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Friday, February 25, 2011 at 2:39PM So you need to put a url on your business cards that is clean and simple and will allow people to check out all the different platforms you represent yourself on across the web. About.me is a solution that is fun and easy to build out. We guarantee that you can even do this! Check out the video below.
Monday, February 7, 2011 at 5:38PM So we wanted to to address a really good question/commented on our last blog post. We asked Anthony if he would follow up with a response to a question and thought it warranted another blog post and not just a comment to the previous post. So below we have the comment from Bill Leachman (@help_nonprofits) and then the follow up from Anthony Bachman. Obviously we would love to hear your feedback.
Question from: Bill Leachman
Great post. I would like to know your opinion on if you think students should be disciplined for posting things about their teachers on Facebook. I recently read an article about a student being suspended because of posting things about the teacher on Facebook. Not saying it is right, but when I was in school, we didn't have Facebook to post things about teachers, we just talked about them in our group, so in the age of social media, should this be a disciplinary action? I can understand if death threats or posts that the teacher was threated with physical harm, but just posts that you do not like the teacher, should a student be punished for that?"
Follow up by: Anthony Bachman
To a comment to a previous blog entry I shared, the question was raised, I would like to know your opinion on if you think students should be disciplined for posting things about their teachers on Facebook.
I remember confiscating notes, particularly from 13 yr. old girls, that featured all the “hot gossip”. I use to correct them for grammar in red ink, then hang them on my bulletin board as examples of how to “edit” your own work! That stopped the flow of gossiping notes, at least, the notes went underground. Facebook is not underground. Students today do not realize the power of the printed word verses the spoken word, and how their Facebook posts can be read for “public” reading.
Did you ever get a note, analyze every sentence, try to find the hidden meanings of intent? The written word invites the reader to do that. Notes, however, never contain “voice” intonations or reflections. Trash talk among guys is impersonal, not taken seriously or personally, but is accepted as a challenge for competition and male camaraderie. Swearing in a boys’ college dorm or frat is looked upon as meaningless verbiage. But the “written word” is taken differently.
On Facebook you cannot deny that you said it, if you posted it! With students, verbally, you usually get second hand gossip, then denial. It is hard to nail the primary source of teenage gossip when it is verbal, but not so with the written word.
Students today haven’t figured out that what you write on Facebook is there for all “your friends” to see’ it’s public domain. You have put it out there. It is not like private face to face conversations. There is no direct “face” in front of you when using “Face”book.
As a teacher, I would never write a negative thing about a student I currently have if that statement was open to the public. I want to build up that student. There are many students that I could spread the gossip about, but as a professional, and just as a respectable adult, I would refrain from doing such a thing.
Slander and Libel are “crimes in writing” to ruin a reputation. As a teacher I will not allow myself to be in a room alone with a 13 yr. old girls for any reason because if she falsely “accuses me” of “sexual harassment”, she could ruin my career. If it is her word against mine, most administrators will take her for her word, and make me fight for my life to save mine! Facebook can be a tool used for maliciously slandering a teacher you do not like. Often students do not understand the seriousness of this nature. Some students just resent authority, thus opposing their teacher, but can make their attack personal.
We do not allow “cyber-bullying”, an attempt to ruin another student’s reputation or self esteem through extreme negativity through Facebook and other social networking tools. Taking photos of others without their permission and posting them to defame or make fun of that person is also totally wrong. If it is wrong for students to post negativity about other students, I do not know why it wouldn’t be wrong to do the same about their teachers.
Every student may need a sounding board, but Facebook is not the forum for that, because your complaint does not bounce off anyone, it sticks, it is printed, it is tangible for all to see.
We are in a generation where “education bashing” is not only acceptable, but the norm. Teachers were respected in the ‘70’s because we beat the Russians in science in the Space Race, highly regarded in the ‘80’s because educations was the key to success in Reaganomics, but in the ‘90’s became the “scape goat” of American society, being blamed for every ill. At the beginning of the 21st Century that attitude has continued, only now society not only blames education, but expects education to fix it! It is politically correct to blame “bad teachers” for our “failing schools”, but never addressing the short comings in our society, ie. dead-beat dads, dysfunctional families, etc. So Facebook bashing of education just adds to the dilemma.
Bottom line: I do not allow trash talking in my classroom, nor negative note writing, nor bullying of any form, nor negative “texting”. Nor should it be allowed in “public domain”, especially through social network tools. I am trying to teach my students character, responsibility, and integrity. I want to teach them to build one another up, not tear each other down.
Americans have lost showing respect for authority. Adults bash our President, our Public Officials, our police force, or educational system, and almost anyone in authority under the banner of “freedom of speech”. Why wouldn’t their children do the same. Maybe we should model “positive” posting, giving “encouraging” words, and actually “complimenting” someone, maybe even a teacher!
This was a guest post by Anthony Bachman. He is a public school teacher at Spring Grove Area School District in Spring Grove Pennsylvania. Anthony also writes a blog on christian topics called Five Revealed.
Monday, February 7, 2011 at 9:54AM Social Networking has directly effected education. Students at our school district missed their bus the first day of school because they were “texting” their friends while standing ten feet away. On a field trip talking on the bus was minimal because most were “texting” their friends and parents on and off the bus. Sex-texting with photos and cyber-bullying are now disciplinary issues making their way into Student Handbooks under the discipline code. Student’s don’t swear anymore they text OMG!
Gone are the days of Dickens and thick books, lengthy essays, or traditional short stories. Facebook limits texts to 420 characters, Twitter to approx. 140, and most texts even shorter, so the rule of thumb is creating excellently written “topic sentences” that are concise, to the point, and brief. There is no room for extra verbiage any more.
Communication today majors in “conciseness”. I would like to call it “technology poetry”. In poetry every word matters, even every syllable. One word can carry an image, a symbol, the essence and meaning of life. To be an effective social networker, one needs to know vocabulary, both technical and nontechnical. Using the right word to give the concise meaning with brevity is becoming a new art of writing.
So the next time you see your teenage daughter “tweeting” her friends with links about her tattooed boyfriend, smile, she’s a 21st Century talented writer, writing in an age of conciseness and brevity.
This was a guest post by Anthony Bachman. He is a public school teacher at Spring Grove Area School District in Spring Grove Pennsylvania. Anthony also writes a blog on christian topics called Five Revealed.
Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 1:00PM 
So the other night I get this text message “Do you know any way to track an iPhone? - Lost while looking for a run-a-way dog”
They did not have any service or app set up ahead of time, so other than a court order you’re pretty much going to the Apple store the next morning with a couple hundred dollars in hand.
But lets keep this from happening again…
Google Latitudes is available on the following mobile devices:
It’s a very simple process -
go to http://www.google.com/latitude
Log in with your gmail account credentials (login and password)
Follow the prompts
At the map with your icon, click the “Get Latitude on your phone” link (upper right)
Follow the prompts for your model phone. You will need to access your application store for the FREE app. Follow prompts for installation.
While walking through the process with my iPhone4 it took about 3 minutes.
So the next time you you can't find your phone got to http://www.google.com/latitude log in and the map will give you a fairly accurate location. You can change from map mode to satellite to visually refresh your memory if it was a rockin' party that night.
How accurate is Latitude?
Wi-Fi only minimum 200 meters.
Multiple cell towers, in a city, minimum 100-meter circle.
Multiple cell towers, in the country, minimum 300 meters.
With GPS, it will cook down to a few meters.
Combined systems, you can be within GPS accuracy range.
Many variables can degrade your accuracy. There are no concrete rules on determining how accurate Latitude application will be at any given location. Concrete buildings, parking garages, heavily foliated trees and deep valleys can also restrict both GPS and Wi-Fi signal along with a multitude of other anomalies.
P.S. The dog was found.
DECADE[30] was NOT paid to endorse this product.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 12:00PM Many small to medium businesses ask us what we use to transfer large files to other people as well as back up there computers incase of a hard drive crash. We with out hesitation tell them about Dropbox. We have been using this tool for over a year now and it gives us the ability to share files with our customers as well as back up files to the "cloud", and view the files on the go with there mobile apps. Below, I made a video showing you how to sign up for a Dropbox account and how to share files with your family or coworkers. I would love to answer any questions that you may have. Please post your comments below. Please click here to get your Dropbox account today.
Please click here to get your Dropbox account today.
RSS Subscribes please view the above video here.
Please click here to get your Dropbox account today.
RSS Subscribes please view the above video here.
DECADE[30] was NOT paid to endorse this product.
Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 4:18PM So here at DECADE[30] we use Skype on a daily basis. For most business now they find themselves using a lot of contractors to do there work. They find that turning to Skype for communication during that process is key to making the project a success. The cool part is that for the most part, Skype is free to use. We use a couple more of there services such as having a dedicated number so we can use it as our business number. This gives us the flexibility to hand the number to different people in our company who are "on duty" to answer it. So for around $60 a year you can have an incoming number. That is huge savings over having a land line into your office. Plus the Skype number travels with us if we are using an iPhone or Android phone Skype app (There are many other mobile platforms available). So today Skype announced that there version for Mac is now out of bata and is ready for use. Enjoy the video below as it will introduce you to the features of this product. We are really happy with this release. If you had the old version of Skype for Mac the user interface was split up over several floating windows. They have simplified it all now into one window and we are liking it a lot! We would love to hear what your thoughts are on this platform and if you use Skype every day in your business.
For RSS subscribers view video here.
DECADE[30] was NOT paid to endorse this product.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 10:20AM 
So today is a snow day for the young ones who live local to me and I am sure they are excited to have the day off school. So what will kids actually be doing with their day off? I can imagine most of them having a chance to play in the snow, just drive mom nuts dragging the mud in the house, some will be sentenced to clean there rooms, which hasn't been done in several weeks, others will flood to gaming systems and tv. But the thing I notice most is the influx of social media activity. Sure social media is fun and there is nothing wrong with these platforms. But when I was a kid,
(I have always wanted to say that, but now I feel really old!) I spent the day playing with my brother and sister. Those times of creativity and playing has really been some past times that I treasure. So should we encourage each other to take a break from social media and go old school for the day! Enjoy the ones you love and care about.
May I make a suggesting that we all could take a sabbath from social media once a week. Actually spend time with your family and friends and create memories that don't get logged on a "wall" somewhere but get imprinted into the heart, sole and mind. So what will you be doing today with your snow day? We would love to hear from you!
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 8:14AM "I have a dream...", famous words brought to us by Martin Luther King Jr. on August 28, 1963. I was checking out my calendar this morning and realized that today we are celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The thought passed through my head as to how social media would of impacted or harmed the cause of Mr. King's dream. You have to wonder how they would of handled their Twitter campaign strategy or if they would of had everyone friend them on their facebook page. Many current political parties, causes, religious groups and business use these platforms to make the world aware that they exist. Mr. King truly created a viral movement.
Martin Luther King Jr. motivated a lot of people to join his cause and changed the system as everyone knew it. It seems today that we have a lot of tools at our fingertips to share a cause with a tremendous amount of people. Your message can go viral to the point that millions can see and hear it within days, hours and sometimes even minuets. I think there is one important point here to stress though. Even though we have so many tools to change our culture and business around us you still have to have a message that is worthy of creating an impact, content is king (No pun intended... well maybe.). Mr. King had that message and it changed history forever. So is the message that you are communicating good solid content? Remember, people want to be moved and they want to follow leaders who have a dream. I thought I would include the speech from 48 years ago below. Take a couple minuets today to watch this video and may it inspire you to dream!
Sunday, January 16, 2011 at 11:25PM DECADE[30] is just a little over a year old (starting November of 2009) and after preaching so many times to our customers, friends, dogs, and who ever else will "listen" to us... it is time to lead the way... so here is our blog. We have a ton of ideas for posts in the cue and are excited to bring them to you. Our goal is to bring small to medium business and marketing enthusiasts our thoughts on tools, resources and any thing we find worth sharing with you all. We also have guest writers who will really bring value and diversity to this blog. We thank you in advance for participating in giving us feedback to make this the best success we can! This resource is here for you! So lend us your feedback and your support.
