It's All About Community
Among the many highlights of our year were launching Edutopia's online community and making our presence known on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
by David Markus
Credit: Edutopia
Edutopia had a banner year in 2009: The magazine received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers. Our Web audience grew more than 70 percent to 275,000-plus visitors, and we won the Webby Awards People's Voice competition for Best Education Web Site.
Then our multimedia news series, What Works, debuted on local news stations from North Carolina to northern California, featuring two-minute video reports with Web links about success stories in public education.
But perhaps most gratifying of all was the coming of age of our online communities.
First came the launches of our satellite Edutopia networks on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. (How sweet were those fledgling teacher tweets?) Then came the debut of our Groups, Discussions, and Profiles experiences at the mothership, Edutopia.org. Leading the Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube efforts is our online membership coordinator and social-media concierge, Elana Leoni.
Every day, Leoni spreads the word to thousands of educators online, connecting them to great content at Edutopia, while guiding them to other relevant resources in education across the Web. She's our master tweeter, packing more punch into her 140-character missives than any lean, mean Internet scribe I know.
Look for Leoni at Twitter.com/edutopia, Youtube.com/edutopia, and Facebook.com/edutopia. (She's the one posing for her profile pic with her trusty chocolate Lab, Mokka.)
Meanwhile, Community Manager Betty Ray oversees the care and nurturing of our home front community. A few years back, Ray and I worked together at another social network, and I still watch with amazement as she plies her trade, connecting people and their passions.
As of mid-December, our Edutopia community had more than 3,000 members, and the number grows daily. When Ray and I chatted recently, I asked her about that and other online-community facts of life:
You've launched several online communities' Web sites. Each new one provides a big surprise. What strikes you about Edutopia?
How fast it's growing! I knew that educators would be interested in meeting and collaborating, but had no idea how quickly they would take to it.
What's the secret to the surge?
I think teachers and other people with a passion for innovation in public education have been waiting for this for a long time. They want to connect. They want to share. They want access to each other.
Are you finding that some folks are more hesitant to venture out and see what connecting virtually is all about?
Maybe a little. Virtual connection is definitely different than real-life connection, so I can understand when someone doesn't want to jump right in. But the Edutopia community has so many different opportunities for different people. There are 20 groups on every topic, from Project Learning to Classroom Management to Multimedia Writing to Special Ed.
And you don't have to jump in with both feet. You can browse, take in the atmosphere, and wait to post until you're comfortable.
Describe the people in our online community.
They're educators from all over the world, though most live in the United States. They are experienced in all subjects and grade levels. They are caring, wise, articulate, mindful, open to new ideas, committed to making a difference, and passionate about their students. They share a focus and commitment to changing education.
How about you, personally? Now that our online community is launched, and you're sleeping again, what's been the most fun part?
Watching the growth of the organism. I'm a mom of an almost-two-year-old. I love watching her learn and grow. It's fascinating.
I have the same kind of fun with this community. The skills required to be a good teacher are the skills that make for great communication -- good questions, passion for learning, being supportive of each other. Teachers are trained to leverage knowledge and experience and bring out the best in people.
Now they can do those same things on Edutopia.org. It's an online-community steward's dream. Lucky me!
You can check out Ray, Leoni, and the rest of the gang in the Edutopia Welcome Lounge, where good conversations are getting better and better.
One last note: With the new year comes a new look and feel in the magazine. From our cover to our features, by way of a new typeface, new graphics, and new uses of illustration, we have freshened up our appearance and, we hope, our appeal to you. The changes are the handiwork of our new creative director, Maili Holiman.
If you have feedback, be sure to share your thoughts. Thanks in advance. Here's to a happy and rewarding 2010.
David Markus
Editorial Director
This article was also published in the Feb 2010: Social & Emotional Learning issue of Edutopia magazine as "All Together Now . . .".
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The Edutopia Community
Just to follow up on David's letter here, I wanted to invite you to join any of our online groups, here: http://www.edutopia.org/groups
And if you don't see a group topic that you think should be there, please don't hesitate to let me know. You can send me a private message by clicking on my name above this post to visit my profile, and then "Send a Message" under my profile photo.
Thanks!!