I came across Chris Lake's 25 Things Journalists Can Do to Future-Proof Their Careers and was struck by how many applied to educators. Now granted, powerful social and institutional forces insure that schools as we know them won't disappear as quickly as the printed newspaper has. This is why I changed Lake's title to "should do" as applied to teachers. For a private 1:1 school such as mine, I would prefer the title "must do," as I believe our future may depend upon it.Here are twelve steps that today's journalists and educators can and should take to stay in step with the times:
*Start a blog - "This will be very empowering...."
*Collaborate - "People can achieve so much more when they work together."
*Feeds - "Learn how to monitor your subjects,. . .Do this easily by setting up RSS feeds for search terms on sites like Google News, Twitter and Digg."
*Embrace Twitter - "Follow influencers and use Twitter as a filter."
*Produce Video - "It is easier than ever to shoot and distribute video... you have the option of telling stories in richer ways."
*Mobile is Truly a Wonderful Tool - "It has never been easier to capture ideas, build out stories, and publish content."
*Learn to Love Links - "Links are what make the online world spin."
*Ignore the Hype - "Some buzzwords are more meaningless than others . . . occasionally something that sounds terrible is actually full of substance and worth investigating."
*Participate - "Be seen, be heard. Leave comments"
*Network - "Make connections on and offline."
*Be Platform Agnostic - "The best [educators] will be able to transfer their skills across platforms.
*Do It Now - "Don’t delay. Don’t fear the web. Don’t wait for your boss to tell you to learn some new skills. If you have a mental barrier and have filed yourself under ‘offline’ then slap yourself about the face, have a stiff drink, and then reset your watch. Forget about yesterday. There’s no time like the present. Embrace all that's available to you. . . ."
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"Street Art - No Future on the Streets of Dublin" Flickr Creative Commons Photo by infomatique
3 comments:
I have been doing all this at home before the early bird specials. Well, not so much, but not having the pressure and the incoherent way in which the school set off on this journey in my way has actually made me a bit more adventurous.
Looking forward to following WillKnott on Twitter! :)
Which is a place, by the way, that a year ago I did not think I ever needed to go.
Ann, Do you suppose he still thinks he gets "146" characters? He might be breaking off some pretty chunky tweets!
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