In the January 2008 edition of Scholastic Administr@tion (yes, the @ sign is in the title), the Executive Editor, Kevin Hogan, pointed out that a July 2007 study showed that 96% of children with Internet access between the ages of 9 & 17, have used social-networking sites and 71% of them use this technology weekly. Hogan went on to point out that professionals associated with the education field need to understand this technology better & he recommended starting Facebook &/or MySpace accounts and learning to use them, not just to understand what students are doing with them but to improve communications with students and parents.
I found this very compelling as I have been very focused on “team collaboration” tools for the last few years here at the Madison Metropolitan School District. I attended a workshop on social-networking near
The key is that we as Certified Public Managers® have the ongoing responsibility to be life-long-learners and model the effective use of new technologies which can continue to improve our personal and organizational effectiveness in serving the public. Toward that end, we in the Wisconsin Society of Certified Public Managers® will spend some of our effort in 2008 within the context of our meetings and organizational communications to use and learn more about Web 2 tools.
If you have thoughts on this issue, please add your comments to this blog. If you have reservations about using these tools, voice them. If you have experience using these tools you can share, please do so. Together, we are going to learn more about this topic. One thing is clear: new employees entering our workforce coming from our schools and colleges, will likely already be very experienced with these tools.
Mark Evans, WSCPM President
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