Steven Milstein’s Blog Onboarding folks onto social software, 10 minutes at a time.

Update on pitching social software to Sara’s elementary school

Sara's teacher - Mr. N. was kind enough to schedule 90 minutes last Friday afternoon for me to pitch social software to her Grade 6 class.

No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.

-- Field Marshall Helmuth Carl Bernard von Moltke

My original intent was to play a couple of music videos I mashed-up to see how familiar the students already were with services like Facebook & MSN. Unfortunately, as I plugged the external speakers into my 6 year-old Dell laptop, something went pop & then all we heard was nothing but snap & crackle.

I should have known better than try to resolve the situation. Mr. N. jumped right in with a little discussion on the pros & cons of things like Facebook & MSN. But as Sara gave me her "Daddy...?" look, I figured it was time to move on and demo the mini-site I set up the night before.

I started off logged into the site with Sara's credentials & displayed the day's Calendar Event. I toured the bullet items and the Video Gallery - like YouTube, I wanted to show. I clicked on Sara's Profile page to draw the analogy to Facebook. I showed them the Image Gallery with a few pictures Sara took at their last 3-day field trip & mentioned Flickr. I showed them Status messages & Discussions - sort of like MSN, GTalk, Twitter, Facebook, myspace, gmail, hotmail, etc. Then there was the shared Bookmarks like delicious and digg.

In the end, I never needed the videos. For the most part, the kids were very much tuned into the virtues of social software. If anything, they just didn't know that that's what it was called.

For myself, I learned that more than half the kids were already on Facebook & avid MSN users. In fact, the Facebook users were also well aware of the fact they are "ineligible" to register but lied about their birthdays as a work around. MSN doesn't challenge anyone on registration but it's buried somewhere in the Terms & Conditions that a "Child" must have the permission of a parent, or, guardian - which seemed to bother some of the kids on MSN.

For those, not registered with Facebook, many were very quick to say they didn't want to lie about their age - Sara included. In addition, I also found out that some felt the peer pressure to be on Facebook.

So that's what we offered the Grade 6 class. All the social software capabilities they want in the privacy and safety of their own school. I pointed out that at recess time, the school doesn't send them out to the public parks to play. They go out to their gated schoolyard where there's school staff to monitor them. And on some occasions, they get together with other schools to play soccer, or, football. So this was going to be exactly along the same thinking - just virtual.

While I wasn't able to play any videos for the kids, I did cover the material the old fashioned way. I explained to them the deal in the making - described in my previous post The Start-Up Chronicles: Chapter 2. Who, Part 4, under "Who's in for a little extra-curricular activity?".

In the end, both Mr. N. & I concluded that there is certainly a desire and need for us to bring social software into the school. In the fact the interest level seemed so high, that Mr. N. offered to integrate the social software activity into his curriculum and even dedicate Friday afternoons for me to mentor the kids - given enough parents grant their permission.

Permission Slip and all the parents/guardians have been directed here to permit, or, not permit their child to participate in the social software activity.

Permission Slip

Best Efforts

1. I understand the school will make its best efforts:
   1. in protecting the privacy of its students
   2. limiting their access to the secured site
2. I understand the students will have to digitally sign and adhere to a Code Of Conduct wiki page within the site.

Your Name (required)
 

Your Email (required)
 
A confirmation email will be sent. Please print, sign and have it returned to school.

Subject
Social Software In Schools Permission Form

Permission (required)
 Granted Denied

Would you also like access to the site (optional)?
 Yes

Comments (optional)

Enter the following characters to prevent spam (required)
 

Tagged as: chronicles, edu, education, facebook, flickr, Google Talk, msn, Online Communities, parents, schools, social software, start-up, students, twitter No Comments

1Oct/090

The Start-Up Chronicles: Chapter 2. Who, Part 4

Partnering, building communities and pitching social software to Sara's elementary school.

Cut win-win deals. A partnership seldom takes place between equals. As a result, the more powerful side is tempted to squeeze the other party. The weaker side, for its part, will begrudgingly accept such deals and try to get what it can. Bad idea. Bad karma. Bad practicality. If the partnership is a win-lose deal, it will blow up because concrete walls and barbed wire cannot hold a partnership together. Only mutually beneficial results can. In the long, the bitter seed of resentment planted at the start of a partnership will grow into a giant, destructive weed.

-- The Art of Partnering, Guy Kawasaki

Background

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about building communities to help drive my start-up's outside-in software development and my working relationship with the good folks at Cynapse. And while my last post was - for the most part, about getting to be a TechCrunch50's semi-finalist, I did end with my desire to sow the social software seeds in my daughter Sara's elementary school.

Motivation

As a passionate software entrepreneur and social software evangelist, it breaks my heart when Sara tells me she's bored learning how to use Word and Excel in Computer class. Now please don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining about her teacher - a fine and qualified professional. I'm not complaining about the curriculum, nor about the state of our education system. In no way would I ever expect the school to provide social software education. But nothing says that I can't.

Who's in for a little extra-curricular activity?

So I approached the school and offered just that. I prepared a marked-up version of Cynapse's Flash marketing material & evangelized the virtues of, not only the mechanics of learning social software but the life lessons - I truly believe, it can teach the kids.

Our 30 minute meeting became an hour and a half and ended with a few action items:

1. The school would have to agree to a trial period with the understanding that, if successful, they would continue the program.
2. Cynapse would have to agree to barter three months of free hosting in return for a modified version of their Best Practices Guide for Elementary School Students.
3. The students would have to volunteer for the extra-curricular activity and agree to collaborate on the Guide. Delivery of the Guide deems success.

Since the meeting, the school has delivered on Action Item #1. In addition, Cynapse has delivered on Action Item #2. So later this week, I'll be presenting my offer to Sara's Grade 6.

I've since elaborated on my initial presentation by incorporating some keywords mentioned during our meeting and added the narration. But after playing it back for Sara, she thought it may be "too much" and I should try to be more funny.

Up next

The problem was, I tried to create something that would appeal to too many audiences - students, school staff and maybe even parents. So in the interest of outside-in development, I created two more videos which have passed the Sara Test. Once, approved by her teacher, I'll start with those & save the one above - hopefully, for another time.

Reflection

Please feel free to share any thoughts, or, experience around social software in schools.

Tagged as: chronicles, Cynapse, education, Guy Kawasaki, outside-in software development, school, TechCrunch50 No Comments