. You can now easily find the best, most important conversations happening between influencers in your industry. You can also nominate executives to be included in ExecTweets (your boss will be flattered).

Visit ExecTweets

So you’re in D.C. on business. After a long day of meetings, you’d like to go somewhere like the corner café back home. So you pull out your BlackBerry, fire up an application called CitySense, and bingo, it points you to the perfect little hip coffeehouse.

Citysense is an innovative mobile application for real-time nightlife discovery and social navigation, answering the question, "Where is everybody going right now?"

eSchool News
Story online@http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=57889By Maya T. Prabhu, Assistant Editor

In annual educational technology survey, students say they want more access to mobile devices and online courses

Looking for ideas on how to spend federal stimulus dollars to enhance educational technology? Project Tomorrow has a suggestion: Listen to what students say they'd like to see in their schools.

By PATRICK CONDON – 3 days ago [online@ http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iMzWHJ1dbZprUz9QXxfO3FsaIg9QD975V6FG2

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — When Kevin Tobosa got word Thursday that a friend needed help building a sandbag dike, he immediately posted a status update on his Facebook page: "Heading to 2825 Lilac Lane in North Fargo — needs to be raised another 2 feet."

When city officials needed volunteers at other dikes, Tobosa suggested setting up a Facebook group. By Thursday, it had attracted more than 4,550 members and was constantly picking up new ones.