Real School Choice

I've been wondering a lot lately about school choice and the concept that parents should have the ability to send their children to an educational facility that fits the families needs.

Many families elect to send their children to the public school in their neighborhood/district because it makes the most economic sense and they want to be part of that community.

I am not one of those families. That's not to say that the school district where I live is not successful, but when it came time to select a school for my daughter I was very clear that it would be a private, catholic school. Why? Because I went to a private catholic school when I was a child and I believe that the education I received there built a strong foundation for who I am today.

Educating the "whole child". It's part of the mission of the school my daughter goes to and as I see her moving through her education I realize just how important that is today more than ever. The children in my daughter's school are well-behaved (for the most part), respectful and helpful in their attitudes. They are learning how to read and write and how to think both qualitatively and quantitatively. They are learning the basics. And their learning environment is safe and is something that I, as a parent, actually have a say in. No one is "making out" in the hallway. No one is afraid to go to school. The kids are dressed appropriately (I LOVE uniforms...even if my daughter doesn't). I can talk with her teachers and have access to the school in a way that my friends who have children in public schools just don't seem to have.

While public education struggles with budget shortfalls and continually "reinvents" itself I hear from other parents who have children in the public school system about how they worry about their children. It is often about an environment issue between smoking, drugs and pregnancy and violence. So legislative bodies bandy about the concept of school choice and we have "no child left behind" and our children are caught in the middle.

And we are left wondering if we have a choice.

I know we have a choice. I am an example of that choice. My daughter is an example of that choice.

Here in Burlington we are lucky enough to have several private catholic schools as well as several other different religious schools. They are located throughout the city. They are convenient and offer an education for the whole child. Regardless of your faith there is an opportunity here to explore your school choice -- if your public school isn't performing the way you want it to, take a look at what the private school's have to offer.

My daughter's school has small classes so she gets individualized attention, she's learning French and has access to computers and science. It's a traditional education without a bunch of bells and whistles and when she completes eight grade, I'll know she has a solid education that will allow her to take on anything in high school -- she'll be ready (not sure if I will be!).

As an educator myself, who sees what a difference a strong elementary and high school education mean for the students I teach, it's an investment in my daughter's future that I'm happy to make.

St. Joseph Catholic School, where my daughter goes, has an open house on March 2nd and 3rd from 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. You can call them at 802-864-5623 to set up an appointment. To find out more about other Catholic schools in the Burlington Area check out: http://www.catholicschoolsvt.org/

Live Blogging from iDMAa Day 2: The Industry Talks Back

What do you get when you get a panel of experts in Digital Media and Arts in a room?

Let's find out!

Panelists

Dale Herigstad, Schematic
Kurt Kratchman, Schematic
Ed Jones, President of Constellation Communication

Topics

Lot's of conversation about how to get students ready for this. How do we as educators teach this and keep students fearless, innovative and life long learners? How do you teach THAT in a classroom?

Interesting information from Kurt Kratchman

Based on eBay: What if?? Video and Commerce converge in the eBay space?

1. Commerce Vision: Integrate music video with products so all of it can be purchased on eBay. Watch the video and images of products come up.
2. Community Vision: Provide places for you to connect with others through eBay and find where they are and what they like. The same with recommendations. Someone can have their own vide show that recommends items for auction .... YouTube meets eBay!

Items that had a story behind it SOLD MORE! It's all about being able to tell the STORY ( a theme I've heard from Art Bell!!)

Employees need to have a well-rounded contextual understanding of techcian and the designer.

What about the business side?

Ed talks about the marketing and business end (my kind of guy!)

In order to sell the digital media -- you have to know who is willing to pay for it! And you need to think about it right up front (duh!)

Reasons for failure: poor communication, failure to engage the right audience, failure to obtain a behavior response that links to the business equation.

Q&A

What are the characteristcs of a college grad?

1. Look for design talent that can communicate -- well rounded individual who not only knows the tools, but can understand the implications, and they can communicate and persuade.
2. Humility and no one is afraid to work to solve the problem (be fearless!)
3. Contextual framework -- and understanding of how they fit into the process/structure of the organization
4. If you can sell your ideas and defend your process and product -- it's key. Put into your program -- Presentation Skills! Problem Solving! Project Management!

Now how do you create the new employee for this?

Students who know design fundamentals, audio fundamentals, art fundamentals, video fundamentals, marketing (YES!), strategy -- all in one. No more silos. It's a HYBRID approach in education that is needed. It's about Critical Thinking too. Sounds like a call for the work we are doing in the CORE at Champlain! And then perhaps a bit of the work we are doing in several of our programs.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is effecting programming and technology -- but innovation cannot be outsourced. Repeatable process can be replicated everywhere.

Students focus on the Computer can do it all -- how do you get them to understand it's more than that!

When you show them exceptional work, the student wants to do that immediately, but the teacher needs to set the context to a local understanding and help the students do what they can do. You need to give your students an opportunity to fail. You have to create environments where they can step beyond the next level. You can't tell them. Humility is important. Start from where you are. Having professionals talk to students seems to make a big difference. When you have control of your curriculum you can structure it in a way that responds to the industry needs.

Online Marketing Bootcamp

Keeping up with it...that's one of the biggest challenges a full-time professor who teaches internet marketing has. The changes that keep on coming since I originally developed and taught my first section of Internet-based Marketing here at Champlain are astounding!

I began teaching the course in the Spring of 2001. Since that time, the course has evolved and the tools have changed dramatically and we'll be changing the course again this summer in order to accomodate the right blend of tools AND theory.

All this is a world where social media (check out the consortium!) is now the big buzzword (it didn't exist last year!) and "experts" in the field are figuring it out on the fly as it develops! It's fascinating to read other blogs (such as Influential Interactive Marketing and BizNology and Occams Razor to name a few) about the field of interactive marketing and how the professionals are spinning what is happening and how to take advantage of these new opportunities.

What is interesting to me is that many of these professionals are not talking about the challenge of EDUCATION. How do I, as someone who is responsible for educating future marketing and e-business professionals ensure that I am truly preparing these students for what is to come? They are the ones who are living the social media as "fun" and who I find are often surprised that they could be hired because they know how to "friend" people in MySpace, and send event invitations in Facebook! They are also the same students who were STUNNED by SecondLife and even had negative reactions to the whole thing. So where does that leave us?

Here at Champlain we've got not only an Internet-based Marketing course that students are required to take, but we also have instituted a series of one credit courses in Internet Tactics that the students take in their senior year -- it's the only way to ensure they have the cutting edge tools that they will need in the workplace. The Internet Marketing class is for sophomores and juniors -- by the time they graduate there is already a host of new tools and tactics that weren't there before! Frankly, we aren't teaching Shakespeare and history here -- it's changing so fast that there aren't textbooks that really get at this (for more on that, see my other blog!).

So this summer Google and Champlain and Epik One are teaming together to offer an online marketing bootcamp. Yours truly will be in the classroom learning so she can pass on what she has learned in the fall to her students. And of course I read every blog I can and follow as much as I can.

However, the key is not just to know the tactic, but more importantly, is this something to focus on? Does it have staying power? And...will it help you to better reach your audience? That's the tough part, and where I need to be better than any of the experts -- because I have to take what they are doing and bring that into my classroom and help my students to know not just the tactic but how to apply it -- and when not too!

More from Online Marketing Bootcamp and classroom application next week....