Teaching by Twitter in Missouri: Why Lobbying for It Makes Sense?

By Travis H. Brown, MBA

It has been no secret that I have lobbied to make online public schools as useful, effective, and transparent as any other classroom in Missouri. It likewise may come as no surprise that I am an avid user of twitter to provide government transparency (having completed my 3,000 tweet recently).

As technology expands into communication and business, it is encouraging to see that some public school teachers are looking at ways to integrate it into classroom experiences in a positive way. It seems inevitable that digital natives would expect and thrive off curriculum approaches fluent in their digital devices and media.

EdWeek Magazine examines several classrooms that are using Twitter in particular to supplement their curricula.

American History teacher Lucas Ames has his students tweeting articles about Constitutional issues, old and new. @coolcatteacher shares resources between colleagues to get and give feedback about technology in the classroom. Yet another teacher in Houston is hoping Twitter will help her bilingual class to learn about other cultures and customs by partnering with other classrooms around the country.

Some critics wonder if it’s really appropriate to use social networking in the classroom. And it’s not just the stigma that video games and social networks are toys and typically distract from learning, but also because there is little to no data about these tools helping or hurting achievement. Daniel Willingham, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia-Charlottesville notes the lack of research, but goes on to say:

“Like any other tool, the way we make it useful is to consider very carefully what this particular tool is very good at, rather than simply say, ‘I like Twitter, so how can I use it?’ ”

So what is useful about Twitter in this context?

It can improve the speed by which we get information. Homework help, project collaboration are possible ways for students to integrate technology into time-management.

Downside: easing a manner to cheat, or providing shortcuts to research

It can present information in a more useful or appropriate format.
Peer reviews or ongoing class discussions where students can integrate, say, news stories into their feed to support their point could be useful in teaching analysis, debate, and how to use resources.

Downside: disadvantage for kids who may not have Internet access at home.

It can connect you with experts. You can follow @NASA, search for Ayn Rand, follow elected officials, journalists and researchers.

Downside: It can also connect you with spammers and people with bad information.

Crowd-sourcing the best ideas. For teachers, Twitter is beginning to be a way to share ideas, lesson plans and class notes. For students, it could be asking a question or asking for opinions and learning how sharing ideas produces better results and sparks creativity.

Students can also be challenged to develop their own uses and applications for Twitter. One of the most interesting uses of Twitter I came across was an elementary teacher that used Twitter to teach students about probability and geographic climates, so the network actually served to illustrate a lesson, or put a human face on an abstract thought.

Twitter is merely one example among thousands that have the potential to enhance a lesson, show the possible practical uses of a “social” network, and get students used to integrating technology into their work. One objective of administrators and teachers could be to create methods to learn about technology and reap the benefits while avoiding some of the pitfalls.

One leader in the national conversation about technology in education will be Karen Cator, a former executive at Apple, as she joins the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology.

“We need to craft an entirely new research agenda around this issue so people can’t write that technology doesn’t work,” said Cator to Edweek. “We know it works…but we need to get good at saying and articulating what exactly technology can do.”

If Americans seek to improve the competitiveness of our next generation, then it is vital to embrace this challenge to define better experiences.

Otherwise, I am sure that tweet feeds like this one will regulate our future.

Photo by Kevin Zollman under a Creative Commons license.

Lobbying for Life Flights: Access to Care by Air

by Travis H. Brown, Contract Lobbyist

This week, a Washington Post article about the risks that air medical emergency response teams face reminded me how often state & federal healthcare lobbyists forget the vital role that pilots with paramedics play.  The focus of that story had to do with the family lives lost to tragedy and inclement weather in duty – something that all private pilots know deserves more attention for the work that they do.

Maybe it’s just my love for general aviation that captures me to the beat of their rotors.   Maybe it’s my decade of experience lobbying for healthcare matters.  Every time that I see a BJC helicopter coming in or leaving out from Barnes-Jewish Hospital, I think about the times that I have known someone on that flight, or someone who needs it the most at that very moment.  Recently, it was my father-in-law being air-lifted to University Hospital, when an extensive crew did everything that they could to ease his pain.  Decades ago, I recall being near a fatal car accident in Perry County when it only took 15 minutes for an air evac ambulance to arrive from St. Louis, MO.  Even in rural mid-Missouri near Jefferson City or Columbia, I often see life flights to transport vital organs, blood supplies, and unique services across our river’s edge throughout the night.

I strongly recommend every child having a chance to see a helicopter team like this in a non-urgent situation.  In 1999, in Springfield, MO, I toured a hospital during the State Chamber of Commerce Leadership Missouri grassroots issue tours around each region.  Sometimes, healthcare facilities offer open houses where such tours are offered on site.  In order to understand how and why costs can be so high, it takes some first-hand knowledge of what this kind of operation crew requires to function.

As a border to many states, Missouri’s export of healthcare services is often extended by air in this fashion.  Many citizens may not take time to realize that access to care from top notch physicians – including anesthesiologists, cardiac surgeons, neuro surgeons, and trauma physicians – depends upon air lifts to urban core areas.

So, as we reconsider how our state laws, regulations, and practices related to adverse events might be improved in the next year’s legislative session, we should remind each other of the techniques like this that make our access to care uniquely-possible between our urgent care, surgery centers, & major hospital networks.  When we limit our reimbursements for how doctors can see patients, someone on the other end of that 911 call may not get the urgent help that they deserve.

How Missouri Lobbyists Can Use All for Good

By Travis Brown

This week, First Lady Michelle Obama launched awareness for serve.gov. Thanks to the Google volunteer programmers that work 20% of their time on free form ideas, there’s now a new website rolled out called: www.allforgood.org (makes you wonder what the Microsoft Bing executives are doing to compete too, doesn’t it?).

An important role of a state or federal lobbyist can be sharing ways to expand charity in targeted areas, preferably around client priorities and/or the legislative districts of your colleagues in public service. That used to mean that your time and/or pro bono advocacy was limited to your physical presence traveling to a corporate office or a policymaker’s district. Today, thanks to open source API technology like All for Good, you can find creative ways to link community advocates, volunteers for political action, or small donor philanthropic patrons much easier.

Here’s how this can work. Suppose you had a healthcare lobbying client that wanted to sponsor some kind of senior outreach in Mid-Missouri, like Jefferson City, MO or Columbia, MO. On their site, you can see a search tab to enter location. When you do, you will first see a google map showing successful activities with active listings. In this example, item D in my location search sends you to volunteer match in Boone County.

The good news is that the collaboration also screens by issue, too, in your given location. This enables you to target lobbying for specific things, like public education. Suppose I want to find school partnerships in St. Louis, MO. In my search, it identifies, maps, and connects item G, Loyola Academy of St. Louis.

Obviously, the idea here is to link, share, facebook evite, tweetup, blog, or somehow promote an efficient way to give back to your targeted neighborhood. If it takes off anything like they hope, it could become a tremendous research for legislators, event planners, philanthropists, lobbyists, association managers, and engaged citizen leaders.

Quotes from a few individuals who supported the site that got us thinking:

“All for Good makes it easier for Americans to find a way to help others — to give someone a break — in a new spirit of volunteerism,” said Craig Newmark, Founder and Customer Service Representative, craigslist.

“I have been impressed — and inspired — by the way the people behind All for Good are putting their expertise in technology and the new ways we communicate at the service of service. By connecting those who can help with those in need, All for Good is an exciting step down the road of turning our impulse to serve into acts that reduce the human suffering that has been exacerbated by the hard times we are facing. Now, more than ever, we must mine the most underutilized resource available to us: ourselves. And All for Good can help us do just that,” said Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post.