Social Media Tuesday's

I work for The Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS) and each month our HQ office in Washington D.C. hosts a monthly educational session that provides information on a variety of things from workplace netiquette to introducing new policy. Well, the newest item on the docket is Social Media. As a matter of fact, Social Media is on the agenda for the next six months and it will cover a variety of items such as: Twitter & Facebook 101, Blogging, etc. This week's focus was on our Interim Social Media Policy that the agency has just adopted. So, the lawyers got on the phone an essentially read up the 'do's and don't of the WWW. I found it quite amusing; not because I'm a renagade. Mostly because most CNCS agencies have had blogs, facebook, myspace, and twitter accounts for at least 2 years. This cemented in my mind just how fast Social Media is moving in the workplace and allows me to echo the 'ol addage "with great power comes great responsibility". Social Media is not just a hot topic anymore, it has slipped into the workplace and will now require full time management-I'd better get on the ball with this graduate work; that job could be mine someday :)

Here are a few examples of how CNCS is using Social Media to promote our mission to develop leaders through community service:

LEARN & SERVE
Learn and Serve America Student Social Media Initiative
LSA on Twitter- over 700 followers!

AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America)
VISTA on Facebook
VISTA Alumni on Facebook
VISTA on Twitter
VISTA on Flickr which highlights - VISTA's 'V' is for... campaign.

AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps)
NCCC Blog - or WaterLog - Nat'l blog following the service work of an NCCC team at the Denver, CO campus.
NCCC Facebook Fan Page - over 4000 fans!

The above links are just a few examples of how a large agency can utilize Social Media in a variety of ways to promote their agenda.

For teachers and other practitioners, how is your workplace using Social Media? Do you have a Social Media Policy in place? If so, who's regulating it?

Behind the Curve...

Ah, the federal government; sometimes there is so much caution and red tape it's impossible to get anything done :) While the rest of the world has been riding the wave of Web 2.0 technologies, many federal government agencies have been doggy paddling in the shallow end of the pool. Believe it or not, my work computer just recently upgraded to IE 8 (yes, in 2010). It would be foolish of me to consider using any open source applications or server-hosted wiki's because I don't even have Firefox, Chrome, or Safari as an option!

While I understand the hesitance at opening the Pandora's box that Web 2.0 tools inherently invite, it would be nice to at least have a choice of browser - it's the little things, you know?

Well, it looks like there is hope after all, the upcoming Gov 2.0 Expo has great promise for introducing a new model of communication across government agencies. Also, in it's infancy is the Gov Summit 2.0 happening Fall 2010 in it's 2nd year is attempting to bring all that technology has to offer into the workplace.

At the end of the day it's all about baby steps. So, I give that idea two thumbs up!

Learning to Change--Changing to Learn

Although I liked many of the ideas that came out of this video, my mind kept racing about the implications of full technology integration in a school setting. If we harness technology, make it apart of the curriculum and mandate it's usage are we potentially excluding the 'have not' population? For teachers who are not tech savvy; more importantly for students who are not equipped with internet, home computers and other gadgets. I do agree that technology should be integrated in the school system but it must be done thoughtfully. Of all the comments in the video the final comment spoke to me this most, pointing that "it's [technology] the death of education and the dawn of learning". I think the conversation/implementation of technology in schools is in it's infancy. We'll need the support of government or private industry to make it an actualized reality.