My Beauty Best Teacher

Searching for Facts image from Bigstock.

Social media impacts lives. When you have someone in a controversial matter like the wrong thing or say the wrong thing it can cause a snowball that can influence and even harm.

I've seen this first hand. I know people who've lost jobs, seen marriages destroyed, and organizations teeter on the brink of nonexistence through poorly thought-out likes, unfriending, and comments. Perhaps it is because I live in a small town where there are no secrets.

It makes me angry when people who should know better casually post or comment and assume things that just aren't true. So, I'm going to get these lies out on the table. Every one of these 11 has a example  that I have personally witnessed. This is real and real life. Please wake up and understand what social media is and is not.

#11 Social media is free.
Everything comes with a price. Facebook is funded by advertising. In the advertising model they need to sell advertising and need to have happy advertisers. To have happy advertisers the advertisements need to "work" so Facebook must make sure that the ads served on their site hit the proper target. Good companies know the ages, genders, and even more details about their target market. This means that as you use Facebook you are being tracked through the use of cookies (a tiny file on your computer that stores information) and your profile data (all that data you give your "friends" also belongs to Facebook.)

Although the FTC has now required Facebook to allow users to "opt in" for Facebook privacy changes, you are giving up quite a bit of freedom as you surf, particularly when you log into Facebook. What I've seen happen to students is that if a student surfs to a somewhat inappropriate site or goes to a site that they would never go to for research projects, it can effect the kind of ads they start seeing on their page.

Ads on my Facebook page today.

So, for example, a child logs into Facebook with parents over shoulder - now the child is getting seedy ads or things showing on their page that aren't age appropriate because of some iffy searching habits from earlier in the week. Parents should notice the ads coming up on Facebook pages because it tells you a lot about your child's interests. The same is true for us adults.

The result is that the ads that show on your Facebook page tell a lot about you. Shown to the right are the ads I have on my facebook page today. First of all, I'm a coupon clipper and a Mom and I do shop online - so I have two ads relating to the fact that I shop. Another ad is for an event in Tallahassee - I do like cultural events and I live close to there. Finally, I am a bit of a health conscious person and I have recently shopped for some new vitamins online and do buy green matcha tea online. I have acupuncture atlanta showing up. See how this works?

Of particular interest is an article that will be in Forbes magazine on December 5, 2011 (Facebook's new advertising model: You) that talks about how your likes of a product will now be shown in ads for your FRIENDS. So, a movie ad may show a friend who has liked that ad. Or, a store may actually show someone who "likes" that store. Their research shows that a person is more likely to remember an ad with the name of a friend in it! I see a whole new set of privacy concerns coming with this advertising model.

Just how deeply they will dig into your shopping and buying habits or if this is just being generated off of likes is anyone's guess. Personally, I don't want my "endorsement" on anything without my permission. Just because I buy it doesn't mean I "endorse" it. I buy male sports garments for my 16 year old athlete, for goodness sakes - I could only imagine how that would turn out.


#10 Social media is just social

Jane Hart's Top 100 Tools for Learning survey results

Social media has a real impact in all areas of our life. Professional, personal, educational. In fact Twitter was listed as the top educational resource for the last two years in Jane Hart's annual poll of the top 100 tools for learning.

You may use a website socially but if you go home and make a comment about a bad day (See how to lose your job in 140 characters or less) or obnoxious client or sucky boss or give out private information and everyone knows who you're talking about you will have very real consequences in your life that can extend to your pocketbook, where you live, your job and all aspects of your life. The sooner people realize that social media is life media the better off we'll all be.

Likewise if you learn something powerful or make a connection, you can reap big dividends in your life both financially, personally, and in positive learning experiences for your students.

#9 People understand context.
Imagine kids doing a project about cyberbullying and they take a photo and upload to their Facebook to grab a screenshot and film (instead of using photoshop.) It gets uploaded in school, looks like an awful event, and everyone thinks it is really happening. The students take it down but the damage is done.

Every photo you use should be real. Be careful about using your social media sites for a "project" especially on a controversial topic. If it isn't real, don't upload it. Period. Don't experiment in places where you can do permanent damage. This is why people studying to be doctors operate on cadavers not real people as they begin.

I know a student who posted a fake status update to "see what would happen." Another student posted an April fool's joke that his house was robbed only to have the neighbors show up at their door 10 minutes after the post was made from his cell phone.

This is especially important for teachers to tell students if you allow the use of social media at your school.

#8 Profiles are accurate
People use photos from 10 years a go. They lie about their age. They may even lie about who they say they are or what they are doing for a living. Be a smidge wary when you first "meet" people particularly if you don't "know" them and decided to friend or follow because of mutual "friends." (See #2.)

I have students who are presenting at the Global Education conference who are filming an expose called "Cute little liars" where they created a fake profile and friended kids they knew to be under 13. Over half the students accepted the request. They are doing investigative reporting to uncover why.

Facebook Terms of Service

Right now, people can make fake profiles and enter fake data, but interestingly, here in the US, the Department of Justice wants to make it a federal crime to violate a website's terms of service. If that is the case, they may have to lock up half of the 10-12 year olds I know who are all lying to get a Facebook profile. (In my opinion, this is a slippery slope- who is watching those who write terms of service to make sure that they are fair to users and how many users take the time to read the TOS anyway? They are important they are just so long the average person doesn't read or understand them.)




#7 People not on that site don't see your stuff
In fact, I've seen things people posted printed out and handed around. Just because someone is not on Facebook or Twitter does not mean they cannot see your stuff. Someone can print it out or screenshot it and everyone can see it as it is handed around at the local gas station. The fact that someone is social media illiterate gives you no protection at all from their prying eyes. (See also #2.)

Reporting requires a Facebook account.

#6 You don't HAVE to have a page on their site to be treated fairly.
In fact, you do if you're going to protect your identity. I had a student here at Westwood who didn't want to get on Facebook. However, someone on Facebook with lots of pornographic links snagged her photo from a project and uploaded it as his profile picture.

She had named her picture her first name so it turned up in google search when her name was typed. Facebook would not let her report it and would not respond to her until she had a profile for a month with multiple pictures of her on it proving that she was that person in order for them to get the other person to stop using her photo. In effect, you have no right to complain about content unless you are on that site and a "real person" to them.

It says that you can have your friend report it and her friends did report it. However, they said because my student wasn't on Facebook and didn't have any photos of herself uploaded, that they couldn't verify that those photos were actually stolen from someone because she didn't exist to Facebook.

I heard an 80 year old woman call into Leo Laporte "the Tech guy" complaining that people were making things up about her on Facebook and his answer was that if she wasn't online and didn't use the Internet that there wasn't really anything she could do about it.

#5 You have a license to your work
Screen snipping software comes with every operating system I know of. It is easy to take photos. It is easy to PhotoShop off watermarks. Licenses should be respected, yes, but know that there are always pirates. It is no reason to run to the hills but remember that if you don't want it stolen that you should take some steps to protect it - especially photos of you and your children. Those are photos that you may have problems with people taking (at least I would.) I take steps to protect those photos.


Also, if you use just about any site that lets you upload photos, you may have lost the license already. For example, did you know that on Facebook according to their Terms of Service:

1. "For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it. 

2. When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others)."

This was brought to light when a woman who shot a picture and video of a shuttle launch from the air was surprised to see her video used without permission. They had contacted Twitpic, the place she uploaded the content, an according to their terms of service if Twitpic gives permission - they can have it without contacting the user. Sites like flickr support and have licenses but remember that you may not have the license you think you have if the terms of service claim rights for the service.

#4 Your password is secure
Many people use the same password for everything. Some websites have protection measures in place and others do not. You are only secure as the least secure website you have used that password on. You should have unique passwords for banking, Facebook, and email in my opinion. So what if it is a pain. What is your identity and reputation worth?

See also Lifehacker's Guide to Sniffing Out Passwords and Cookies (and how to protect yourself against it.)  If you're not logging in using https, your password is easy to intercept. Also make sure your web browser is updated. Many sites don't support https and if they do not, your password can be easily intercepted. (One suggestion worth taking in the article is: "Everywhere is that it only redirects sites in its list, so if you'd like to be able to redirect any site to HTTPS, you may want to check out Force-TLS for Firefox or HTTPS Everywhere for Chrome. Both of these extensions allow you to add new sites to the automatic HTTPS redirect.")

#3 Delete will delete something
Delete doesn't really happen. Some companies (like Facebook) keep the original photo and just delete the link to your account. The permalink is still there. Plus you have the fact that files when deleted are still there - either in the recycle bin on on that hard drive or on a backup. Someone on this planet can always get to it.

Friends photo from Bigstock

#2 Your friends are really friends
Just because Facebook calls them friends doesn't mean that they are. If you tick the wrong person off, they'll screenshot your "private" rant faster than you can open and shut your back door.

A companion to this statement is that "your friends friends are really their friends." Overfriending is a problem and many people got online and started friending. Although they may be more selective now, people tend to not want to unfriend people. Just because you have mutual friends doesn't mean a thing. If you accept on the basis of "mutual friends" you are leaving your vetting up to people who just may not care or were uneducated at some point about how to friend.

#1 You have privacy settings
Yes, you can "lock down" your account, but truly nothing is really private. If anyone besides you is on your page, you still have all those anonymous administrators or hackers who can get to your account through the back door or a security hole. Sure, set your private settings and "lock it down" but remember that if you don't want it shared that you shouldn't share it.

Plus, it is easy to cross post from one platform to another. You may have protected tweets on Twitter but if you cross post to Facebook and are set to Friends of Friends EVERYONE can read your tweets.

Nothing is private if it is online.

Why use social media at all?
All this being said, I am a huge social media fan. My life has been improved by social media. I have received book contracts, new friends from around the world, new best practices for my classroom, and trips to incredible places. Social media has been a very positive influence in my life. I've had my own share of gaffe's and mess ups -- that is a fact!

But I think it is time to wake up and realize that this stuff is for real and that offhand comments can crush and hurt people.

Be careful what you say especially when it is in writing or electronic format. A like can have just as much impact as if you said it yourself. Like means you agree in the eyes of many because of the word that Facebook chose to use.

Social media has added to my life because there are incredible people in my sphere of socializing.What you get out of your time engaged with social media is directly proportional to the number and kind of people you socialize with online.

I've seen teachers get on Twitter and follow no one and say,

"I don't get Twitter."

That's because Twitter isn't solo. Find the people who are using Twitter, like Jerry Blumengarten (@cybraryman1) and Angela Maiers (@angelamaiers), and you'll learn a lot from them.

If you don't get Google+ (and I don't really... yet, but I will) then follow people like Peter Vogel or Chris Porter who do.

If you don't understand Facebook, I've really found that Mari Smith has helped me get it. And in the last month or two, I've been enjoying my twice daily visits to Facebook. (5:45 am and 7 pm ;-)

These people help us understand how to have effective conversations.

Cool Teacher Conversations on Facebook
Over there on my fanpage, it has become a teacher conversation center. In fact, I've been thinking about renaming the page altogether. It isn't about me at all.It is really a place for people to talk about teaching. Now, I know that with the new settings people can follow me on Facebook without having to fan me, but I see my fan page as not about me but about the conversation.

Like a lot of you who blog out there, I cogitate on a subject long before it comes here to my blog. I think about it and ask questions on Twitter about it. But I'm finding that my best answers from real teachers tend to happen on Facebook. Whether we talk about a talkative class (like we are today) or the struggle to keep up with grading, I always find that great ideas are coming in.

Recent conversation about assessments. I keep coming back and learning more.

"Do you want me to teach for this test or teach for their future?"

Lets ask ourselves these questions. I do think textbook companies should look at communities but right now I don't think they want to be in the business of linking up kids - I mean look at the headaches involved? The only way to do this is to create communities of practice undergirded by teachersourcing and community guidelines.

Conversation spaces will emerge but we have a long way to go. Let's start talking about it now.

The Washington Post oped is live The greatest teacher incentive: The freedom to teach  and full of thoughts and words that echoed through my head as a result of the surveys you completed on Monday.

How it was written
Over 130 of you took the time and energy to share your thoughts. Your passion to teach and do what is right took my breath away. NONE of you asked for no accountability. You want to teach well and you want to be held accountable but you believe that the assessment of your proficiency as a teacher is unfair.


The overarching theme
If we told students that we would give them ONE test a year and that their entire grade for the whole year rested on that ONE test, nothing else. What would we see?

We would see parents yelling. We would see students crying. We would see legislators acting against those "horrible teachers" who don't teach.

Well, right now we're not teaching and it is because the assessment of learning happening in schools is not fair either. Some respond to unfairness with the nobility to do the right thing anyway. Applause. You are remembering that teachers are noble.

Others respond by cheating. It is human nature. It is wrong, but the harder and more impossible the task and the higher the stakes, the more the temptation to cheat.

Let your voice be heard
The amazing thing is that by Tweeting, liking, Digging, tumbling, etc. articles that you like, teachers, you wield a lot of power that you do not know that you have. You have the ability to put articles (like mine) on the homepage of the Washington Post! That is what you did -  you've already done it.

Are we just now figuring this out?

Do you know that through social media you can make a difference for the causes you believe in? Your tweets, your comments, your Facebook likes and blog posts linking to the article are votes about what is important to you and what needs to be heard. (Even delicious bookmarks, Tumblr posts, and Diggs count in their algorithms.) Interact with what you think is important: this or anything.

Time to BE Teachers and Show our nobility in our actions
I do hope you read the article, but even more so I hope that if you like this article or any article that you do something with it.

I hope that on all articles that when you are talking about teaching that you comment with respect and dignity befitting your profession, even when unkind, disrespectful people crop up like have come up in the comments. (not many but a few)

I also hope that you make it a habit of BEING a professional and defending the profession. I had said something the other day about a judge and I was taken to task by someone via email for insulting a lawyer - a professional and all the reasons being a lawyer were important and why they were a great profession.

My only thought was this: when someone insults teaching what do we do? We run for the hills? We cower? What! The problem I have with most people who defend teachers is HOW they defend us. We must be noble but we must BE. We must speak.

I love what Dr. Thomas Ho said in his tweet above:

"I commented, will YOU?"

I just think that it is high and mighty time for us to begin defending our profession in deeds, in words, and in the nobility that everyone sees shining forth in who we are and how we conduct ourselves. We aren't whiners. We love our students. We work hard to treat them with dignity. We don't mind accountability, but we do want fairness because unfairness to teachers in the way they deliver teaching trickles down to the classroom and ultimately our students.

We need meaningful discussion not partisan banter and most of all we need to start focusing on our children. They are growing up way too fast and our system is not preparing them for their future.

One final note
I was excited to be asked to write the article. I must admit that at first I was a bit overwhelmed and had a list of names to deflect the opportunity to and even broached the subject with the editor. However, I knew that if I asked those of you IN the public school system that you would tell me what you thought. I also know that by your tweets and follows that you have "voted me" as part of this conversation. As a US citizen and as your friend you are emailing me every day about the heartbreaks you are feeling and your problems.

So, my friends, I decided to write and dedicate this to all of the teachers in US public schools. My friends, you are noble, keep working, there are many people who are listening and echoing your thoughts.

Remember your noble calling, teacher.

Funny how fast things change. I'm finding that some incredible information and graphics are coming to me via Tumblr (see the Beginners Guide to Tumblr I produced a few weeks a go.)

I sent out this quote yesterday:

In the nonstop tsunami of global information, librarians provide us with floaties and teach us to swim.

Linton Weeks, Washington Post (via mountainplainslibraryassociation)(via infoneer-pulse)

My posts from Tumblr automatically go to Twitter. So, then I got a tweet back this morning from Diane McKenzie, librarian extraordinaire in Hong Kong @dimac4:

.@coolcatteacher something I whipped up with inspiration from you http://t.co/qIoUTLC (with many other things to do as well!)

Thus was born the graphic above. Ah, how fast information moves and mashes up. I find that the graphics and videos often spread faster than plain text but perhaps that isn't the case.

There is no doubt that librarians have been taking a hit lately. I think that more librarians like Diane need to be telling their story: what are we doing? Why are we important? What are the amazing things happening through our work? Tumblr is just one way to do that. Flickr is another way. Hey, even youtube.

I believe that the people in a profession who embrace social media to speak the message of what they do should be hailed as heroes. Right now, social media mavens  ARE the media and influence public opinion much more than we'd like to think.

The very life and soul of a profession are now caught up in the social media megaphones lifted by the rank and file.  If your profession doesn't encourage the "average" person to speak out in positive ways then your profession may be headed for trouble.

If librarians provide people with floaties and teach them to swim, then social media mavens have the power to build islands in the middle of the ocean out of a Tweet. The tide of public opinion is at their fingertips and it is time to start taking notice that social media is Media.

Tumblr is a blogging platform that is sort of a cross between Twitter, Facebook and full-scale blogging. While some might use Tumblr as a full blogging platform, from reading a free e-book I picked up on Kindle about the topic (the book isn't free any more btw.)

The growth of Tumblr is surprising.

"Facebook and Twitter have dominated social media in recent years, but a study released by Quantcast Media Analysis has revealed that Tumblr is growing at an outstanding rate, now bringing in more than 250 million views per day spread across almost 19 million blogs. Perhaps even more interesting is that 51% of those views come from males as opposed to females.

Read more: http://technorati.com/blogging/article/could-tumblr-rise-above-facebook-and/#ixzz1NGSq3iAL" 

So, it is time to get your school into social media in a way that is safe, makes sense, and will help your image in the community. We've discussed in Social Media Syndication Part 1: Where is your Audience?why social media is important to schools. In Facebook Friending 101 for Schools (170 tweets on that one) we discussed the impact of Facebook Friends on your teachers, students, and staff.

You've resoundingly flooded my inbox with requests for more on social media and how to get your school in safely - so, let's keep going.

Social media syndication doesn't happen overnight but can be simple, inexpensive, and powerful for your school. For example, in the first week my school's Facebook page had more "likes" than our email newsletter had gotten in two years!

How do we reach everybody?
There is no longer a "one size fits all" communication method. Teachers moan how half the parents don't read the child's folders. (Or separated parents don't give each other the message.) If an email list is used, half the parents don't read their email! Only a few people look at the website!. And on it drones. Why can't we reach everybody?

In our customized society, one size doesn't fit all but all of us fit into some form of communications. Leverage communications to hit most people.

As we discussed in Social Media Syndication Part 1: Where is our audience? We learned that "our audience" is several places:

• Email
• Searching the Internet
• Facebook
• Mobile Phones
• Twitter (the "mavens" or opinion leaders are here)
• Kindle/ ebooks/ iPads
• Looking at their calendars in the device of their choice
• YouTube
• Buying/ Selling/ Giving to Charity Online
• mp3 Players

We also discussed how you no longer need a webmaster but a syndication master. Although I'm talking to schools here, this can apply to anyone wanting to leverage themselves through social media.

Social Media Syndication Principle #1: Select a Few Strategic Platforms
You can't be everywhere but you can be somewhere. And if you're smart, you can make that somewhere look like just about everywhere.


In this case, you can reach your audience by having just a few websites: a blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a YouTube channel. Those are the "Fab 4" of social media. But it is also very helpful to have an embeddable, subscribe-able calendar and a place to share photos although that could be in Phase 2 of your implementation plan.

Remember, to share those social media platforms (as you set them up) through "Bookbag Blast" -- or by running off a flyer letting everyone know where they can get your information. (Know that those who don't like or use social media may push back - let them know you're not excluding them - only trying to reach more people who may not respond or be linked via the bookbag to their child.)

Social Media Syndication Principle #2: Syndicate and Automate with Conduits of Content
You cannot be everywhere at once. The best systems are those that manage themselves. 

When you post to Youtube it should automatically send to your blog, your Facebook page, and your Twitter account - right?

When you post to your blog it should update your homepage, post to Twitter, and send to your Facebook Fan page! You should never have to do what a "dumb" computer can do for you.

In retail the 80's and 90's were about location, location, location. The 2000's are definitely about syndication, syndication, syndication.  When you talk syndication you're also talking AUTOMATION and that means the computer can do it and you don't have to. Instead of you slaving over that copy machine - imagine little robots running around on the internet making virtual copies and doing your heavy lifting for you.

In this scenario, I'm going to recommend five "conduits" to syndicate your content. We'll get to how to do this specifically in future posts.

An example of how this works.
So, looking at a blog site, for example. If you set up a news blog on Blogger (see my school's news blog) if you set up conduits for your content you can:

• send a blog post to RSS Readers, 
• send an email to your subscribers, 
• update the home page of your website, 
• update the Facebook Fan page for your school, 
• send the title to Twitter with "Just blogged this: Insert Title here" 
• and also send it to the Amazon Kindle. 
  (Those who use an RSS reader on their iPad get it through RSS.)

 What is the cost of all of this? Free. Nothing. Nada.

What is the effort required? Only that of setting up the conduits. After that, it is as simple as sending an email or writing a blog post. It is all syndicated and automated.

My sister is a web designer and we have her customers set up to syndicate like this but most web designers won't tell you about these tricks because they know when you realize how easy it is that you may not be calling them twice a month to update things.

Good web designers will give you options. Because they know that fresh content is one key in getting boosted in search engine rankings. You need that.

From your pictures to your videos and lunch menus. You can use social media to reach your audience.

This doesn't need to be hard. We'll tackle how to set up our blogs and the content conduits in the next round of this series.

I'm enjoying this journey, how about you?

Image via CrunchBaseSchools, companies, and individuals all need to share information. Gone are the days that you could print a flyer and plaster it all over your small town to "get the word out." With a million words sending a million messages it can feel daunting to get noticed but in reality, it is simpler (and less expensive) than ever.

With the Generations 2010 study from PEW showing that 61% of all adults 18 and older are using social media websites, one cannot ignore the power of social media to communicate.

Social media is a legitimate, useful, important way to communicate with the world at large and cannot be ignored because one is offended by the term "social." (Most of you will eat a pu pu platter, for goodness sakes! The name doesn't keep you from digging in!)

Social Media Syndication Tip #1 - Go where your audience is.

This article will discuss where the audience is. Next week, I'll be sharing about how to get to that audience easily, inexpensively, and powerfully.

Where is your audience?
Your audience is many places and using multiple devices. They aren't all everywhere but they are somewhere. Let's look at the somewhere.

Email
With 94% of adults 18+ using email, it is the TOP use of the internet across all generations. Note, however that this is less for younger kids with only 73% of kids aged 12-17 using email but enough to still be the top use. Get in their inbox and you've got a person's attention unless you are spammy.

Searching
The second use of the Internet is searching. You want to be found! If you want to be found, you need to be on the web in various places and have an established, legitimate website that people link to. You want to be optimized. (SEO optimization some call it.) You also want fresh content.

Facebook
As of today, Facebook claims more than 500 million active users with more than half of them logging in daily. Interestingly, the average Facebook user is connected to 80 community pages, groups, and events. The most active users of Facebook are the mobile users  who are twice as active as those who don't use Facebook.

eMarketer says that Americans with Internet access use Facebook at least once a month with 42.3% of the entire population of the US used Facebook in February 2011.

Mobile Phone
Using the handy Wolfram Alpha statistics engine, let's look at US cellular phone usage. (If you're in another country, you can use this same search - just put your country name in.)




With over 250 million cell phones and just over 300 million people in the US, the United States ranks third in cell phone penetration. In their Generations 2010 study, PEW says that 85% of US adults own cell phones with text messaging and taking pictures being the two non-voice functions that are most popular.

Furthermore, email shows up here too. In the US:

32% of U.S. mobile email users age 18 or older with an Internet-enabled  phone check personal email via a mobile device between one and three times daily.

Morgan Stanley analysts have predicted that the mobile internet will surpass the computer-based Internet by 2015.

Mobile phone syndication is very important for anyone who wants to be noticed. Every website you have should have a clean mobile phone view. For educational websites directed at age 10 and up, this is supremely important! Whether you use a program like Device Anywhere to look at how your site looks on a mobile phone or something from your web hosting company, put this on your list. Or just, open your site on your mobile device. You'll see if it is easy to read.

Twitter
A much lower percentage of people (7% of the total population of the US or 9% of Internet using population) use Twitter. Don't be fooled.

It is always about WHO is using something. In Malcom Gladwell's book Tipping Point, he talks about "mavens" who have an incredible amount of influence on others. These people who are connectors of others and valid sources of information, drive adoption of products and services. They are important because of their INFLUENCE. Twitter is known to be such a hub of influence full of "mavens" which Mashable calls power users. (See this under eBooks also.)

Kindle / eBooks / iPad
People who read ebooks are shown to be mavens in the "book" sector. I follow Stephen Windwalker's Kindle Nation Daily blog and download free ebooks all the time. Why do publishers give ebooks away at all? Free ebooks are correlated with increased print-book sales according to researchers at BYU and major authors have said the same.

So, you're not selling books? Well you are sharing information and your content should be readily available on these devices. You can read Cool Cat Teacher on your Ipad or in the Kindle store. (I'll tell you how to do this with your blog in my next post! ;-)

Calendar
Most successful, busy people keep calendars. If this calendar is on a mobile device and you produce calendars and want people to attend, it should be easy for people to add you to their calendar.

Push your events onto their screen and you'll get higher attendance and higher satisfaction with your communication as well. This is very important for schools.

Youtube
Seventy percent of adult internet users watch videos online with the dominant site continuing to be youtube.

Buying/ Selling/ Giving to Charity Online
If you are a nonprofit, realize that Twenty two percent of adults donated to charities online in 2010! We've recently added PayPal widgets for my school's 40 year campaign.

mp3 Player
Half of adults own an mp3 player with 75% of adults age 18-34 owning one and 21% of adults download podcasts.

It is not just a website any more!
You'd better not have a webmaster - you need a syndication master. You need people producing content that your audience cares about! If you are a school, this can be tricky but simple.

Now that I've proved the case that individuals, companies, and schools that want to communicate need to acknowledge the importance of a different platform than JUST a website, I'm going to spend some time over the next few weeks teaching you how to easily syndicate your content on the web, like I've done with my blog and at my school.

Hint: It is about leverage and making it SIMPLE for you.

This post is part of my Social Media for Schools series:

• Facebook Friending 101 for Schools
• The Case for Digital Citizenship in Schools
• Web 2.0 Leadership for Students