In my Social Media and Internet Marketing presentation last week at the AEP Summit in Washington, DC, it seemed that about half the audience was not using RSS feeds. As there are a number of time-saving reasons to do so, I’m posting this short video that explains it simply and visually. This RSS instructional video is just one of a number of similar videos put together by Common Craft. I highly recommend them.

Read more about how to use RSS Feeds.

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Posted in: Social Media, Marketing | Comments(0)

Attendees and guests at the the Association of Education Publishers (AEP) Conference in Washington, D.C. this past Friday, June 6th were treated to the first education debate of this year’s election. Education policy advisors for both presumptive nominees sat side by side along with an industry panel tasked with posing probing questions. Speaking for Senator Obama was Jeanne Century from the University of Chicago and for Senator McCain - Lisa Graham Keegan, former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Although Ms. Century and Ms. Keegan agreed on the critical role that highly qualified teachers play in successful K-12 education, Ms. Century reframed the discussion when she asserted that Sen. Obama is committed to lifelong learning and making sure that young children are properly nurtured from birth so that they arrive in the classroom prepared to learn. 

Ms. Keegan, obviously  more experienced and comfortable in the role of education advisor, stressed the shared concern of both candidates but cited the difference as being the amount of innovation the McCain camp was prepared to allow in teacher preparation and classroom instruction. The representatives generally agreed that the definition and application of scientifically-based research needs to be revisited. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted in: K-12 Education | Comments(0)

It seems this time of the year finds me frequently boarding planes, and this spring has been no exception. This year, it has been a bit different as I’ve been both an attendee and a presenter. Both the K-12 publishing industry and the independent publisher industry are experiencing tremendous change. Both industries can look to evolving business models, changing consumer patterns, and the effect of the Internet for much of the cause and solution to their current challenges.

Recently, I attended SOBCon 08 in Chicago which was billed as biz school for bloggers. SOBCon is the moniker for “Successful Outstanding Bloggers Conference” co-founded by Liz Strauss and Terry Starbucker.  It was a tremendous learning experience with a group of people who had similar personal qualities but worked in a array of industries. The thing we all had in common was that we were bloggers.

What I realized there is that professionals in every industry are grappling with the same issues we are in K-12 publishing. The biggest change is not just centered around how we gather information or the quantity of information now available to us but about how we use that information to build communities around common interest. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted in: Social Media, Educational Publishing | Comments(0)

One of the current strategies for K-12 education is differentiated instruction. Differentiation has always been a marketing strategy for businesses. Customers and prospects ask, “how are you different from your competitors and why should I care?”

How companies answered those questions has changed over time, however, the one-way nature of the communication has now been significantly altered by social media. Some companies have embraced the change and others have been sitting out and waiting either to understand the landscape better or to wait for it to change again. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted in: Educational Publishing | Comments(4)