Is BCPS a business worthy of advertising or an educational institution for Baltimore County’s 112,000 students?
Is it a mechanism for marketing or a place for kids to learn?
Perhaps it’s a futuristic animatronic museum in which our vendors and other school systems from across the country can come see a glimpse into the future.* To see where humanity is headed, to see the future of America, where, as Superintendent Dance has said, “you can come into a classroom and not even be able to find the teacher.” Perhaps that’s precisely why our vendors and other school leaders come? To enthusiastically hashtag -#foundher – when finding one – like a game of “Where’s Waldo?” in a BCPS classroom?
Whatever the reason, this certainly appears to make for an amazing advertising opportunity for our vendors.
#buyfromustoo? #freeadvertising?
It’s no secret that Baltimore County has become the hub of school innovation for the country. Maybe even for the world, according to our Hewlett Packard representative. Does all of this hashtagging help with the momentum of leading the way? After all, BCPS and the hashtag did become fast friends under the leadership of BCPS’ current administration.
Walk the Walk Award – DILA 2014 Winner: “Dr. Dance is constantly tweeting to BCPS stakeholders…”
Why not? As a school system, we have not only embraced technology, but we are rocketing out to space on it. But what is the impetus behind the advertising? Who does it serve? And is it safe?
Some parents on, coincidentally, social media, as well as at BCPS Board of Education meetings, have raised concerns; they do not think that it’s safe. In fact, some think that it’s downright dangerous. Yet the response to these sentiments has been a familiar-sounding one. The same response heard time and time again about any hiccups with STAT, Baltimore County’s 1:1 digital initiative: the problem boils down to the professional development of the teachers, they say.
And yet, BCPS’ own Department of Communications and Community Outreach seems to have opened the Wild West of Twitter in the first place. Why is it, then, that the teachers are being pointed to as the ones lacking in social media etiquette?
BCPS’ Chief Communications Officer, Mychael Dickerson, certainly gave the greenlight. In fact, he suggested it in this June 2015 article, stating:
“We simply asked people to send photos of them wearing Team BCPS Blue and to go to social media to post their pictures or to let us know how they were celebrating Team BCPS Day. To our surprise we received hundreds of pictures and thousands of tweets and Facebook posts. We also held a competition recognizing the youngest Team BCPS member (mothers-to-be were sending in photos pointing at their stomachs indicating they had the youngest Team BCPS member), the oldest Team BCPS member, the largest Team BCPS group etc., the most spirited, etc. The pictures and tweets came from all over the world and from all sorts of people to include: students; parents; families; staff members; businesses; religious groups; senior citizen homes and many other organizations and stakeholders. It was an incredible launch and this year was even more successful.”
With almost 60K followers and 10.4K tweets, @BaltCoPS has had a very busy 5 1/2 years since the account opened in April 2011. Discovery Education, one of STAT’s main vendors, which has been on Twitter since 2007, does pretty well with 314K followers and a whopping 25K tweets!
In fact, Discovery Education’s very own National Director of Educational Partnerships – who, incidentally, is also on the Board of Directors for the Education Foundation for Baltimore County Public Schools – even tweeted about us a month ago, stating: “Awesome students share our thoughts-BCPS STAT Initiative. ‘More fun way to learn’ #bcpsstat”
In 2014, BCPS’ Department of Innovation (under their previous name) even gave Hewlett Packard a shout-out! And a BCPS principal took some time to thank Daly Computers (Daly Computers contract)! Meanwhile, teachers tweet about their students being on DreamBox, yet another BCPS vendor.
All of this tweeting and none of it proven to assist with our students’ educational outcomes.
So, whom is this tweeting all about then? Who does it help? And what is it actually for? Is this “edu-tising” good for our students or does it serve some higher motive?
Some of us are still waiting for the “how much screen time are the students getting” question to be answered. All of this tweeting and still no answer?
#justsayin’
*From the 11/7/16 BCPS E-Newsletter:
“Dear Team BCPS: This week, BCPS hosted representatives from around the nation who visited our Lighthouse and Passport schools to see firsthand how we are implementing our Theory of Action.
Our visitors were in Baltimore attending the 2016 League of Innovative Schools’ Fall Conference. I am very proud of our students, teachers, and administrators who welcomed these special guests into our classrooms to show them outstanding teaching and learning. I also extend my thanks to all members of Team BCPS who were involved in the planning and implementation of these visits. Our visitors were impressed, and it was truly an amazing experience for all of us.”
STAT-us BCPS 