Stock authors book, chapter on blogging for superintendents

   A UW College of Education faculty member's successful experiences incorporating blogging into his outreach role as a school superintendent are now being shared in two new books: one just published under his sole authorship and a chapter in another edited title currently in press.
   Mark Stock, assistant professor of educational leadership, published The School Administrator's Guide to Blogging: How to Connect with Your Community at the Grass Roots Level in November 2008 (publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Education). He also contributed a chapter, "Superintendent as Blogger," to an edited edition titled Leaders as Communicators and Diplomats, scheduled for release in April 2009 by Corwin Press.
   The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) will distribute the latter book to all members as part of its Professional Library program, which distributes four "cutting edge" books per year to its members. AASA will provide significant marketing support for the former book.
   Stock began blogging about district and educational issues as superintendent of Wawasee Community School Corporation in Indiana. The site took off quickly, thanks to word of mouth promotion of the site as a credible source for information.
   "We averaged 2,000-7,000 hits a day on the site," Stock says. "The local community knew that that was the way to get current news about the system."
   The site's success, fueled by Stock's willingness to explore and adopt new approaches to reaching out to the community, has so far been one fairly unique in school administration circles. While interest is starting to grow among AASA members, due in part to the success of the Wawasee district blog, the larger professional population has remained hesitant to adopt the technology as its own.
   "Typically, school administrators are slow to adapt to these kinds of innovations," he says. "Educational leaders, by and large, have not been rewarded for risk taking," he says. "When new things like this come along, they tend to look at it and see all the things that can go wrong."
   Stock acknowledges the potential but says experience has taught him that benefits vastly outweigh any risks that come with increased connection to the community. He describes strategic use of technologies such as blogging as "new school" when compared to traditional approaches to outreach incorporated by most superintendents.
   "‘Old school' is going to the basketball game, shaking hands and walking around," he says. "'New school' might be interacting through a social networking capability (e.g., through a blog). You may be reaching an audience of thousands every night."
   The aging Baby Boomer population, a large percentage of a district's tax base, is one target audience that is no longer accessible using traditional communication approaches. Their children are grown and they are increasingly mobile, Stock notes, resulting in decreased connection to local schools.
   "You're reaching a whole group of people who aren't at the game or event," he says. "How are they going to be supportive of the new bond levy or the mill levy that comes around if they are not connected?"
   Style is almost as important as content when blogging on behalf of one's school district, according to Stock.
   "If you write to them in ‘superintendent memo' mode, it doesn't work," he says. "You have to write in short, casual, informal, quick-hitting bursts."
   Traffic for the Wawasee site was particularly high on Fridays, with Stock's much anticipated "Friday Funnies" post sharing amusing anecdotes about children that had been adapted for public release. Also guaranteed to increase traffic to the site: snow. Children and parents regularly logged on when flakes began to fly to see if school would be cancelled.
   While logging in to read the latest funny or hope for a snow day, many readers would explore the site and find other posts sharing information of value to the schools and their stakeholders. One of Stock's goals for the site was providing user-friendly ways to alert visitors to opportunities to impact public policy.
   For example, when bills arose in the Indiana legislature that impacted children or addressed educational issues, Stock offered a brief overview of the bill, a link to the legislation itself, and a button that would provided quick zip code-driven access to e-mail addresses for the viewer's representatives.
   "I also tried to use it as a way of promoting political involvement at the local level," he says.
   The blog also became a key communication tool for sharing information about emergencies. During one such situation, a bus crash involving several children from the district, Stock blogged live from the hospital, providing updates on the victims and instructions to parents wanting to pick up their children.
   Stock says blogs offer a proactive way to communicate with multiple stakeholders and shape messages about the district.
    "If you're not blogging to them, they are going to be blogging about you," he says. "You might as well establish the forum, have the readers, and be in control."

 

Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008