Technology and School Branding Research

Doing research on school branding this week was really interesting to me. I guess I never thought of a school in the way that it needs to have a brand. Before, I could understand it from the standpoint of a private school, where they need to recruit students, but from a public school it didn’t make much sense at first.

Then I really started to think about it. How many schools in Omaha have I heard something about in the media and formulated an opinion based off of what I heard? Omaha has an EXTREMELY diverse population. All socioeconomic levels, races, religions are represented. And that’s all over Omaha, in EVERY school, not just the public ones even.

Branding gives those schools a way to take charge of the way that the public sees them. To address misconceptions or maybe truths perpetuated by the media and to change the story given to their audience. There are so many ways to reach people and tell them the other side of the story.

I also thought it was really interesting to read about creating a personal brand, especially as an administrator. I have heard many young educators in my building comment on how "together" our principal seems. Maybe it's because we are young and feel so not "together", but she always seems to handle things with what appears to be ease and poise. (I say appears to be because we all know that things look very different behind closed doors for us, so it is probably the same for administrators). This is a brand I would love to build for myself. I know as a second year teacher I do not come off as poised all of the time, but as the years come, I would like to grow and leave a great lasting impression on all those I meet. 

I was really excited by one article that I read where the teacher uses the Touchcast app to give weekly video updates to the school community FROM THE KIDS! If I was a parent, I would eat that up. Any teacher can make a video summarizing what the students are learning, but you can tell if the student’s really get it when they have to present it themselves. I would love to start doing something like that in my art classroom. I have my Artsonia page, but this would allow students to talk about what they learned about a specific artist or time in art history in relation to the project they made. Because honestly, no matter how many times I pound that information into their brain I know that 99% of the time the conversation never makes it home to the dinner table. Think of all the things the parents could learn, too. The conversations that could be started about what the student’s are taking away from the art room.

For my application project, I really want to do another form of research, but it is still applied and less formal. I want to really look at the private schools in Omaha (Catholic to be specific) and see which schools have Facebook and Twitter pages. Which have the most followers? Which posts get the most “likes” and “shares”? Is there a theme to these answers? Maybe if I find a lot of information regarding Catholic school’s Twitter presence I can take that to my principal and convince her to start one of those too. I know she has been loving the Facebook, I should try to get her more involved while she is loving it.

Let me know what you think? Do you think I will find a lot of Catholic Schools in the Omaha area on Facebook or do you think we will be lacking? What about Twitter? I can see why high schools may already be on board with them but I’m not sure what to expect for the primary schools.