The National School Boards Association underscores the need for thoughtful policies regarding online social networking within school communities in an excellent study.  With the exponential upsurge of sites like MySpace and Facebook, it is clear that reactive responses don’t work — students will still be typing away after hours, keeping in touch with friends.

Some stats:

71% of students use social networks at least weekly.

59% of online students talk about educational topics online.

50% of online students talk specifically about homework online.

All of this online social networking tech is still shaking out.  People still don’t know what to do with it, or what to make of it.  It’s an untamed beast.  But it shows powerful potential to connect with students and parents in new and efficient ways.

Imagine connecting with your local school community (and beyond) with online calendar updates, event invitations, etc. through MySpace or Facebook.

At Intand, we are looking to drive technology in these areas, especially in the event communication arena.  Look for more in the future.

Scholastic.com has a great article about some things to consider when planning for new school technology.  Some key points:

• Think open – Does the technology tool you are considering implementing play well with the other tools you already have in place?
• Keep and eye on total cost of ownership – What is the entire picture of costs incurred to get up and running, train and maintain the system?  Oh, and don’t forget the hidden costs not many seem to mention: What is the cost in lost productivity and morale as a result of frustration with the tool?
  
• Share the risk – Are you taking on the entire load of the technology, it’s weak spots, potential obsolescence, etc?

Here at Intand, we are passionate about providing great technology tools that empower rather than frustrate.  And we are keen on giving you technology that is a tool that does not distract you from getting your job done, with effectiveness and ease.  Here’s how Tandem for Schools, our web-based, database-driven calendar system can meet the above concerns:

Tandem for Schools integrates easily into your current system, without fuss.  All you need to do is set up the calendar with your facilities, events, etc.

Tandem for Schools costs very little to own. We host it in one of the best data centers on the West Coast, so you don’t have to manage hardware.  It takes little time to get users up to speed and does not require weeks of training.  Licenses are per school, not per user.  When we upgrade the system, you are automatically part of the upgrade.  Easy.  High value for minimal investment.

Tandem for Schools takes on risk for you. You can try before you buy for 30 days.  Support is free.  We maintain the hardware. You don’t have to invest thousands of your scarce school dollars into technology that just may end up going unused.

In this day and age of over-engineered technology tools, Tandem for Schools will take the pain out of your calendaring and event planning processes.

Tandem for Schools makes calendar changes a breeze.  And any changes made will be immediately available to everyone.  Plus, users (parents, etc.) that are registered on the calendar get updates of any changes.

Because the Tandem calendar operates out of a central database, your school staff will save loads of time when schedules do change.

Here are some scenarios where Tandem for Schools will greatly streamline the calendar change process:

– A baseball game gets rained out.  Rather than have to make a bunch of phone calls (and receive a bunch from inquisitive parents), you updated or cancel the event.  Registered parents get an email, and everyone on your staff knows – pretty much now.

– Your school administration is trying to finalize the general school calendar.  You enter it in the system.  But two days later, you receive an updated schedule.  You can update it in less than five minutes.  Tandem instantly reflects the changes.

– Had some snow days?  Change the last school day on your calendar with ease.  Parents, staff, everyone?  Happy and updated.

Remember, all of the above scenarios are simple updates made by one staff person to one centralized calendar.  No more fuss getting your changes made and calendar users updated.

Shameless plug:  Tandem for Schools is easy to use and will take the stress out of calendar management.  Learn more and give it a try at www.intand.com.

Jon Udell made some interesting points in his blog about the importance of calendars and data feeds. He call syndication of data feeds “transformative technology”. Syndication? Data feeds? Gobbelygook?

He is right. These two technologies are important, but what do they mean? Syndication allows internet users to grab information (usually in the form of RSS, or Really Simple Syndication) and consolidate it in one place rather than going to multiple web sites to gather their daily info dose.

Simply put, at many web sites, you can subscribe to a feed, and read all of your subscribed feeds from one place using a reader tool (Google Reader is a good and simple one). And Viola! Every time new posts are added, or information is updated, it shows up as new in your reader. Easy, and cool!

You will be interested to know that Tandem for Schools provides RSS feeds of calendar events. Users can filter events by group to track events and updates. So there is nothing for users to do except review their feeds on a regular basis. If events are updated in the system, everyone has the updates immediately, easing communication and office logistics.

So, the PDF you may be posting may be working for you for now. But what happens if the staff member that updates it is out? How do change requests get communicated? Tandem for Schools gets around all this. Your entire staff can be empowered to manage the calendar. And your parents and students will be drawn in to higher involvement. That’s the goal anyway.

Tandem for Schools can be a big help when school or district events get changed or canceled.  Parents can sign up to have updates sent to them via email (and through other means like SMS, etc. in the future).  So if they have kids in soccer, they can be notified if a game gets canceled due to weather.  No more taking 100’s of calls in your school office when there is a schedule change in question.  Once a staff member updates the calendar, everyone who has signed up for the updates knows about the change.  And you can breathe a sigh of relief.

How many times have you scheduled something on your school calendar, only to find later that the facility or time you specified was double-booked?  This is a frustrating scenario, both for staff and outside users of your calendar.

Tandem for Schools overcomes this problem with built-in conflict checking.  When you enter an event, you’ll know right away if you are double-booking.  And your job will be easier because of it.