Who are you Digitally? An Educator's Guide to LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook

by Kate Wolfe Maxlow

Here's the thing: if you're an educator, people will Google you. Your students, their parents, prospective employers will all be checking you out digitally...and the higher you go in leadership roles, the more likely people will be to look you up online.

While there's no way to escape the Google search bar, there is a way to control what people see when they look you up.  Google is the most popular search engine, and it has certain algorithms.  It's going to pull from certain websites first, and the good news is that it's often going to be the ones that you can control first.

For instance, this is what you get when you Google me: Kate Wolfe Maxlow.



Unless you're making headlines that get clicked on a lot, Google is often going to post links for major social media sites first. It especially likes LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, which is why we're going to discuss those in this article. The question is: how can you ensure that you're putting your best digital foot forward?

1. Make sure you have a LinkedIn Profile.

What is it?
LinkedIn a basically an online resume that also has some social media functionality. It's supposed to help professionals connect with one another, and it has some direct messages capability if you want to reach out to someone.

What's the bare minimum I should do?
You don't have to pay for a LinkedIn Profile (though LinkedIn would love it if you did and will bug you to do so). At the very least, have a decent profile pic, your major jobs in the educational field, and a quick summary about yourself that epitomizes your main accomplishments and major beliefs about education, using links where it makes sense. For instance, I have a link to my book on Amazon and to a project I did with the Virginia Department of Education. I want people to be able to easily click on those when they search for me. You can see my LinkedIn Profile here.

You can also post updates like you would with Twitter or Facebook, but it's not really necessary unless you're working as a consultant or a similar job where you're doing everything you can to connect to other educators.

How often do I need to update it?
I go in about once a month or so and check out who's invited me to link with them. I go in about quarterly and update my profile. If you're on the hunt for a new job, you probably want to go into your account more more often.

2. Create and Keep Up Your Twitter Account

What is it?
Twitter is social media site that allows you to post short thoughts (280 characters or less per "tweet"), "retweet" others' thoughts, and reply to others' tweets. There's also some Direct Message capabilities. You can attach links or images to your tweets for more impact. You can also "tweet at" people by including their username in your tweet. For instance, you would tweet at me by including @LearningKate in your tweet. Twitter will tell me that you tweeted at me, and now my followers as well as yours will see your tweet.

You can also use hashtags that allow others to find your tweets more easily or participate in Twitter chats. For instance, you might at #lovemyschoolday2018 to your tweet, and then anyone who searches for that hashtag will easily be able to find your tweet.

What's the bare minimum I should do?
Before my second kid, I used to do Twitter chats and direct messages and all of it. Bar none, Twitter chats are the best way to increase your Twitter followers.

Now I prefer sleep. Here's how I stay on top of my Twitter game while doing the bare minimum:

• I use Tweetdeck.com. Tweetdeck allows you to schedule tweets in advance and easily search for people or topics you want to keep track of. You can also manage multiple accounts from Tweetdeck, so you can manage both your personal account and your organization's account without having to log in and log out. You can see my Tweetdeck below. It has my notifications, my scheduled Tweets, and my home organization, Hampton City Schools

• I go in once a week, usually on Monday, and schedule my Tweets for the rest of the week. Twitter usage spikes during morning and afternoon commute times, so I usually schedule my tweets for random times from 6am-8am and 4pm-7pm. These scheduled tweets are usually thoughts or links to this blog with evocative questions. You can see examples if you check out my Twitter feed, @LearningKate. This only takes me about 15 minutes to set them up for the week.
• I mostly only follow other educators from my @LearningKate account and it's the one associated with my actual name. This ensures that when people Google me, that's one of the first things they see. It also keeps me up-to-date on the latest happenings in education.
• Every morning, I go in while brushing my teeth or drinking my coffee and I scroll through others' Tweets. If I like something, I retweet it. If I can think of my own comment to go with it, I add it, but if not, I don't stress about it. I only heart things that I really like and want to easily be able to find later. This takes me about 5-10 minutes.
• If I were an administrator or teacher, I would take at least 1 pic of the young people in my school or class each day and have a set time that I post it. For instance, when I get into the car on my way to go home, I would know that before I start the car, I post my picture.

3. Lock down your personal Facebook account.

What is it?

Facebook is a social media site that allows you to post pictures or thoughts, interact in groups, create events, and much more. Most adults these days are going to have a personal Facebook account, and you might also run one for your organization.

What's the bare minimum I should do?

While you might also have a page for your organization, the most important thing about Facebook is to make sure that it's locked down. What does this mean?

• Consider using a pseudonym that's similar enough to your name without allowing your students to find you. The most common version of this I see is the First Name Middle Name version (for instance, I was Kate Elizabeth for awhile).
• Go through ALL your old profile and cover pics, because the default settings for these is usually Public. If you have old profile pics from college with you engaged in questionable activities, you might want to remove them.
• I personally don't post much other than pictures of my kids. What you choose to post on Facebook is every educator's choice, but if you're going to move into educational leadership, the best choice is not to post anything remotely controversial. Even if you've locked down your account, screenshots are all too easy these days and can be passed around even if people don't have access to your account.

What other thoughts and ideas about establishing yourself digitally? Post them in the comments below.

Technology Collaboration is the Real Workplace Readiness Skill

by Paul Lawrence

On a recent trip to New York, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to take my family on a tour of Google Headquarters.  They've converted the old Port Authority building in Chelsea and turned it into a real wonderland with a Back to the Future themed floor, napping tents, a 24 hour free Starbucks and about 12 free restaurants where you can eat everything from Mexican to a bowl of pho.

In addition to these attractive amenities (my kids all decided to become programmers on the spot), a remarkable thing about this space was a complete absence of personal offices.  Everyone was expected to sit and work and conduct their business in these communal areas (with the most amazing free snacks!). The theory at Google is that isolation is counterproductive to creativity.  People do their best work when they interact and share ideas.

When we consider that an amazingly successful company like Google has literally designed collaboration into their office space, shouldn’t we begin to also consider including the same collaboration into the work practices of our students in our classrooms?

Here are three technology resources that you can use to plan your next group activity.

Free Rice                                                          

Have students make a difference by practicing their math, chemistry, anatomy, geography, foreign language, vocabulary, grammar, humanities and even for the SAT. “For each answer they get right, 10 grains of rice is donated  through the World Food Programme to help end hunger.”

Cooperative learning idea: Students can go on Free Rice and calculate how much rice they donated as a group and create a graph to show their weekly results. This can be an ongoing project throughout the year. Groups can compare and contrast their results.

 

 

Blabberize                                                       

Blabberize is a free tool that makes photos come to life! Students upload a photo, create a mouth and record whatever they would like their image to say!

Cooperative learning idea: Students can take turns talking. This tool can be used to give a history or science report. Students could describe an animal’s adaptations by making the animal they researched talk!

Inkle                                                            

Inkle is a fun digital storytelling tool for students. Rather than having students use Microsoft Word, change things up by having them create a digital book. Students will love adding images to make their story come to life!

Cooperative learning idea: Students can collaborate and create a Choose Your Own Adventure story! Each child adds a paragraph to the story and at least two options for readers to choose from. They insert images by adding the link to an image they like online. This Web 2.0 tool is free and the children’s work can be saved and shared.

In addition to these fun ideas, there are hundreds of ways for students to collaborate on work using the G Suite Apps for education.  Check out this site to get started.

Like anything else, you are going to have to guide your students through this new workflow.  Consider assigning roles to group members and giving students specific rubrics, checklists and deadlines to help them organize their time.

If we want to prepare students for success in a 21st Century workplace like Google, we can start by giving them the opportunities to develop skills like cooperation and compromise that are required for success, in the safe spaces of our classrooms.  

Paul Lawrence is the Director of the Information Literacy Department for Hampton City Schools, Virginia. You can reach him at plawrence@hampton.k12.va.us