Blake: Work Priorities

What’s New?

“Thank you very much for helping us become part of the Gateway network. I was asked by one of our UniServ directors who oversees the student member program to check into your service, because he called your Web site “very popular” with the students and an “incredibly useful tool for resources.” Thank you for your prompt attention and allowing us to join! I have promoted your site in several areas of our own Web site and will also do so in our next newsletter.”

(Ken Potter, SDEA Communication Specialist, South Dakota)

We at the Gateway thank you Ken and welcome all of our new members from South Dakota!
NEA and your state affiliate recognize that great public schools are the result of motivated students, involved parents, and well-prepared, innovative educators. The Gateway is a great opportunity for educators to expand their professional repertoire, exchange ideas, and individualize instruction.

NEA renews support for Gateway to 21st Century Materials. Moving ahead in 2007-08, GEM currently hosts 13 branded affiliates, one college of education and 3 State Department's of Education.

NEA will meet at the end of the month and in November to plan upcoming innovations to:

1. Engage more state affiliates to brand
2. Engage Colleges of Education to brand with GEM and add to their Web pages
3. Brand GEM with MySpace, Google, Digg and other search/news/social networking tools
4. Continue viral campaigning of NEA programs, issues and products via GEM
5. Continue to add innovative functionality to GEM--e.g., update browser toolbars, YouTube educational pieces, etc.

[Read MOU]

Many hours went into resdesigning and relocating Academy content to a new knowledge management schema (Blog) design.

[view new design]

We badly need to develop supporting guidelines that will help guide our affiliates around communicating more effectively with members about the benefits & pitfalls of blogging and social networking.

This week, I'm training the NEA UniServ Academy and have been instructing participants on the value of modernizing collective action for the 21st Century. I believe social networking and Web 2.0 tools like Blogging are very effective technologies and need to be embraced by our Union. This group--a rather young group of folks--understands the power of these new technology tools and each has created their own blog.

That said, one of our UniServ participants from Ohio shared with me this excerpt from a pamphlet distributed by OEA :

Important Information! MySpace and Facebook

MySpace and Facebook present a unique set of problems for education employees. Look for an in-depth article on the subject in an upcoming issue of Ohio Schools. In the meantime[sic] here are a few suggestions that you can share with your colleagues.

The OEA strongly encourages members to avoid MySpace and Facebook. OEA advises members not to join, and for existing users to complete the steps involved in removing their profiles.

While this advice might seem extreme, the dangers of participating in these two sites outweigh the benefits.

[...]

This type association communication is disturbing [read: embarrassing] for several reasons:

1. NEA headquarters implies support and encourages members to use and even "join" social networking and blogging sites (ESEA, College Affordability, Campaign 08, etc.)

2. Younger members will view this advice as alarmist and completely "old-school." For many of them, MySpace and Facebook are a central part of their lives (see next posting: "OutSide NEA").

3. These new Web 2.0 tools are our Association's chance to modernize and communicate the value of collective action to new, younger members. We need to collectively act to preserve members' rights to manage and maintain their access to online tools just as we did in the 70s with defending the association’s right to access school mailboxes… email and Net access (e-rate).

4. We can’t afford to lose this important opportunity to meet and organize a new breed of members online.

Grandpa, Dennis the Menace, Betty Crocker, and a jelly bean. Oh the personalities represented in my classroom.

Today Dennis the Menace made a few poor choices. Hitting, scratching, yelling - generally naughty things. After constantly reprimanding and taking away privileges from Dennis, the other students began to sigh and groan whenever he did the wrong thing. Just before the day was out, Dennis pulled his last trick out of the bag and was about to fling a coin across the room when Grandpa hopped up from his shape on the rug and forcefully blurted out, “NO, don’t!” Dennis, a bit startled, turned and made a face - but he put the coin away.

[Read New Teacher Diaries]

[By Janet Kornblum, USA TODAY]

Shanda Edstrom can't stop herself. Every day — pretty much no matter where she is — she's just gotta go to MySpace.

Her friends are there. Her former high school classmates hang out there. Heck, these days it seems like every teen and twentysomething in the USA is there.

"I'm on it every day for like two hours at a minimum," says Edstrom, 18, of Clackamas, Ore., who works at a Kinko's in Portland. "It's just crazy."

Forget the mall. Forget the movies. Forget school. Forget even AOL. If you're a teen in America today, the place to be is the social networking site MySpace, which has virtually exploded in the past few months.

[Read Online]

[Excerpt from: Good Experience
October 24 2007
By Mark Hurst
online@ (sign up): http://goodexperience.com/signup.php]

What does Web 2.0 mean to people over 50 years old?

Put another way, what do grandparents do online? (Do they blog? Do they tag? Do they "Facebook"? )

These are important questions for Grandparents.com, a Web startup aimed at those very users. I recently worked with the company, with a team from Creative Good, to answer those questions and help the Grandparents.com team chart its way forward.

We did some interviews of various association members and staff to use for the "Strong Affiliates" conference opener.

Each runs about 2-4 minutes and there are seven videos. In total, I reviewed and edited 4.5 hours of footage for this event.

Each was asked the following questions:

1. How has being involved in the association impacted you in your work and personally?
2. How does your association make a difference in the lives of public school children, members and your life?
3. What are you doing within your association to help create change for our children and familis in our schools as well as for other members and yourself?

Some very interesting answers that I think inform our work. Please share with other unit folks that you think might benefit from these videos...

View videos here:

• UniServ Staffer
• UniServ Staffer
• Elementary School Teacher
• ESP
• 5th-Grade Teacher
• 1st-Grade Teacher
• UniServ Staffer