In our third installment of the Blackboard Connect™ social media integration feature spotlight, we look at Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, a large K-12 school district outside of Dallas. TX, to examine their social media practices in conjunction with Blackboard Connect. 

As the Assistant Director of Public Information for the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District, Angela Shelley is not shy about using every available communication mode and device for getting the word out. But as digital communication channels gain more prominence, streamlined messages and outreach grows increasingly important, and in some respects, necessary for school districts.

Situated on the border of Dallas, Carrollton-Farmers Branch spans across six cities and is comprised of more than 25,000 students. Described as majority -minority, the district’s population largely consists of native speaking Spanish and Asian students, with most students speaking English as a second language. Such a large, diverse population requires flexible, robust communication from the school and district officials.

September is National Preparedness Month, and it serves as a timely reminder of the importance of taking precautionary measures before an urgent situation arises. For most people, proper preparedness simply means developing a well thought-out plan or stockpiling supplies. But for those in a position of leadership, whether it is a local community, school district or college campus, a robust communication plan and a reliable mass notification system are a must.

If your community already utilizes a notification service, National Preparedness Month is the perfect opportunity to remind residents to register or update their contact information in the notification database. With more contacts, and more accurate numbers and addresses, messages are more effective as official information can be received as soon as it’s available. An annual test call or an announcement to local media outlets are also great ways to generate awareness and encourage registration among residents.

Greetings from Australasia!

We’re here in Cairns, Queensland for this year’s BbSummit 2010. To spice things up, Blackboard Connect™ and Blackboard Mobile™ have teamed up to deliver a number of useful, informative sessions for this year’s participants. As both platforms work to provide students more mobility, it seems to be a natural pairing to demonstrate and share ways educators can better engage students through the combined use of our mobile content management and rapid communication systems.

In our second installment of the Blackboard Connect social media integration feature spotlight, we turn to Dundee, MI who uses Blackboard Connect, in conjunction with their Facebook page, to respond to severe weather.

The Village of Dundee, Michigan is about 30 minutes away from Ann Arbor and has a population of about 4,000 residents. The community launched a Facebook page in November of last year, and it has already been “liked” by more than 1,400 fans.

It’s increasingly evident the important role social media plays in everyday life. From the mundane to the catastrophic, events are being reported by peers minute-by-minute, as they happen. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, “one-third (35 percent) of American adult Internet-users have a profile on an online social network site.”

Sites like Facebook and Twitter present new avenues to connect and exchange information, so it’s no surprise more users are logging on every day. That growing audience is one reason social media is quickly becoming a mainstream platform for forward-looking school administrators and government officials that want to establish relationships and maintain open conversations with community members.