Administrators and web 2.0 tools

I'm doing a workshop this summer on web 2.0 tools that administrators might find helpful. I'm assuming that some of the administrators won't be that familiar with many of them, so I want to offer some basic ideas for handy tools, like how to use blogs, wikis, and RSS.

But I'd like to know from any of you who are administrators if there are any tools you particularly rely on or find helpful.

If you'd like to post your response on my blog: http://futura.edublogs.org/2007/04/20/how-web-20-tools-help-adminis... I'd appreciate it, or you can reply here.

Thanks ahead of time!

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Cavillones on April 25, 2007 at 4:24pm

I think that administrators, in addition to being introduced to these new Web 2.0 tools, are particularly sensitive to liability issues, in ways that teachers may not be. I think some of this has to with a murky understanding of what is considered normal/acceptable in the blogging community. Of course, this may not apply to administrators are part of the blogging community themselves!

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Permalink Reply by Cathy Nelson on April 25, 2007 at 6:33pm

Not an administrator here, but I am doing a session similar to this in June. I hope to show the power of Aggregators, and how the kind of info one is interested in can be streamline sent to you through your aggregator.. I think just like learning about flickr or other image storing sites, once the admin see a personal use for it, as an educator they will naturally want to apply the knowledge there. So make this personal and relevant to them as well. Show them some great admin rss feeds. Maybe feeds from MaybryOnline (Tim Tyson, Mabry Middle School, Cobb County, GA) as an example of a blogging principal or Chris Lehman (Practical Theory, principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philly, PA), another principal who blogs...I want to track this discussion to see what others think. Thanks for starting this.

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Permalink Reply by Ginger Lewman on April 25, 2007 at 9:03pm

Well, I invited in one of my favorite administrators and I hope he'll consider posting some ideas here for you. He works for a typical American school with typical teachers of ALL varieties; he has lots of potential for insight for us. ;)

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Permalink Reply by Carolyn Foote on April 26, 2007 at 5:24am

Thanks to all of you. Cathy, I also plan to show them LeaderTalk where a number of administrators are posting, which I'm sure you've seen. I also want to show how wikis can be used as a planning tool, using Jott.com to easily communicate(my new favorite!) and Pageflakes to keep up with news and blogs on a particular subject.

I do appreciate, Nancy, the liability concern of administrators and agree that if there is more understanding of these tools, then that helps with the comfort level. Around the country I see schools where the administrators are the ones leading with web 2.0 tools also--so I know the interest and abilities runs the gamut, just as it does for teachers.