I realized that in two years I had never added a link to subscribe to Dangerously Irrelevant via e-mail. LeaderTalk has had such a link since its inception. So I created one in Feedburner. Clicking on the Subscribe via e-mail link takes you to a web page where you can enter your e-mail address. Hopefully this will be a good option for administrators and others who aren’t ready yet for a RSS reader.
I also added this blurb to the navigation menu:
I rarely look at for-profit PR pitches. If you send me something, please ensure that it relates to the topics of this blog: technology, leadership, and/or school reform.
Hopefully this will cut down on the number of unsolicited publicity requests I receive from corporations touting their latest miracle initiative for schools. I know they’re well meaning – and I recognize that the initiatives actually do some good – but I think that most of the projects just tinker at the margins and basically are more about the corporations than the schools. This is not a surprise, of course. Thoughtful corporate assistance to schools that makes a real difference still is hard to find. If you know of any such projects, please share them with the rest of us (and tell us why you think they’re making a difference so that we know you’re not just a corporate shill)!
Thoughtful corporate assistance to schools that actually makes a difference? Yes, there's a great deal of fluff out there - but also a lot of good work, especially by those companies not trying to sell anything as a component of their campaigns, and by business coalitions (such as chambers and the like). Most are focused on projects related in some way to workforce development (and therefore mostly high school-centered) - though I've been arguing that partnerships need to be broader and start earlier if they really want to see results.
I'll share two links, neither with benefit to me: the first is a conference I've already hosted, the second is a site we run pro bono. Both offer good info on what companies and coalitions can do for kids when they work collaboratively with schools.
www.eepc2008.com
www.biz4ed.org
Hope this shows that there is in fact some good work being done -
Posted by: Brett | August 27, 2008 at 03:06 PM
I have an example of thoughtful corporate support--
A large tech retailer sent out an articulate spokes person to our opening teacher workshop this year. His topic was the changes they are making in response to the net generation and the flat world economy. (I almost thought we were going to see the "Did You Know" slideshow.) I hope the staff was listening.
This same company sponsored a computer boot camp for high school aged girls. Kids that attended this are REALLY confident of the computer skills.
I believe they also supplied the financial support necessary for several high school students and teachers to go and see how they are doing business in China.
I think we have been adopted by a thoughtful company. None of these projects were incredibly expensive, but I think they will have an impact. It should be easy to see if it has an impact because most of the support is targeted at our older school population. They should be hitting the work force and college soon. The results will be fun to watch!
Posted by: Roger Whaley | August 29, 2008 at 04:46 PM