• sending action alerts to key constitu-
ents; • sharing plans for a messaging cam-
paign; and • contacting lawmakers and their staff. Many firms specialize in eBlast services
for nominal fees ranging from $20-40 per month and most are intuitive and fairly easy to use. Templates allow you to paste in content and send quickly with little fanfare. Even better, with the settings arranged in a certain way, you also avoid all of the bounce- back messages and “out of office” auto-re- plies when your e-mails go out. Even better, recipients can opt in or out in an automated manner, so the upkeep on the system doesn’t bog you down with additional work. Some of the top industry eBlast compa-
nies include Constant Contact, My Emma, and Vertical Response, which does offer free accounts to non-profits, including schools/ districts that use their federal identification number when setting up the account. Alyssa Lynch, career technical education coordinator for the Santa Clara County Of-
fice of Education, manages a monthly, state- wide eBlast. “The use of e-mail newsletters allows me to communicate with school dis- tricts, colleagues in CTE, business leaders, and members of the greater community on issues related to CTE,” she said. “When we need action on legislative policy, it’s the most
One superintendent said he often reads other county office eBlasts to gives him a sense of what’s going on around the state.
precise, timely and efficient way to commu- nicate a message.”
Michael Watkins, superintendent of the
Santa Cruz County Office of Education, fre- quently uses eBlasts. He said, “What better way to highlight what we do than to send out snippets of immediate, significant news and events that link them back to the website. I regularly read other county office eBlasts. This gives me a sense of what’s happening
around the state and affords us the opportu- nity to learn and build with other institutions without distance causing any constraints.”
Life in the blogosphere Blogs are abundant and pervasive in to-
day’s web 2.0 world. The name, derived from “weblog,” is a combination of the medium and the intent. Originally, blogs were used to provide diary-like journal entries that were date- and time-stamped as a way to archive past posts. Now blogs are used for just about everything – from news services to cooking recipes. The ease in setting up and posting has led to meteoric usage rates. As of today, Wordpress had published 21 million blogs (Wordpress, 2011). The ability for viewers to comment also creates an opportunity for in- teraction and community development.
There is even an entire blogging commu-
nity devoted to educators: http://edublogs. org is a host for students, teachers and insti- tutions. School districts such as Mt. Diablo (
http://mdusd.blogspot.com) and Carlsbad Continued on page 38
22 Leadership
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