Oooh…the age old question, is the customer always right?

Yes…if you want to stay in business

Recently I have been having a lot of trouble with my AT&T U-Verse services. For over a year, I have loved their service. It is more expensive than other local cable companies, but the service has been outstanding and the product very good.

But things change

One of the power cords on a DVR no longer functions. I know that it is just the power cord, because I used one from another unit and it turns on completely fine.

I contacted AT&T Uverse over the weekend and asked them to send me a new power cord. Simple, right? Wrong!

First, for some reason they can’t just replace the cord. They need to replace the entire DVR box. Economically, I don’t really understand the point of replacing the entire box, but what do I know?

So great. They can UPS a new box to me and it will only take two days. Fantastic!

Waiting…waiting…waiting

Box never arrives. Wait another day. No dice. I did an online chat with AT&T and had to speak to two different people before I was told that my box hadn’t shipped yet. Fantastic. Did they let me know not to expect it anytime soon? Nope!

At the end of this article, I will copy and past the transcript of my last chat session where I was told I may incur a $55 charge for a service call to correct issues that are occurring with the wiring.

My takeaway…

The customer is always correct if you would like to stay in business. Although little ol’ me isn’t going to put a huge conglomerate like AT&T out of business, this is a lesson for anyone in business.

More than likely, you small business thrives on the recommendations of others…which is free advertising people! Treat the consumers of your services like a king, and sit back and wait for their friends to sign up with you.

Treat them like crap at your own peril. I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments section.

Thanks,

Tier2 – Lawrence (lr7563)

That is correct, thank you for confirming the security of the account.

Many of us out there are involved with various non-profit groups that work to make the lives better of some sector of society. Personally, I work with a fantastic group called Friends of the Shelter. When you are involved in this type of work, it is imperative that you use every tool available to meet, and hopefully exceed, your fundraising goals.

So what should I do?

Facebook is a great tool to engage your community of supporters. There are two very important points to remember when using this social media platform for your non-profit group.

1. You need to consistently work to grow your fan page. There needs to be a compelling reason for Joe Blow to “like” your page. You might considering offering  a new fan something in exchange for liking your page. This could be additional content, a free ebook download. This is limited only by your imagination.
2. Once you get that person to click the almighty “LIKE” button, you need to keep her/him engaged. It is of the utmost importance that you interact with your community on facebook. Post updates, but even more importantly  RESPOND to comments. Your fans need to know that this is an active page and that someone actually cares what they think. Having 1,000 fans isn’t going to matter if they feel disconnected from you and your group.

Now what?

Once you have gotten your target audience to like the page AND you have gotten them engaged on the facebook page, the next step is to take their hard earned money!

More on that tomorrow. Stay tuned!

It’s been a few days since I promised to bring another set of tools that I suggest you try in your classrooms, so let’s go ahead and get started, shall we?

A quick FYI

There has of late been many stories in the news of school districts that are limiting the use of social interaction between educators and their students by defining the dos and dont’s of their districts.

It is my belief that this is happening because school districts have yet to fully understand the capacity that these new tools being educators to deliver content in a new and exciting fashion that taps into the energy and enthusiasm that our youth have for social media.

So a couple of words of advice…

1. Join committees and work with your school district to craft reasonable policies that allow these powerful content delivery systems to be used in a prudent way to raise the bar for all students.
2. Don’t allow these committees to be formed by people that truly do not understand how these tools can be used inside and outside of the classroom to keep students connected to the curriculum in a much more dynamic fashion.
3. Use your common sense. Just like you would not invite a student to your home, talk to them on the phone, or tell them about your personal problems, keep them out of your private social media accounts. Your personal facebook page is no place to allow your students. If you can’t keep it professional, go to your board of education, no make that run, and surrender your teaching license.

So with all of that being said, time for some new tools.

A few tools to help you deliver content in a new format

Let’s face it. Kids are connected to their cell phones, twitter, and facebook. Why not harness that energy to be used to deliver your content in a new and interesting format?

1. EDU 2.0 - For those of us that have taken courses lately, having recently graduated or for licensure renewal purposes, are likely to be familiar with content management systems like Blackboard. EDU 2.0, released in 2006,  is something similar to that, but dedicated to help educators, students, and parents. It is a platform that helps take the classroom learning into the home. This site can hold lesson plans, documents and worksheets, and students can submit assignments online. There are grade-books, PowerPoints, you name it. Give it a try!
2. Edublogs – If you are reading this article, you are on a blog. Blogs are a great way to foster interest in a topic and gauge the amount of learning that your students are achieving. On Edubogs, you as the teacher could post a question to the class and ask students to respond to the question at home for homework. You might also have them interact with one another in the comments section to further measure what they have learned. This site brings you a safe platform with many safety features that will make you feel comfortable using it in the classroom

My takeaway…

Twitter is still my favorite. It allows so many different functions that could be harnessed in the classroom. I’ll leave you with this article from the New York Times entitled Students Speaking Up In Class, Using Social Media.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the comments below. Thanks!

Is Google+ worth the effort?

Is it just me?

To be honest with you, I have not been a very good social media disciple of the Google social media platform, Google+. When the service was first rolled out, being a social media fanatic, I just couldn’t wait to try the new “Facebook killer” that all of the top gurus in the field were so wild about.

Just as I did when gmail was released, I rushed to ebay and paid $1 for an invite. I know…dumb.

My initial thoughts

At first I tried to play around with it and get as many people into my google circles as possible. Plus, I thought it was pretty awesome that you could get the top people in the field like Chris Brogan in your circle. It almost made you feel like you were friends.

I’ve stalled on the +

After a while, I virtually abandoned my new google+ friends. I found myself not checking in very often, and participating very little.

Although people were still adding me at a quick rate to their circles, I wasn’t using the service myself very often. I found it very difficult to justify spending time on google+ than on the more traditional services like Facebook and Twitter.

What to do

I really do like the platform of Google+ and find the idea of the circles very intriguing. It is cool to be able to separate your friends and easily decide which circle sees which types of posts. I also very much enjoy not seeing the farmville and mafia wars posts that so plague Facebook. I think I am going to make a more concerted effort to become more social on Google+ and see how it goes.

And you?

Do you use this service? Are you using it successfully, or just letting it sit like I have been? I’d love to hear your thought and ideas in the comments section below.

If you haven’t signed up for Google+, check it out and please feel free to add me to your circle!

I’ve just begun my little adventure into the world of social media. Although I have actually blogged for about 3  years on various sites and platforms, I’ve had a facebook page for a while, I’ve been creating videos for years, I feel like I’m starting all over again.

What do I do?

I think that the best way to learn more about social media is to experiment with
 it. With twitter, facebook, forsquare, gowalla, yelp, etc., your mind could just explode. But have fun with it!

But I need help Jay!

Don’t we all? There are a few sites that I regularly check and that I subscribe to their RSS. My favorite social media site is by a Columbus phenomena, Amy Schmittauer from Savvy Sexy Social.

Sure her site is pretty, and you might think her target audience is female, but you would be wrong. Don’t despair guys….she has TONS of information on all facets of social media. She is a true expert and you would be very smart to start following this superstar.

Make sure you check out her videos, she is amazing. And be very sure to get on her mailing list for her knowledge to land right in your inbox.

Believe me,  you will love her!

Is it just me or can we never escape reality tv? Growing up, there were always some examples of this “genre” but in the last decade it seems to have taken over.

In the old days, reality tv existed in shows like Candid Camera, America’s Funniest Home Videos, or game shows like The Newlywed Game.

In my opinion, things began to change with the advent of the phenomena COPS. This is the first time that I can recall watching television to witness the lives of the trashy among us. How many of us tuned in each week to see the wife beaters, drug injectors, and the prostitutes all while singing along to the theme song Bad Boys by Inner Circle?

That show was bad enough! But my question is this…Why must we be subjugated to this trash on channels that used to be educational?

If you have flipped the channel to TLC, no doubt you were as shocked as I was. Jon and Kate Plus 8 was bad enough, but check out some of their new goodies:

19 Kids and Counting

Little People, Big World

My Strange Addiction

Freaky Eaters

The Little Couple

Strange Sex

I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant

Now the History Channel is trying to catch up. Typically when you turn on this channel, you will find them showing some type of show on Hitler, but if on the off chance you catch another topic, you might find some of these goodies:

Hairy Bikers

Ancient Aliens

Ice Road Truckers

MonsterQuest

Only In America With Larry The Cable Guy

Pawn Stars

Sex In the Ancient World

Swamp People

UFO Hunters

I’ve been watching the History Channel today and have learned quite a bit. Did you know that the ancient Maya bred with aliens which allowed them to build the pyramids? How about that King Tut and his sister were aliens? Or that the ark of the covenant was really some type of alien weapon?

I guess if you want your kids today not to have their brains sucked out by reality television and replaced with mush, you better spend more time at the library!

It should not be a surprise to anyone that our teens always stay connected. According to the Pew Research Center, 83% of adults in the United States have some type of cellular device, be it a smart phone or a traditional cell phone. As an educator, I contend that the number of teens with cell phones is not much less. In fact, parents often buy their children cell phones so that they can be in constant contact.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the amount of time teens are spending online is increasing rapidly.

Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week).  And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

In other words, teens are spending more hours staying connected than there parents are spending at work each week.

One trend that I have personally noticed among students this year is the proliferation of twitter amongst their peer groups. As recently as last year, it was common for students to say things like, “I don’t like twitter. It’s boring. I use facebook.”

Boy have things changed. Twitter is quickly becoming the new facebook for our youth. They crave the constant feedback that a service like twitter provides.

This should really come as no surprise. As late as last year, MSNBC reported that teens were sending approximately 3, 339 text messages each month.

In the mind of a teen, twitter is the ultimate group text messaging service. They post what they once would via text to a friend, but with twitter they send it out to a mass audience and receive instant feedback in the form of replies or retweets.

As most of us know, schools have traditionally been the last to jump on the new bandwagon. Not only do they typically not embrace new technologies, they often attempt to impede their usage. Most still try hard to confiscate cell phones and are still fighting the battle to not let students wear hats in school. Now that’s a silly and antiquated rule.

It is my contention that schools should be embracing these various platforms of social media and utilizing them, at least for communication purposes.

With so many of our youth on sites like facebook and twitter, why not use these tools to communicate with our students concerning announcements, reminders of games, or information on the upcoming school play? So many teens have smart phones that this would be a much more effective means to communicate such information than by simply reading the school announcements every morning.

I believe wholeheartedly that it is time for schools to move into the 21st century and prepare our students for the tools and technologies that they must master to be successful in this new world.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please leave a comment.

Next post…how to use social media as a tool in the classroom.

What do you remember?

I think that most of us over the age of 30 will never forget where we were when we heard the fateful news of what happened on September 11. I still can remember who told me what was happening and how I felt. I can imagine  the look on my face was when I was told the news.

I was teaching Spanish in a very rural area of Ohio. It was a beautiful fall day. But out in this area of Ohio, the school had no cable television, and there was a computer in your classroom, if it functioned.

My first true realization of the devastation was upon returning home and turning on the news. I know that I watched for hours and thought about my friends and the family that I stayed with in Mexico and emailed them to let them know what little information was actually known, but that we were safe in other parts of the country.

It is important to remember!

As an educator, I think that it is of paramount importance that we teacher our young ones what happened that day with an unbiased account. I also find it highly appropriate to promote patriotism on that day. Some “poo poo” patriotism, but what is wrong with being proud of your country?

From the minds of our youth

The other day I thought to ask one of my students if she lived in New York during September 11. She did. In fact, she lived in the Bronx. I asked her what she remembered from that day and she told me that she remembers her mom being upset. But that was it.

These currently high school students were between the ages of 3-8 when it happened. Most of them don’t have first-hand accounts of their own.

What are your thoughts or recollections after ten years?

Columbus is lucky to offer its citizens a wide variety of opportunities to escape from their comfort zones. Often, too many of us that live in the suburbs of any city tend to stick to that area. Why is that a problem? Think of everything we are missing!

With  growing Latino and African populations within the Columbus area, our residents have more opportunities than ever to get out there and try something new.

One place that I like to frequent is called La Michoacana. While I tend to go to the location on Morse Rd., there are approximately 7 locations throughout the area.

La Michoacana sells a wide variety of products that one might find in a Latin American tienda. They offer produce, a butcher, food, drinks, and other products at very good prices.

My favorite part is the restaurant inside. While it is relatively small, I have never had any trouble getting a table. Service is always quick. Food is always fantastic. And the waitresses do know enough English to deal with their non-Spanish-speaking customers.

I highly suggest that you give it a try sometime. I’d like to explore some of the African cuisine that CBUS offers in the near future. What about you?

Believe it or not, I think about blogging everyday. You’d never know that from my lack of posts as of late. I think the problem f0r me is that I have way too many things going on in my brain. Rather than sitting down and actually writing, I’m constantly googling different topics and reading about new ideas.  In short, I’m constantly looking for my muse.

According to the dicionary a muse is:

the goddess or the powerregarded as inspiring a poet, artist, thinker, or the like.

So basically instead of sitting down writing, I scour the internet for inspiration and tell myself that I will get to that next great blog post “tomorrow.” I think it all relates back to the fact that I have lots of interests and have trouble narrowing myself down into one niche.

So what makes Jay run? Here is a short list of things that very much interest me:

1. Learning to become a better person, which includes professionally, as a friend, and as a son/brother/uncle/grandchild, etc.
2. My largest interest these days relates to animals. As you probably already know, I have two dogs and three cats. Do I live in an animal farm? Yes. Do I love vacuuming and cleaning up after them everyday? Of course not.  Do I wish that I could take off and leave for Mexico for a month at a time in the summer? Everyday.  But the love that my animals give me more than makes up for any headaches that they occasionally cause. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
3. Becoming a better divorcee. I think I am slowly accomplishing this. I don’t at all miss being married. It was a mistake. I learned a lot and I have changed my outlook on many things. I’d never say that I regret being married. Life is all about learning experiences.
4. My job is a big motivator. After having gone through a divorce recently, emotionally I was not in a good place last year. Although my students did extremely well on their advanced testing exams, better that they have every done, I always felt like I should have been doing more. Apparently it  worked out well and I shouldn’t have been so hard on myself.  They truly kicked ass on those tests and many will be receiving lots of college credit for Spanish courses as they begin their freshman year. Not just testing out, but earning actual college credits that will save a nice chunk of change for mom and dad this fall. I don’t take the credit for this.  It is definitely a two way street. I must teach and they must work hard to learn and progress through their language acquisition process.

My list of goals for the new academic school year are many but I want to list a few out here in public and develop a manner in which I am able to measure my progress.

1. Continue developing my craft so that more student not only do well in my Spanish courses, but also find that passion for the language and culture that made me fall in love with it all
2. Higher test scores…its inevitable. I want my students to kick ass on their exams and feel confident in their abilities.
3. Continue to to develop more interactive activities using various web 2.0 tools to reach students in ways and on platforms that they are familiar with and use on a regular basis.
4. Keep writing.  I really do love to blog and to write.  I get a great sense of satisfaction from finishing a post.  I’ve let my blog readership die to an extent and my goal is to definetely increase this yet again.

So my question to you is a simple one. Have you discovered your muse? What is it that keeps you motivated? I’d love to hear all about it.