Tips

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Brand Yourself

What is your Unique Selling Position (USP)? How do you stand out in a crowd or in social media so you are remarkable and different enough to get noticed by an employer or client?

You can do this by branding yourself. The job market is tough and sending thousands of resumés may not be the right way to get that “job” you want. I am older than most job-seekers but I learned some things about using the tools available to get known. I read this article from AARP and thought I’d share and adapt the tips for you.

1. Find your passion. It’s all about what you believe in and thinking and looking positive about it. Believe in yourself and what you are doing. If you do, others will too. “Accepting yourself is the most important ingredient in the self-confidence formula.”
2. Give an elevator speech.Come up with a short 60 second pitch that comes across who you are, what you do best, and why others should believe in you. Make it authentic, strong, and personal and make it stand out from your competition.
3. Validate your passion.You believe in what you are doing. You are positive about it. Find others that do to. Encourage your believers to share your passion and get the buzz out all over the place. Find your “Google Quotient” using the Online ID Calculator (www.onlineidcalculator.com) to see how many relevant hits your name generates in a web search. Use social media like Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter to build your PLN (Personal Learning Network).
4. Promote your passion. Design business cards that promote you and your brand and give them out to everyone after your elevator speech. Link to your website that promotes you also. Have all of your contact information so people can find you.
5. Come up with your look. Come up with your look and dress the part. You may have a signature accessory, color, or shoes. Just look as professional as you can with crazy boots or wild glasses.

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Moving to Student-Centered Classrooms

Teachers only teach what they were taught. Most teachers were taught traditional methods of direct instruction. Theorists like Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky focused on students being more responsible for their learning. Papert focused on constructivism where students make learning happen. Montessori focused on preschool children learning through play. The Reggio Emilio approach, started in Italy after World War II, encourages preschool children to proactively participate in discovery learning while adults chronicle their progress. Bruner focused his research on discovery learning where students are encouraged to learn on their own through action and experience.

Each student is unique. Students learn at different rates and have multiple learning styles and intelligences. (Garner’s Theory of Multiple Intellligences) When you look at how we teach, most teachers are still at the knowledge or remembering level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. (Andrew Church revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy below)

Teacher-center vs student-centered classroom

Teacher-centered	Student-centered
Traditional	Progressive
Standards-driven	Curriculum-driven
Factory model	Inquiry model
Breadth	Depth
Single Subjects and grade level focus	Thematic and real world applications
Depth	Breadth
Focused on Product	Focused on Process
Process- and product-oriented	Product-oriented
Short time on each concept	Block scheduling and cross curricular activities
Isolated teaching and learning	Collaborative activities for students and teachers
Rote knowledge	Experiential knowledge

Students can be more involved in the decisions of how they learn and what they learn. If they are aware of the standards and tests they need to learn, they can even help teachers design activities that engage them and help them understand the concepts. Most students zone out after 1-2 minutes of anyone talking at them. If they are accountable for a presentation, song, skit, poster, or an exhibit, they take more ownership of the product. The product really doesn’t matter as much as the process, but to the students, it means alot. Writing an essay that only the teacher reads doesn’t mean anything to them. If their peers read their essays, that’s another story. If they have to do a showcase of their work and their parents or others in the school community see it, then they really care. If their work is published on the Internet, then they will work on it overtime, on breaks, after-school. The engagement factor explodes.

So the important piece here is to tie in any projects or student-centered activities with standards. As long as we use tests and standards as measurement of student achievement, we have to do this to show that this type of classroom works. Eventually, we need other means of assessment that are more authentic.

To move to this type of classroom takes time, patience, and being okay with taking risks and learning from failure. That is tough for today’s teachers that are accountable for scores based on standardized tests. What I suggest is to start slowly. If you are a teacher who wants to move in this direction, here are some steps you can take:

• discuss what you want to do with your administrator
• introduce the new Bloom’s Taxonomy to your grade level or department
• identify gaps in learning by analyzing student data
• choose one area where you can design one project or lesson that includes inquiry
• check the resources you have available first before you even start planning
• sit with a coach or colleague to redesign a lesson to include a more hands-on approach to learning
• ask your coach to model some of the strategies for you or explain to your students honestly what you want to do and ask for their help
• involve students in more of the design of questions and the type of products they will be presenting

A strong leader helps. If your students have access to computers and the Internet, they can work in groups. Talking about technology is another post.

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Holiday Amnesia

I got this email from Adam Wentz about holidays…

I am currently suffering from holiday amnesia, a clinical ailment that leads to forgetting everything I was supposed to do after a lengthy amount of time not doing anything that I knew I was supposed to do while simultaneously doing everything I could to avoid doing anything.  This of course has many symptoms not the least of which include forgetting passwords to work computers, ah ha moments where I remember something vaguely that I was planning to do before the break (and yet not exactly remembering the details), and of course there is the forgetting of peoples names… who are you people?

I laughed but it hit home. I didn’t realize that it took longer to do things over the holidays. Was it all the sugary treats? Was it that this is supposed to be a time to rest and reflect? The time with family I haven’t seen in a long time. I was going to do so many things over the holidays and hardly touched my To Do list. Someone wrote me. I couldn’t remember who they were. Then a day later, it was one of my good friends. Alzheimers? No, I got it. Adam is right. Holiday amnesia. So now it’s back to work and getting the brain moving again.

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Taking the First Step

You know what to do. You just don’t do it. It is so easy to find excuses to not do something that is really important because it is hard to do. It is easy to find excuses why you need to do the little unimportant things and put off the difficult stuff that really matters. So I say “stop making lists, delegate the little stuff, and take the first step to be a success.” I read Seth Godin’s post Sure but what’s the hard part and got me thinking about this and how it home for me.

I’ve heard this from others telling me over and over again that someone else can do this or that for me, but it was easier for me to make excuses or to presume that I was the only one in the whole wide world that could do something. I remember hearing and believing “if you want something done right, do it yourself.” The problem with that is that there is only one of you. You cannot do it all.  It’s that indispensable thing we tend to do to ourselves. Today is the day to let go.

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Think as an Entrepreneur

Being an entrepreneur takes a different mindset. Most of us have been taught to take orders, follow the rules, think in the box… When someone breaks out of the box and comes up with what they think is a crazy idea, their colleagues just shake their heads and wait for their friend to come to their senses.  That is until the economy changed everything and the consequences for following rules doesn’t mean you keep your job anymore. There is no security and the rules have all changed.

With good jobs going away, middle class downsizes. Jobs that pay well are going away and are not being replaced by similar jobs. The middle class is shrinking. Corporations are cutting back on their work force and continue to send jobs oversees. Some of the jobs that are being cut are accounting, good-paying union jobs, and technology jobs. When you are out of work and there are no jobs, no unemployment benefits, you take any job — even a low-paying job. With little money, people are barely making it by, losing their homes, and not spending money. This is the trickle down effect people were talking about.

What happens to our communities? to the families? Houses go into foreclosure, people don’t spend money so stores go under, people move and take their children out of school. Without enough students, schools close or teachers are laid off. This is that trickle down effect but not the way we were thinking it would go.

You can feel sorry for yourself or you can take control of your life. What if you could make another $500+ a month? Could that help you? I just read “Put more Cash in Your Pocket” by Loral Langemeir who I met at the Make Mine a Millionaire $ Business Conference.

Loral writes about taking the skills you already have and make a business venture using those skills. This is not the idea of starting a new business around something you have no experience. Did you ever sell lemonade in front your house? It’s the same idea. Just make some extra money to pay off some bills or save for something you really want. Loral provides a long list of possible ventures. Here’s a few off that list and a few I added:

• Tutoring
• Web site design
• Scrapbooking
• Dog Walking
• Calligraphy
• Quilting
• Gardening
• Music Lessons
• Organizing Closets
• Personal Shopper
• Setting up Home Theaters

What do you like to do? What are your skills? Do you have any hobbies you wouldn’t mind doing more and making money off of them?

Change how you think and think like an entrepreneur. You can make extra money  while you have a job. If you don’t have a job and are on unemployment, try your hand at doing something you love and see what it feels like to make money off of it.  Interested in learning more? Buy Loral’s book and take a chance.

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Web 2.0 Smackdown

The Internet has so much to offer and now there are thousands of new Web 2.0 tools and apps that it is difficult for users to sift through them all to find what they need. I am lucky to be on the ISTE (International Society of Technology in Education) SigILT (Special Interest Group Innovative Learning Technologies) who presented a Web 2.0 Smackdown. I co-presented with Elizabeth Hubbell with the support of an amazing board running the backchannel: Katie Christo and Adam Wendt.

Elizabeth and I practiced our Webinar using Adobe Connect that had a limit of 100 spaces. We noticed on Twitter all the interest seemed like that would not be enough spaces so we moved to GoToMeeting. Elizabeth and I were both on Macs and found we couldn’t archive and I had no access to change screen sharing. I worked blind while Elizabeth walked through my presentation. So Peggy George who was in our audience did a screen capture and uploaded the video. How is that for thinking on your feet!

“Web 2.0 Tools We Can’t Live Without” from Peggy George on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/15014762

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The Opposite of Creative

Being creative doesn’t seem to fit with school and business today. As I was thinking what I was going to write about being anti-creative, Bonnie Bracey- Sutton just shared this video on Facebook about the Anti-Creative Checklist.

My Anti-Creativity Checklist from Youngme Moon on Vimeo.

If you are the creative type, you will get this. If not, you may be scratching your head wondering what’s all the fuss about. Probably will seem very normal for you. Kids today are wired different and their brains work creatively. They grew up with technology that encourages this type of thinking.

Being ant-creative is how my generation was raised. (I’m a grandma so that gives you an idea that I’m older than you think). People of my generation were told to keep our hands on the desk, only raise our hand when we knew the one right answer, and be quiet. Actually, this sounds like lots of classrooms today. Ugh!

A creative classroom is like controlled chaos — there’s alot of noise or buzz happening. Watching a classroom where students are finding problems, trying to figure out some solutions, and sharing, brainstorming, and getting excited about learning is mind blowing. After you teach in an environment where students are engaged and motivated to learn, it is too difficult to go back to traditional lecture mode. Same with people like myself who are entrepreneurs and designed their own product or service. It’s hard to work for someone else who doesn’t think like you. So here I am writing about creativity and anti-creativity. I vote for being curious, creative and innovate. How about you?

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Speed Demo: Edubloggercon (ISTE 2010)

Have you ever heard of Smackdowns? These are quick under 2 minute demos of cool Web 2.0 tools. Here is a list of some of the sites people shared.

Wikispaces Sandbox new features

• can paste in word docs without unformatting
• new editor

Storybird.com – flash-based digital storytelling tool – social tool = can do collaborative projects

• select a collection
• can add their own stories
• grab pictures and add text

Goofram.com – combines a Google search and Wolfram search on same page. Try Wolfram as a knowledge search. Compare Snickers vs Baby Ruth bar.

QRCode – make your own barcode reader. http://qrcode.kaywa.com

Gmail Labs – go to the green beaker – enables Green Robot to see who else has an Android phone.

Mashpedia – the Real-time multimedial social encyclopedia – fills in with YouTube videos, twitter feed, Picasa and Flicker galleries, news posts, blog posts, eBooks.

Paper.li – helps you create a twitter as a newspaper – create a start page on what you are researching – attractive feed

Search posters – http://springfieldlibrary.wikispaces.com using Glogster to help with links (Joyce Valenza)

Shareaholic.com – share all of your sites and social networking

Add to your tool bar Rd (readability) and IP (instapaper.com)

Smart Notebook Express BETA – http://express.smarttech.com – lets you use notebook files online

http://exchange.smarttech.com – Smart Exchange – find lesson plans for your SMART Board

Yolink education: http://www.yolinkeducation.com – see behind links – sweet search (www.sweetsearch.com) embedded yolink into the search engine. Helps student find what’s relevant. then search within the search results keywords. then opens summaries of search with links

Metamark.net – another URL shorter along with custom urls

LongURL.org – get what the shortened URL and points to the long url

If you use Twitter alot, you can read it later. http://readitlaterlist.com – icon that sits in toolbar that you can click to save to read later. Works on every browser and iPad. Bookmarking service that lets you. Twitbit lets you save your Tweets to readitlaterlist.

Jumpcut http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net – lets you multiclip up to 40 clicks

Edmodo – www.edmodo.com – share content and realtime . Teachers can set up groups and then can enter into private social network with their students. Grades. Library with folders and interactivity. Co-teaching with multiple teachers managing groups, subgroups.

Bingle.nu – in case you need to make a bing and google search at the same time.

Share Google Squared again: www.google.com/squared

Wordle tip – use a tilde as spaces to keep words in a phrase or sentence together

Thanks to Steve Hargadon for hosting Edubloggercon and all the people that shared during this demo. Was not able to get all the names of presenters so don’t feel comfortable listing names unless I can list them all.

Another site I heard about during the conference:

http://www.appcelerator.com/ - make your own iPhone apps
Free Technology for Teachers: Aviary for Education

I’ll be sharing more that I hear about. Putting together a column for OnCUE about cool tools so if you have any new tools you would like to share, please leave a comment.

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Tips for Building Trust in an Online Community

There usually is one manager of an online community. The manager can be called a community manager, a team manager, or an eCoach. The members of your community will need to trust you to feel safe in your community. Here are seven tips to ensure a trusting relationship with the members of your community.

1. Personalize your Community

Ask your community members to fill out their profile, add a picture, and share information about themselves. Encourage members to introduce themselves right away in the discussion forum. Personalize all communications you have with each member. If you send out automated emails, use a program that includes their first name at the beginning of the message.

Feature different members or projects weekly. If your community is still small, try to keep track of a few of the people a week and promote what they are doing. If your community is large, it is difficult for one manager to select and feature members. Encourage different members manage a welcoming committee so the community builds on its own.

2. Lead by Example

As the community manager, you set the tone of your community. You are the person who your members look to for guidance. You are modeling what you want your members to do for a healthy virtual community. If you nudge your members to participate, pretty soon they will start nudging each other. It is important to welcome your new members by offering advice and pointing to relevant information. What you want to do is promote the purpose and value of your community through your behavior. Hopefully, the purpose and value will rub off on your members and they will follow your example.

3. Be True to Yourself

Be authentic. Don’t try to be someone or something you are not. Your community has figured you out as the leader probably from the time they signed up. They will eventually see through any activities that don’t reflect who you are.  Don’t lie to your members. Don’t tell them that a new feature will be available soon when it will take a lot longer. If you say something that offends a member, and you believe in what you are defending, hold strong in that position you are taking and explain why. You will not be able to please everyone all the time especially if your community scales up fast.

4. Share What You Learn

Every community has a purpose built around a topic. Whether your community is about cooking, digital storytelling, or home schooling, try and learn as much as you can about the topic. Your members will be more willing to trust someone they perceive is helping them make better decisions. Take the time to understand what your community’s personal challenges and issues are, and attempt to address them yourself or encourage others to provide solutions. Investigate what the community might be promoting and share tips and guides on how best to use it. Dish out advice and showcase your most active members that add value to your community.

5. Learn from Mistakes

Even the best of us makes mistakes and online community managers will make mistakes. Always try to correct your mistake if it involves one member or the entire community. Mistakes usually happen because you are overly tired. The problem with being an online community manager is that the community is open 24/7 and it can be difficult to achieve a balanced life.

So you may get some negative feedback which can be a positive thing for an online community. This is where the community manager can respond to the comments which shows respect and that you care about the community. Find your community evangelists and ask them to jump in to the conversations.

6. Be Consistent

Your community will not trust you if you are not consistent in your actions. You need to treat everyone the same and follow the terms of use that you ask everyone to accept. If you present erratic behavior, your members will not feel safe with you. Remember #2 Lead by Example means that if your behavior is erratic, then your members will be confused.

It is real easy to spend more time with one member over another especially if one of the members is an evangelist for your community. However, if you constantly showcase this one member and forget others, you may be accused of favoritism.

7. Let it Go

It’s not a good idea to beg your members to stay in your community, if they just don’t want to be part of your community anymore. There could be a lot of reasons that they want to leave, but, sometimes, it is because they don’t visit that often and belong to too many communities. They may not like another member or the purpose of the community.

If someone wants to leave, do not ignore their request. Remove them from your community, and ask them why they want to be removed so you can determine if this is a problem for others in the community and possibly resolve it.

This post was adapted from Social Media Today: How to Build Trust in an Online Community

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Building a trusting online community can take weeks maybe months. Trust is vital to the health of your community. Follow the list above to nurture a positive and open environment. Cross posted on The Environmentalist.