The Evolution of Communication Based Efficiencies in Our Schools Business offices used to depend on paper, pencil, general ledgers and floppy disks. In most cases, these technologies and formats are long gone. Today’s business offices and teams are sharing documents with each other instantaneously and making changes on the fly. Agendas are dynamic and minutes can be created and shared instantaneously. If you have questions regarding a document, you do not print it out, write your questions down and then meet with your staff; you comment directly on the document and move on. Multiple staff members can be working, editing and commenting simultaneously on projects in Google Drive, making for a more efficient business office.
Always Connected
One of the challenges of this career is the pressure to always check email. Work-life balance is difficult; however, we can use 21st century social media apps and platforms to work smarter. Here are a few helpful technology resources:
Voxer
Voxer is a “Walkie Talkie” messaging app for your smartphone with live voice (like a PTT walkie talkie), along with text, photo and location sharing. It is used in corporate settings and for school districts it can be a cost effective tool to quickly share information amongst the executive cabinet, leadership team and staff members. Whether the message is an emergency call to action or a thank you to team members, this communication tool is tailored to “groups” so the user can customize their message to different audiences. The EdFinChat team communicates with each other via Voxer in preparing for our next chats and we plan to invite members of the Illinois ASBO Communications PDC to start to use Voxer in the hopes that this will improve our effectiveness in producing high quality presentations for upcoming professional development. 22 |
UPDATE Magazine / Summer 2019
Podcasts
Like Voxer, podcasts are an inexpensive way to produce mass communication and they have become popular in education as a means to record a “spoken blog.” They are often topic-based and can be monologues or interviews with guests. They have the same advantage of written blogs in that they can be “bite-size” and are user friendly. There are many platforms for podcasts such as SoundCloud, Audioboom and Podbean.
Twitter was created to allow anyone to post and share anything with the rest of the world and it did not take long for teachers, superintendents and school districts to discover that power. Within minutes a post can be seen by thousands across the globe. Usually these posts include a hashtag (#), such as #21learns at CCSD21 or #112leads at North School District 112. Hashtags allow for users to search for a specific topic and can be used to get multiple people involved in one conversation at the same time, which has now become Twitter chats. Twitter chats such as #EduGladiators, #SatChat and #LeadUpChat are very popular weekly education Twitter forums. Twitter chats are also a way for superintendents, principals and teachers to tell their good stories in their school districts which is what they have cultivated in the #SuptChat. The discussion came up about how to get CSBOs involved with Twitter chats and sharing the good stories of the business office and operations. #EdFinChat was created by Dan Oberg, Chris Wildman and Dr. R.J. Gravel and has had multiple guest moderators from Illinois ASBO to facilitate topics ranging from safety and security, ESSA, work-life balance and leadership. #EdFinChat is not just centered on school business management in Illinois; it is a global community for those interested in sharing best practices and creating an authentic PLN. Some of the most successful chats have come from guest moderators from Wisconsin and the United Kingdom.