by Graci Gillming, Technology Training Coordinator 

Facebook has been a “fav” (favorite) pastime for teenagers for quite some time, and it’s catching on among adults of all ages.  References to it are all over the Internet, TV, and radio in advertisements of all kinds now.

Subscribers to Facebook post what’s happening in their lives and share pictures, websites, music, quotes, etc. You add “friends” by searching for them or someone finds you, and you become friends. When you post something to your Facebook page, all your “friends” get a little message. Likewise when they post something, you see what they posted. Depending on how your privacy settings are set up, the friends of your friends or friends of your network will also see your posts. So you can see how news could travel fast by going to friends of friends of friends.   

One thing to keep in mind when you post anything to Facebook; it’s like standing on a crowded street corner and talking into a microphone.  Your message is audible for a quite a distance, much more so than if you were just talking to one person or even a small group of friends.

A question often asked by educators is “Is it appropriate to have students as ‘friends?’”  It really depends on how educators use Facebook.  Some may use it purely for professional means and others for social, and for some both professional and social. An educator must be careful about what he/she says to students. If you wouldn’t say it in the classroom, then it’s best not to say it on Facebook. If you want to use Facebook with your students, set up an account just for your class(es). Keep your personal account free of your students.

Your school district may have policies about social networking by educators. If not, the following guidelines, taken from Doug Johnson’s blog at http://sn.im/esu10-socnet-educators, may be helpful for you.

Guidelines for the use of social networking sites by educators:

• Do not accept students as friends on personal social networking sites. Decline any student-initiated friend requests.
• Do not initiate friendships with students.
• Remember that people classified as “friends” have the ability to download and share your information with others.
• Post only what you want the world to see. Imagine your students, their parents, your administrator, visiting your site. It is not like posting something to your web site or blog and then realizing that a story or photo should be taken down. On a social networking site, basically once you post something it may be available, even after it is removed from the site.
• Do not discuss students or coworkers or publicly criticize school policies or personnel.
• Visit your profile’s security and privacy settings. At a minimum, educators should have all privacy settings set to “only friends.” “Friends of friends” and “Networks and Friends” open your content to a large group of unknown people. Your privacy and that of your family may be a risk.

Remember, your job may be jeopardized by your use of social networking sites. If in doubt, don’t post it!!

 

Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) Career Field Specialists Bonnie Sibert and Bev Newton will present a workshop for business, marketing and information technology teachers on October 13, 2010 workshop at ESU 10 in Kearney, Nebraska. This workshop is geared for secondary and postsecondary BMIT teachers and pre-service college students and student teachers.

The workshop will provide technical assistance on the Nebraska Career Education's Career Fields, Career Cluster knowledge and skills statements, Programs of Study, and new curricula resources. A new course guide for Management will be introduced and Personal Finance resources will be shared. New Frameworks for the Finance, Marketing, and Business Management & Administration Clusters will be developed in 2011. Participants will have the chance to provide input for the new frameworks. 
 
If possible, secondary teachers are encouraged to bring multiple copies of the following:

• Current listing of courses for 2010-11 with a brief course description.
• Include targeted grade level and length of course and bring enough copies to share with colleagues.
• Include all of your school’s business, marketing, and information technology courses.
• Include articulated or dual-credit courses offered in your program.
• Include a header on the handout that identifies your school and the names of the BMIT teachers.

Please register on ODIE at least 5 days prior to the workshop or contact Trina Shaw at tshaw@esu10.org.

Finding all of your Workshop Registrations

You can look at all your ODIE registrations (past and future) in one list.  Under the workshops tab, there is a "My Registrations" link that will take you to a page that lists all workshops you've ever registered for.

Advanced Search Techniques in ODIE

We're making searching in ODIE faster, more powerful, and more intuitive.  You can search through all your district's helpdesk tickets, through upcoming workshops, or through the online media catalog.  You can search for a single word to find what you're looking for, but did you also know the following:

• If searching for one word returns too many results to look through, you can narrow your search by including several search words.  I.E. searching for 'President Lincoln' will return fewer and more precise results than searching for just 'Lincoln'
• You can use the keyword 'or' to search for two or more different possibilities.  I.E. searching for 'President Lincoln or Roosevelt' will search for the word 'President' as well as either 'Lincoln' or 'Roosevelt'
• You can also exclude a word from your search using '-'.  I.E. searching for 'Abraham -Lincoln' finds everything with 'Abraham' but excludes anything with 'Lincoln'.
• You can also search for phrases by using double quotes.  I.E. 'President Lincoln' searches for results with both words in any order, but '"President Lincoln"' searches for the exact phrase (those two words adjacent and in that order)

Registering For a Workshop

ESU 10 hosts a plethora of workshops on a variety of subjects.  To view or register for upcoming workshops, simply point your browser to ODIE (http://odie.esu10.org) and click on workshops.  You will see this list of upcoming workshops with the soonest on top.  You may also change to a Calendar View using the menu on the left side of the page.

You can register for a particular workshop section by clicking on the name of the workshop section.  On that page there will be a link that says "Click here to register for this Section" just below the workshop name.  If you're not logged in yet, you'll be prompted for your ODIE username and password.

If you have any questions about any upcoming workshops or about how to use ODIE, let us know!

The Community Toolbar

When you are visiting any of ESU 10's online communities, you will see the community toolbar across the top of the page.  This toolbar lets you easily jump to any other online community.  It also provides a link to your Community Preferences.  Use this page if you want to start or stop receiving email notifications about new articles and comments in any community in which you're a member.  To become a member of any community, simply log in with your email address and existing ODIE password.

If you have any questions about ODIE Communities or how they work, let us know!

Searching the Library

To begin searching though the video library, point your browser to ODIE (https://odie.esu10.org) and click on the 'Library' tab. Simply enter a search phrase and click on 'Search'. You can click on 'Show Filters' to filter your search results by subject, age group, standards, or media type.

ODIE remembers your filters for you, so if you go to the library and don't see anything in your search results, click on 'Show Filters' and make sure that you aren't filtering out any subjects that should be displayed!

What are those ODIE Communities?

A community is a framework that allows an online group of people to stay in touch and share resources.  This technology allows groups to collaborate, contribute information and ideas, participate in discussions, upload files, and other activities with each other.  There are already communities for such groups as:

• Elementary Teachers
• Fine Arts Teachers
  
• Language Arts Teachers
• Science Teachers
• Social Studies Teachers
• Media Specialists
• LAN-Managers
• Administrators
• Title 1
  
• TECHS
• Distance Education
• PowerSchool
• Laptop (for those supporting a high number of mobile computers)
  
• and more!
  

You can use your existing ODIE account to log into any of these communities.  If you do not have an ODIE account, you may request one.  To see the list of all communities, or to get more information on them, go to ODIE (https://odie.esu10.org) and click on the 'Communities' tab.