How can you avoid the training dump and run?

During that face-to-face training it all seems so easy. The presenter makes sense, the presentation makes sense, this is something you can do. But then, you go home and the real world converges. It's not as easy, where's that presenter now?

As a trainer and a trainee, I can relate. But it's not feasible for the trainer to visit me on site, is it? or isn't it? Why can't I get in the minute support? In this day of 24/7 internet access I think it is possible. But it does take planning, forethought and support.

Discussion Groups

One way to keep the conversation going, is to create an online discussion group.There are a variety of social media platforms that can be used for this purpose:

Facebook

Using the Groups option, you can create an open or closed discussion group. You can make it hidden, so only folks sent a link can find the group, or make posting only open to invitees but the posts viewable by anyone. Or you can leave the group completely open, anyone can see the group and post to it. 

LinkedIn 

If you are looking for a more professional space, LInkedIn is another useful site to use. Like Facebook, LinkedIn allows users to create discussion groups that can be either open or closed.  

Before You Start

It is important to identify your potential audience, develop a disclaimer and some guidelines. It is important to remind users not to refer to specific people--and to remember that if they are from a small community even a general description might be too specific.

Play

I attended the Massachusetts Early Intervention Consortium's Conference in early May. The MEIC, as it is called, is an exciting opportunity for early intervention professionals  and the parents they work with, to learn together. The key note speaker this year was Nancy Carlsson-Paige (you can read more about her here: http://www.empoweredbyplay.org/blog/). Ms. Carlsson-Paige talked about the importance of unstructured play--pretend play, that is self-directed.

I was there to present a two-day intensive workshop entitled: Social Media Strategies: Using Technology to Support and Inform. While it might seem that these two topics were incongruous, I would argue that Pinterest, one of the most popular social media sites for young mothers, shows that families are creating and sharing ideas about unstructured play.  And to prove it, I want to share some pins from families showing how to reuse those old entertainment centers:

A quick trip to a yard sale or thrift store, some paint, fabric and creativity and for under a $100 you can have a pretend kitchen that can provide hours and hours of imaginative play.

Need a Handy Guide to Social Media Sites?

social media sites

Social media includes web-based and mobile- based technologies, which allow users to create their own content and share the content of others.  Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content." Following is a sampling of social media sites, explanations of the site and when it was launched and suggested users or pages to follow, please note that these lists are not exhaustive.  There are dozens of great social media sites out there, this is just to give you a flavor of what is out there—please explore and be social and share!

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched February 2004.  http://www.facebook.com

Facebook page insights explained here: http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/Page_Insights_en_US.pdf

Pages to Like: EIFA, Early Intervention Parent Leadership Project, National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY), Division for Early Childhood, Center for Early Literacy Learning (CELL), Disability Scoop, Family Voices, Inc, (national and your state’s chapter), Disability.gov, Special Olympics, AMCHP, TACSEI, The Arc of the United States, AAPPD,  Friendship Circle of Michigan, Community Catalyst, PlayAbility Toys, Reach Out and Read, Zero To Three Policy Network, The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Special Education Advisor, Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults, Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults,

Google+

Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus, sometimes abbreviated as G+) is a multilingual social networking and identity service owned and operated by Google Inc.  Google+ was launched June 28, 2001.  http://www.plus.google.com/

Groups to Follow: Special Education Advisor, NICHCY,

Linked in

LinkedIn is a professional social networking website.  Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking.  http://www.linked.com/   

Groups to Join: Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), Early Intervention Professionals, Association for Childhood Education International, ZERO TO THREE Policy Network, Parents of Special Kids, Parents Helping Parents, President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, Early Intervention Therapists,

Pinterest

Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections.  Launched in March 2010 it is currently one of the fastest growing social sites. http://www.pinterest.com/. Pinterest requires an invitation at the time of this writing, you can request an invite from someone you know who is already using Pinterest.

Pinners to follow: Pedia Staff on Pinterest, SPDBN, 5m4SN (5 Minutes for Special Needs), Special Needs Homeschooling, Caseywaid, Apraxia KIDS, Rick Smith (aka Noah’s Dad), NICHCY,

Tumblr

Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform and social networking website, owned and operated by Tumblr, Inc.  The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog, named a “tumblelog”. Users edit their content from the “dashboard” interface, where the option to post content and review posts of followed blogs appear.  Tumblr was launched on April 27, 2007.  http://tumblr.com

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking service and micro-blogging  service that allows its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, known as “tweets”.  Users can group posts together by topic or type by use of hashtags – words or phrases prefixed with a "#" sign. The "@" sign followed by a username is used for mentioning or replying to other users.  To repost a message from another Twitter user, and share it with one's own followers, the retweet function is symbolized by "RT" in the message. Twitter was created in March 2006 and launched that July.  http://twitter.com

Tweeple to follow: EIFAorg, Family Voices of IN, DissemCOP (Dissemination COP), SpecialEdAdvice, aecfkidscount (Kids Count at Annie E. Casey Foundation), NDSC (National DS Congress), DSAInfo (Down Syndrome Association), ASHA, earlyautism, NCWD/Youth, Inclusive_class,  edcocp, EducationNext, DissemCoP, NICHCY, IntervenersDB, OfficeofEdTech, StephenLukeEd

Apps...

Social media apps

Apps, or application software, are computer software created to help the user to perform specific tasks. Application software generally apply in the performance of tasks that benefit the user.

Addthis

AddThis is a widely used social bookmarking service founded in 2006 and owned by Clearspring.  AddThis can be integrated into a website or browser with the use of a web widget. Once added, users can bookmark an item using a variety of services, such as Facebook, MySpace, Google Bookmarks, Pinterest, and Twitter.  http://www.addthis.com/

bitly

Bitly (formerly bit.ly) is a URL shortening and bookmarking service owned by bitly, Inc., a betaworks company.  The bitly URL shortening service is popular on micro-blogging website Twitter because it was the default URL shortening service on the website since May 6, 2009, replacing TinyURL.  http://bit.ly/

Hootsuite

HootSuite is a social media management system for brand management created in 2008. The user interface takes the form of a dashboard, and supports social network integrations for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, Mixi, MySpace, Ping.fm, and WordPress.  Additional integrations are available via HootSuite’s App Directory which includes support for Tumblr, Trendspottr, Constant Contact. Digg, Flickr, Get Satisfaction, InboxQ, and YouTube.  http://www.hootsuite.com/

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is a social media dashboard application for management of Twitter and Facebook accounts. Like other Twitter applications it works with the Twitter API to allow users to send and receive tweets and view profiles. http://www.tweetdeck.com/

Twitpic

TwitPic is a website that allows users to easily post pictures to Twitter.  TwitPic is often used by citizen journalists to upload and distribute pictures in near real-time as an event is taking place.  http://twitpic.com/

Tweetchat

Twitter chats, sometimes known as a Twitter party or a tweet chat, happen when a group of people all tweet about the same topic using a specific tag (#) called a hashtag that allows it to be followed on Twitter. The chats are at a specific time and often repeat weekly or bi-weekly or are only at announced times. http://tweetchat.com/

Read more: http://janetfouts.com/how-to-participate-in-a-tweet-chat/#ixzz2JJpeqm3K 

So How Do You Create those graphics?

I am often asked during presentations, how did you create those great graphics?  Well, first I subscribed to Tom Kuhlman's blog over at Articulate: http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/.Tom has tons of posts on how to create your own graphics, using existing graphics. I also like to take a ton of screenshots, this way I can show exactly what I want to my attendees to see on a specific social media platform, without worrying that the site might have changed, or without other distractions or worse, problems with the internet connection.  

But how do you get those screenshots?

There are two quick and easy ways to capture screenshots.

1.  Snipping Tool (Windows 7 only):

 *   Go to the Start Menu, Accessories, Snipping Tool.
 *   Once opened your screen will turn white and you can drag a red rectangle over the desired portion of the screen.
 *   In the window that pops up you can  save your Snip.

2.  Print Screen:

 *   With image you want on the screen hold down the Alt key and press the PrntScrn key. This key is located somewhere on the top right of your keyboard.
 *  Now you can save your picture.

I've got my pic, now what?

I've found that opening up my screenshot in PowerPoint and playing around with cropping the picture, adding shapes, like an arrow or circle or blurring out someone's face in the screenshot helps me to create graphics that show what I want my attendees 

Updating Content on Facebook

Facebook timeline status updates are limited to 420 characters.  In addition to personal timelines, users can create Personal pages or Fanpages for their organizations or buisnesses.

Facebook content can be updated on an hourly, daily or weekly basis.  It is important to remember when you are using Facebook as your page, rather than your personal timeline that you are posting, not as an individual, but rather as an organization.

How to Use a Facebook Page:

1.    You can switch between yourself and the page by clicking on the arrow next to Home at the top of the page, and saying you want to use Facebook as a page. Alternatively, you can use Facebook as yourself, and post to your page as yourself.  When you post this way your profile picture will be next to anything you post to your Facebook page.  when you are posting as the page—remember that you are posting as an organization, and please do not use I, me, my, as you are representing the organization as a whole, and folks will not know who is “speaking”.  If you want to post in the first person, then simply post using the link above to access the page without switching to using Facebook as a page.  (When you are using Facebook as the page and you want to return to your own persona, just follow the same directions and click on use as YOURNAME).

2.    Approximately 48 hours after posting, the analytics for your page will show for admins.  See picture below to see how the analytics show up on the admin view of the page—you need to use Facebook as a page to see the analytics.

Assessing your Social Media Needs

Making a Plan
Before you can develop a social media plan, it is a good idea to assess your needs.  Here is a quick tool to help you identify your needs.

• How frequently do you want to update your content on your website?
• every six months
• once a quarter
• monthly
• weekly

• How frequently do you want to update your content on a blog?
• monthly
• twice a week
• weekly

• How frequently do you want to update your content on a Facebook Page?
• weekly
• daily
• twice a day
• hourly

• How frequently do you want to update your content on a YouTube Channel?
• bimonthl
• monthly
• weekly

• How frequently do you want to update your content on a Twitter feed?
• a few times a week
• daily
• twice a day
• hourly
• many times an hour

Now Don't Run Away!

You do not need to use each of these mediums, though many organizations do. But you do have to recognize that twitter content moves very fast, so you need to be updating more frequently if you want your content to be seen. However, this also means that you can use the same content  many times on twitter without worry that your followers will be annoyed.  If however, you posted the same post to your blog, week after week, you would quickly lose followers.  The point is, assess what you want to accomplish with the various mediums, look at how frequently the content needs to be updated to avoid being either too stale or too annoying and chart your own course.