Webinar: How to Develop a Social Media Policy

February 14, 2012

Sarah Eaton social media technology speaker presenter webinarThis week’s webinar with Chinook Learning is “How to Develop a Social Media Policy“. Its designed for organizational leaders and managers who have to cope with guiding employees’ use of social media in the workplace.

Social media has changed how people interact with each other on line. Marketers talk about social media strategies, but that is different from an organizational policy that is designed to guide and govern users’ behaviour in social media settings. This course is based on this article “Anatomy of a Social Media Policy” that I wrote last fall, published by Social Media Today.

Participant outcomes

By the end of this webinar you will:

  • Understand the differences between a social media strategy and a social media policy.
  • Understand the basics of social media governance.
  • Know the critical elements of a social media policy.
  • Understand the importance of dialogue when it comes to striking a balance between users’ rights and responsibilities.
  • Gain a deeper understanding of what a social media policy is and how to go about developing a relatively simple, straightforward policy for your organization.

Content

  1. Social media policy – Definition and overview; Differences between a social media strategy and a policy.
  2. Social media governance – What social media governance means for organizations, employers and employees.
  3. Anatomy of a social media policy – Learn the critical elements of a well-constructed social media policy and how the various elements work together to create a fully functioning and effective policy. Learn what they key parts are so you can build your own simple, straightforward policy.
  4. Balancing users’ rights with their responsibility to their employer. Why it is important to dialogue with users in your organization and tips for doing this effectively.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.


Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Feb. 6-12, 2012)

February 13, 2012

This past week, I was inundated with so many great articles and resources that to help you avoid getting overwhelmed, I’m dividing up my favorites of the past week into two posts: news and resources.

Here are my favorite resources of the week, curated from my Twitter account.

Ed tech resources

6 Sites to get kids excited about Google Maps – Fractus Learning

An app to create lesson plans – Tech & Learning

Web 2.0 Tools: Tools and Teacher Resources – 2Learn.ca

The Best Education Apps at FETC – by Stephen Noonoo, the Journal

Project-Based Learning for Digital Citizens – by Andrew Marcinek

Top 10 Free Online Tutoring Tools for 2012 – Edudemic

Literacy and languages resources

5 Keys to Snagging Reluctant Readers – Shelf Consumed

Open Source Language Education Resources – Yazik

ESL Literacy – Learning from Research: A Review of the Literature – Bow Valley College

General education resources

20 Must-Have Educational Resources For All Teachers – Edudemic

Social media resources

10 Tips for Creating a Social Media Policy for Your Business – by Jennifer Amanda Jones, Social Media Examiner

General resources that I thought were cool and useful

Starting and Managing a Small Business – Business Victoria (Note: Lots of great resources here for non-profits, too).

Step Outside Your Comfort Zone and Study Yourself Failing – by Joshua Foer

Pretty Good – poem by Charles Osgood

Related posts:

Dr. Sarah’s favorite news of the week (Feb. 6-12 2012)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Jan. 30 – Feb. 5, 2012)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Jan. 23-29, 2012)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Jan. 16-22, 2012)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Jan. 9-15, 2012)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Jan. 2-8, 2012)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Dec. 25, 2011 to January 1, 2012)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Dec. 18-24, 2011)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Dec. 11-17, 2011)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Dec. 4-10, 2011)

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.


Dr. Sarah’s favorite news of the week (Feb. 6-12, 2012)

February 13, 2012

Sarah Eaton speaker education literacy keynote social media This past week, there were so many great articles and resources that came past my desk that I was almost overwhelmed. To help you avoid getting overwhelmed, I’m dividing up my favorites of the past week into two posts: news and resources.

Here are my favorite news stories of the week, curated from my Twitter account.

Social media news

German police use Facebook pictures to nab crooks – by Alice Baghdjian, Reuters

Employers, workers navigate pitfalls of social media – My Joy Online

Study: Why Do People Use Facebook? – ReadWriteWeb

Texting, social media prove problematic for teachers across the country – Laura Graff

What Schools are Really Blocking When They Block Social Media – by S. Craig Watkins

Literacy news

Caution: Not Embracing ‘Continuous Learning’ has become an Occupational Hazard – QELA

Newfoundland group wants literacy plan from the province – The Telegram

Wilsonville launches early childhood literacy program, putting free books in the hands of preschoolers– by Rachel Stark, The Oregonian

Language learning news

Hearing Bilingual: How Babies Sort Out Language – by Perri Klass, New York Times

Bilingual children gain better focus, literacy skills: York U study – Exchange magazine

Schools join forces to rescue languages – by Amanda Dunn, The Age

Finer points lost in Google translation – by Mark Abley, Montreal Gazette

Education news

The Future of Work for High School Grads – by Jordan Weissmann, The Atlantic

Why Pay for Intro Textbooks? Rice University Announces Open Source Textbooks – by Mitch Smith, Inside Higher Ed

Teacher retention a growing Alberta problem – by Jeremy Nolais, Metro

Technology news

How Computer Games Help Children Learn – MindShift

Study: U.S. gaming population has nearly tripled in three years – by Stephanie Fogel, GamesBeat

General interest

Speaking Up Is Hard to Do: Researchers Explain Why – by Elizabeth Bernstein, Wall Street Journal

Labour shortage becoming ‘desperate’ – by Barrie McKenna, Globe and Mail

Want People to Return Your Emails? Avoid These Words  – Mashable

The Business Savvy Behind Nonprofit Success – by David LePage, Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Renewal

Related posts:

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Jan. 30 – Feb. 5, 2012)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Jan. 23-29, 2012)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Jan. 16-22, 2012)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Jan. 9-15, 2012)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Jan. 2-8, 2012)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Dec. 25, 2011 to January 1, 2012)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Dec. 18-24, 2011)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Dec. 11-17, 2011)

Dr. Sarah’s favorite resources of the week (Dec. 4-10, 2011)

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Share this post: Dr. Sarah’s favorite news of the week (Feb. 6-12, 2012) http://wp.me/pNAh3-1ev

Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.


Inspiring: Schools in Australia join forces to rescue languages

February 9, 2012

Sarah Eaton, speaker, keynote, second languages, literacy, Canada, foreign languagesIs the language program at your school gasping for its last breath? If so, you are not alone. Language programs across the globe are suffering from decreased enrollments, diminished interest from students and perhaps most frustrating, lack of money to keep the program going.

Schools in Victoria, Australia, have banded together to turn all that around after enrollment in language programs plummeted in the area. The stats look something like this:

Primary students taking languages in Victoria, Australia

1999 – 89%

2010 – 69%

Secondary students taking languages in Victoria, Australia

1999 – 54%

2010 – 41%

That is an alarming drop in enrollment. The new program, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), is slated to change all that. The initiative is so innovative, it made the local paper. The new program takes a content-based language teaching (CBLT) approach to second languages, teaching core subjects such as math, science and humanities in a second language. Schools will share resources and even share teachers, to ensure that children have access to the best quality learning experience possible.

The article reports that:

The government so far has funded 14 language clusters involving 102 primary and secondary schools across the state to trial the system over 18 months until the end of this year.

The languages chosen are Italian, Indonesian, German, Japanese, French, Chinese and Auslan, with schools offering one to three of those. Each cluster has a lead school that works to ensure standards are met and to co-ordinate the distribution of resources.

The government is also chipping in for 25 annual professional development scholarships for language teachers who want to upgrade their skills, and 45 scholarships for undergraduate students studying to become language teachers.

This is a brand new program, so there is no way to tell yet if it will be successful. What is inspiring though, is the collective commitment on the part of the schools and supported by the government, to make language learning a priority. The fact that they are also offering scholarships to teachers-in-training shows that they are not only thinking about today, but they are also thinking about tomorrow by investing in the education of aspiring language teachers.

Kudos to you, our friends in Victoria, Australia. You are finding creative ways to collaborate and turn a dismal and down-spiraling situation into inspired education for the 21st century.

Check out the original article, by Amanda Dunn, published in The Age.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.


Why speaking up is hard to do: Science shows smarts can lead silence

February 8, 2012

Sarah Eaton education literacy speaker CalgaryHave you ever sat there like a lump in a group setting, not knowing what to say? Well, researchers at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute have figured out why. Their research study was recently highlighted in the Wall Street Journal. The general gist of it is that if someone perceives that others in a group are smarter or more successful, they will retreat and say less… or nothing at all. Journalist, Elizabeth Bernstein reports that:

“The clamming-up phenomenon seems to be more common in women and in people with higher IQs”.

So, those most likely to keep their traps shut in a group setting are the smart women. (Hhhmmm… Interesting… I am pretty smart and I find it really, really hard to speak up in a group setting, particularly if there are loud, dogmatic extraverts in the group.)

The article went on to say that people who experience this phenomenon are more likely to quietly and silently panic in a group situation, while at the same time being “more attuned to group social dynamics, subconsciously worrying about their performance and evaluating themselves in relation to others”. (Wow, does that ever ring a bell.)

There was no indication that the research also examined language or cultural influences. It make me wonder though… If this is a social phenomenon that applies to native speakers, how much worse does it get for non-native speakers who are in a social setting where “more successful” or “smarter” might also be equated with “more fluent”?

As I reflect on my experience as a language learner, my sense is that this phenomenon would be amplified exponentially in a second language setting. What do you think?

Check out the article in the Wall Street Journal.

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Share this post: Why speaking up is hard to do: Science shows smarts can lead to silence http://wp.me/pNAh3-1dO

Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.