Happy Holidays

This will be the last post for 2008. I hope that each of you have a wonderful Christmas holiday and a bright and happy New Year.

I have enjoyed sharing with you this year different ideas about career and technology education, enrollment management and beginning to look at the student transitions.

I look forward to sharing more with you in 2009 and having deeper conversation about helping our students succeed in the workplace, their career and in life.

January

As the year winds down, we have shared with you many ideas and opportunities to do student recruitment. Make sure that you don't get in a holiday slump and after you send your e-Holiday cards, look ahead to what is on your plate for January. Here are some ideas for your year round recruitment plan...

8TH GRADE YEAR
• Mailer to underrepresented ethnicities
• Mailer to high priority

SOPHOMORE YEAR
• Sophmore Spotlight for students of underrepresented backgrounds
• Flash email-scholarship priority date
• Personalized written communications to high priority

JUNIOR YEAR
• Parent Student night

SENIOR YEAR
• College Transition Night or FAFSA night

As always, if you would like a copy of the year round recruitment plan, shoot me an email to jzwei(@)okcareertech.org

A look back at 2008

As 2008 winds down to a close and 2009 is just a few days away, I thought it would be fun to look back at the most read post of 2008.

1. Dalton Sherman's Dallas ISD address
2. Holiday Greetings
3. Leadership CareerTech - Part II
4. Congratulations HOSA Students
5. Leadership CareerTech

What was your favorite post?

Electronic Holiday Greetings - II

Thanks to a pair of post at HighEdWebTech and collegewebeditor.com we have put together a longer list of Holiday Greeting Cards. If you find some, please share. We hope that you enjoy and feel inspired...

Allegheny College

Azusa Pacific University Office of Undergraduate Admissions

Butler University Office of Admissions

Eckerd College Office of Admission

Georgia Tech

Iowa State University

Oklahoma State University

University of Maryland

University of Missouri

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Malone University

Red River College

Stetson University Alumni

Stony Brook University Alumni

University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma

University of Southern Mississippi

Wayne State

Career Development Resource

This morning the ACTE email contained a Career Development website that I thought I would share with you. It was developed by a high school guidance counselor from Minot Public Schools who is involved with CTE.

On the site their is information about financial aid, scholarships, career clusters and a whole bunch more. Maybe you can get some ideas as you develop your career guidance website at home.

http://pages.minot.k12.nd.us/votech/careerdevelopment.htm

More Holiday Greeting Cards

The 2008 Holiday Greeting Card from Eckerd College is out!!

Click here to watch

Seasons Greetings - e style

Back in November we did a post about Holiday ECards. Well, the first Holiday Greetings of 2008 come from Mansfield University. You have the information that you need to make this a success. By putting a short video together, and then emailing to your prospective student database, you can quickly reach your potential students. This one was done with Animoto, what will your look like?



A few others that I found doing some quick searches:
The University of Maryland (2008)
Marietta College (2008)
Ashland College (2002-2007)

What does yours look like?

Voice Thread

Thanks to the NeverEndingSearch this morning I came across a new toy, Voice Thread. Very quickly you can see applications for collaboration, sharing, commenting and a lot of other possibilities for the classroom.

Here is one that some younger children did about their experience with Oklahoma's Centennial.

Need ideas for students a bit older or faculty? You can visit the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill Voice Thread page or listen to a student explain why he chose certain photographs for his final project here.

Happy Thanksgiving

I received my first Thanksgiving message last week and thought I would share it with you. It is still not to late for your art department to design a Thanksgiving message and email it to your recruitment basefile.

This is the email that I received...

The staff of the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD) have created a special holiday greeting for you. We invite you to follow the link below to view our 2008 Thanksgiving card:

http://www.cordonline.net/thanksgiving2008/thanksgiving-cord.php

Clicking on the link takes you to a page with this....

What will yours look like from your technology center? Please share your links with us.

The College Visit

When I was recruiting at a Big XII University we knew that the more students that we got on campus, who had a positive experience, the higher our yield rate would be. We worked hard to get students on campus and to make it special for each one of them.

Students demand an individualized campus experience and the herd mentality of lets take a bus, show them a movie, walk them around and feed them lunch does not work.

Suggestion

When you take students to visit a campus, take into account each individual student and what their needs are. Will that student need academic accommodation and to know where the student disability services are? Set them up an appointment so that they can learn where the office is and who they will be working with. Will they need help in math? Perhaps a visit to the math resource center is appropriate. What other needs will that individual student have and how can you help them find it?

By taking students to campus and helping them get acclimated to their surroundings you are helping make their transition to higher education smoother. Students will have a better understanding of the environment that they will be immersed in and have a better sense of place.

What do you do during your campus visits?

Economic Forecast for Oklahoma

Approximately 200 people gathered on the campus of Metro Technology Center to hear the Economic Forecast for Oklahoma. The seminar was co-sponsored by CareerTech and the OSU Spears School of Business

Participants were introduced to the Oklahoma forcast by Mark Snead, Director of the Center for Applied Economic Research, and Chad Wilkerson, VP and Branch Executive of the OKC Branch of the Federal Reserve, who led a discussion on the national outlook.

Participants also heard about local area economic development and key economic trends in the agriculture and energy sectors as well as the impact of Tribal economic development in Oklahoma.

During the presentation of the Oklahoma forcast, comparissions using GDP of the US and other countries were given. It was pointed out that if the current recession cost $1Trillion, it would only equal 6-7% of GDP while some of the worst banking crisis in heavily regulated countries have equaled much more. Crises in Japan cost taxpayers 25% of GDP and in South Korea 31% of GDP. In the US, the Great Depression saw a cost to taxpayers equaling 50-75% of GDP.

Oklahoma's outlook depends on several factors, includintg an oil threshold of $45-$50 oil and natural gas.

You can view the complete forcast presentation here.

Press Release

Myra Sadker Student and Teacher Awards

The Myra Sadker Foundation provides financial awards and scholarships for students and teachers committed to equity.

Student Awards fund projects or activities proposed by students of any age that promote gender equity goals.

Undergraduate Scholarships are designed to attract and reward students who plan to teach and are committed to educational equity.

Dissertation Awards are designed to financially support doctoral level dissertations that explore or promote educational equity.

Teacher Awards fund a lesson, unit, or project that promotes fairness and human dignity.

Deadlines

Undergraduate Scholarship and Dissertation Awards are due by December 1.

Student and Teacher Awards are given throughout the year.

For more information and applications, visit Scholarships and Awards.


If you have any questions, please direct them to ncwge@aauw.org
American Association Of University Women
1111, 16th Steet N.W.
Washington DC, 20036
www.aauw.org

Your CareerTech Deliciousness

On May14, 2008 we started the CareerTech Deliciousness project.

Delicious is a social bookmarking website that allows users to share what they are reading on the web and discover what others find informative.

The okcareertech list started aligned to the Tech Prep grant as a way to share resources for those responsible for writing the grants so that they could have handy articles and reports to assist them. It has grown to include information about education, higher education, accountability, web 2.0, STEM and much more!!

Today we reached bookmark 500!!! That is 500 articles that impact education in Oklahoma and how the picture of education looks nationally and internationally.

I just wanted to share this great resource and to encourage you, if you have yet to sign up to do so. You can get it emailed directly to you or you can see what we have been bookmarking by visiting http://delicious.com/okcareertech

STEM Equity Pipeline

Last week, approximately 35 people from across the CareerTech System met on the campus of Metro Technology Center to talk about equity in STEM. The 2 day workshop was facilitated by Mimi Lufkin, Rick Larkey and held with the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity, or NAPE.

The workshop covered biases that exist about the participation of women in the STEM workforce, Perkins IV accountability measures and equity, the use of data, case studies and a Promising Practices Panel including Dr Maria Monteros, Noble Foundation, Dr Karen High from OSU, Jessica Bullock, Francis Tuttle Technology Center and Derek Beller, Tulsa Technology Center.

Participants were exposed to information that they can bring back to their home campuses and share with decesion makers and influencers. Small steps like reviewing publication materials for equity and diversity, reviewing websites and activle recruiting women into STEM careers through use of the PLAN ACT data are all possibilities.

For more information on how you can get involved with the STEM Equity Project contact Dr Lou Hargrave at the OK Dept of CareerTech

College Transitions

If you are following the year round recruitment plan then you should be making plans for you December and even January recruitment.

As we begin to start looking at enrollment management and how it can be applied to Oklahoma's technology centers, we must look at the transition to college and career. Today we will talk more specifically about the transition to college.

After looking at your technology centers data, and specifically the Cooperative Alliance data, you should be asking how many students are transitioning to college? The next question should be why are they not?

Theories exist trying to explain an increase or decrease in overall student enrollment. Some cite a downturn in the economy or an increase in available scholarships and financial aid as reasons enrollment increases. The opposites could be said about why enrollment on a macro-scale would decrease.

Looking closer, why are your individual students not enrolling? Is it a lack of a college going culture at the home schoool, technology center or community, are there socio-economic reasons or are they simply not prepared academically or socially?

A fairly new trend in higher education is the Office of First Year Experience. The office exist to help students transition to higher ed offering social and academic support. Many colleges require new freshmen students to take a freshmen orientation course helping them to learn the ins and outs of going to college.

How can these concepts be applied to career and technology education in Oklahoma? Each of the 29 technology center districts has in place a college transition initiative through the Alliances and many students are taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity. How do we expand on this?

Would students benefit from a Senior year, second semester course on College Transitions? The 30 minute course, two time a week could introduce students to using an online library, the college application process, how to find campus resources, help filling out the FAFSA and many other important activities students need to be familiar with during their first year in higher education. The course could also include field trips to college campuses that allow students to meet with academic advisors, support services, see where they will live and learn about the social aspect of college through student organizations.

Giving students the tools for a succesful transition is vitally improtant to Oklahoma's economy and our responsibility. How can we increase our successes?

Scouting CareerTech

We have told you about Scouting CareerTech, an opportunity for Scouts to come on your campus and engage in activities aligned to your Career Majors. In addition to the California STEM initiative, we have found another example.

We wanted to share with you an example of how this can work with the automotive industry. A Muskogee Ford dealer hosted an event where 82 Scouts worked on their automotive mechanics merit badge.

Read the Muskogee Phoenix article here

Scouting CareerTech can do the same thing for Scouts in your area while getting them on your campus and engaged with your faculty. Go to the Tech Prep website to learn more!

Thanksgiving Luncheon

Thanksgiving Luncheon Provides an Education and Employability Skills for Technology Center Culinary Arts Students

More than 400 pounds of turkey, 300 pounds of ham, 250 pounds of whipped potatoes, and 100 pies and desserts, are required to provide a Thanksgiving luncheon for over 1000 community guests at Meridian Technology Center. The Meridian Culinary Arts students who are enrolled in the courses of culinary arts assistant and restaurant food and beverage serve management assistant gain education and employability skills. Students assist with the planning, organizing, production, and service of the event which provides a live and realistic learning experience.

The Thanksgiving luncheon requires the assistance of all 50 students and staff. Four student leaders from the previous year are chosen to assist with coordinating the students who are participating for the first time. The student leaders direct the student teams in the preparation and production prior to the event and during the event. They will serve as the leaders in the two dining areas on the event day. The student leaders are responsible for delegating tasks and making sure the event runs smoothly. Students learn about the skills and coordination required to host and serve the estimated 1000 people within a two- hour time frame. The interaction with the guests provides valuable lessons in being professional, providing outstanding service and meeting the needs of the customers.

The luncheon has been benefitting the students and community for more than 30 years. This year the Thanksgiving luncheon will take place on November 14, 2008, from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. at Meridian Technology Center.

For more information on the Thanksgiving luncheon or to learn more about the Culinary Arts program, call 377-3333 or visit www.meridian-technology.com.

Carolyn LeGrand is a Culinary Arts/Lodging Management Instructor at Meridian Technology Center

(My note-What a great way to get the students involved with the community!! Marketing, public relations, recruitment and more can be rolled into one event included in your uear-round recruitment plan. Your students participate and get real world experience while doing something relevant, and everyone gets to eat!!)

(Picture-The First Thanksgiving by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris, hosted by wikipedia)

Veterans Day 2008

Today, on this national day of remembrance, I want to offer to all our our soldiers and veterans a very humble "Thank You."

Yesterday, my kids school was visited by Veterans talking about their personal stories and sacrifices for our freedoms. At supper last night we talked about what they had heard, important lessons that we must never forget.

I was also reminded about a tribute that CareerTech put together to the families of Veterans working with us. We invite you to view the CareerTech Remembers Its Veterans slide show and reflect with us.

You can learn more about Veterans Day by going to the Veterans Day website. There you can find a teachers guide, poster galleries, history, fact sheets and much, much more.

November

As you think about the month of November, here are some ideas and suggestions that could be included in your year round recruitment plan.

As you hold special events like Multicultural Day, it is a good idea to start a three-ring binder that includes information about the event.

Include a copy of the invitation that was sent, what was the time line for informing counselors and students about the event, what staff was involved and what were their duties? Record this information and you will have a record of what was successful and what was not and next year will be even easier to prepare for and will run smoother.

Here are some suggestions for this month...

8TH GRADE YEAR

• Multicultural Day

FRESHMAN

• Multicultural Day

SOPHOMORE YEAR

• Multicultural Day
• Personalized communications from counselors
• Letters to National Merit & Academic Scholars

JUNIOR YEAR

• Job Fair

SENIOR YEAR

• Job Fair

Remember to update your plan as you go along each month. Doing so will make make next November easier to plan and be prepared for.

If you would like a copy of the our Year Round Recruitment Plan, contact us.

Holiday Greetings

It is November and if you are recruiting students with data like names and email, it is time to start thinking about what your e-cards will look like for this year.

What am I talking about? I bet you already have been sent one and just did not think about it.

One of my favorites is from Eckerd College: http://www.eckerd.edu/holiday/

Here are a few that we have shared on the Blog from Ashland University.

http://ecard.ashland.edu/index.php
http://ecard.ashland.edu/index.php?ecardYear=2006adm
http://ecard.ashland.edu/index.php?ecardYear=2004adm
http://ecard.ashland.edu/index.php?ecardYear=2003adm

Technology Centers in Oklahoma can do the same thing with the data that they have from PLAN EOS and a little time devoted to developing the card.

If you have written your year round recruitment plan, write it in your plan that now is the time to start thinking about what you will put in the card so that it can be developed and e-mailed in the early part of December to reach students before they leave for break.

Send us your e-card, we want to see what you come up with. We will also be on the lookout and share this years round of cards from universities and colleges across the country.

(Image from Wikipedia)

Happy Halloween

It has been a great week leading up to tonight. First the wife, kids and I hit the Downtown Stillwater Festival for games and candy, then it was to the annual church Harvest Carnival on Wednesday and then eating pizza on Thursday courtesy of the Pizza Hut BOOK IT Reading Incentive Program and today is a school parade all leading up to the big night of Batman, the Orange Witch Mom and Dad.

(I am going as the same thing I have done the last 5 years, "Tired Dad")

Where is this going except that I hope you and your family are safe tonight as you go out?

If your community does not have a community wide Fall Fest or Harvest Carnival, why not start one on the campus of your technology center?

The technology center would be a great place for students to come and visit to get a few treats and to get on your campus. Parents would be able to see all the cool classroom equipment you have and the students would start to develop a feeling of place and comfort by walking the halls in search of their favorite treat.

Each classroom could have an instructor and a current student who could hand out candy, a group of students could create a picture area for the guest while other students record the night on film. The carpentry class could build props (within their instructional objectives) and the culinary arts students could make some awesome baked goods for a cake walk. The possibilities are endless as your imagination and the bountiful skills of your students.

If you are headed out tonight, here are some Halloween Safety Tips for you and your little one.

Are you LinkedIn?

As the number of social networking Web sites reaches over 250 you have to be asking yourself where do I start? The sites are overpowering when you aren't sure what they will get you.

Recently Meridian Technology Center's management team was brought together to explore Web 2.0, LinkedIn style. The online professional networking site is intended to manage professional relationships and professional success. Users can create a profile where they add connections, include information on their professional experience much like a resume, and can post recommendations from former colleagues. In addition, the site boasts a job board of sorts where companies can look for candidates and see their resume, through their profile, online.

The management team at Meridian has used it for a different reason. They have created an online discussion group where they explore management topics that are not always easy to do in person. Topics like the recession, defining economic impact, and drop out rates have all been discussed through this virtual leadership team meeting. Many members of the team are brand new to this online social networking site and have learned to navigate it through the group discussions.

ACTE uses LinkedIn to share discussions as well. They have over 150 members in their ACTE group who are now discussing blogs and the national STEM summit.

How do you get your ideas? Do you discuss them with non-biased members of your career field? You can do that on LinkedIn through a professional group. Some of the larger groups have 15+ topics posted a day on relevant issues for that career field.

Using this Web 2.0 tool has meant the leaders at Meridian are becoming more familiar with the tools their students often use. Sites like this come as second nature to secondary students today. The only way to get to know them is to jump in. Do you know what social networking sites your students use? A simple and easy survey of your students can tell you. How will this information help you? You can engage students in their native language: digital.

Tawny Dotson is Director of Strategic Communications at Meridian Technology Center in Stillwater, OK.

Happy Birthday from Cross Canadian Ragweed

This morning I was checking my email and had a birthday wish from one of my favorite bands, Cross Canadian Ragweed!!

Happy Birthday Jeremy,

First of all, we just wanted to drop you an e-mail to say thanks for supporting us, and being a part of our street team!

Secondly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We hope you have many Happy Birthdays for years to come!

Keeeeep rockin',
Cross Canadian Ragweed

My second thought, after what great use of Web 2.0, is that this is the example I have been looking for!! Each technology center has this piece of information for many of their potential recruits. That information is name, birthday and email.

Have you sent birthday emails yet? If you haven't, give it a try. Instead of thanking them for being a part of the street team, maybe encourage them to come for a visit, or view a special online tour of their interest (You have their career interest.)

Whatever you decide to do, make it a part of your year round recruitment plan and start wishing those students Happy Birthday!!

Dreaming of being a fighter pilot......

"How does a guy who wants to grow up to be a fighter pilot wind up working in economic development for the state of Oklahoma?"

You may ask "what is economic development and why is this important"?

Let's start with you. Unless you win The Lottery or are wealthy beyond measure, it is highly likely that you will have to work for a living for a fair amount of your adult life. Harsh reality, get over it.

You will want to work in a job you love and that pays you handsomely. Your employer will want a highly-skilled associate that can bring positive results on a regular basis. This is where CareerTech comes in. We help Oklahomans become "highly-skilled" so that they can get a great job and grow in it over the course of their career.

So, what is the payoff?

You get skills from CareerTech and you go to work for a company who pays you well. You take that wage; spend it on a house, taxes, groceries, a righteous vehicle and so on and, in the end, all Oklahoma benefits from a steadily improving standard of living. That is economic development.

So, what does Scott Smith do in Economic Development? Some of the work I do involves meeting with companies that are considering either moving to Oklahoma or expanding their existing operation by opening a facility in our state. I help businesses understand how they can create a highly-skilled workforce in Oklahoma by using CareerTech technology centers.

What makes it interesting is that we are competing with 49 other states. We work to reveal their filthy lies ......well, not really, because America has some great places to build companies besides Oklahoma.

But, in the end, it is our job to present the incredible value that Oklahoma brings to business and then work to bring great companies, who pay great wages and offer great jobs, to Oklahoma so they can hire great folks like you.

Scott is CareerTech's Cordinator for Economic Development and can be reached at ssmit(@)okcareertech.org

OK CareerTech on Twitter

Need another way to follow your CareerTech News? How about Twitter?

Twitter is a micro-blogging application that lets users follow each other's updates, called "tweets." According to Wikipedia in July of 2008 2.2 million users were on Twitter.

Twitter has numerous uses, including in academia, event updates like enrollment deadlines, sharing news stories and much more.

Move over CNN and YouTube Debates!! If you want to see the power of Twitter in traditional media you can watch Hack the Debate on Oct 15. Hack the Debate is the live broadcast of the Presidential Debate (just like ABC, NBC and CBS) with live "tweets" broadcast throughout so you can see what other people think about what the candidates say. Sign up for an account and you can get in on the conversation.

A few University twitter sites so you can get a feel for how to use it:

Oklahoma State: http://twitter.com/okstatenews
University of Central Oklahoma: https://twitter.com/UCOBronchos
Oklahoma Christian University: http://twitter.com/okchristian
Allegheny College: http://twitter.com/alleghenycol
Aston University: http://twitter.com/AstonUniversity

Keep up with CareerTech at http://twitter.com/okcareertech

If your tech center uses Twitter, or you know of another Univeristy that uses Twitter, post a comment and let us know.

Death by Power Point

Thanks to a tweet from someone that I follow regularly I have been on a quest to find what it means to do a powerful and inspirational power point presentation. I have come across a lot of good ideas, some slide shows to illustrate the points and have received some ideas from some innovative people.

It is not my intent to share everything that I find, I want you to come to some of my presentations not knowing what to expect, but I have decided that it is time for me to raise the bar personally!!

And I guess share a few things I find along the way.

I found this presentation on slide share, entitled Death by PowerPoint and I thought I would share because it got me to thinking about changes I need to make in my PowerPoints. I hope that you enjoy a humorous look at Death by PowerPoint

Death by PowerPoint

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: powerpoint ppt)

Animoto

Found this website called Animoto.com You can upload your pictures and sync them to music, free for 15 seconds!!

Here is a CareerTech video

Story Books for Kids

Yesterday, during our Indian Capital GuidanceFest session I was talking with the FIRST Robotics group from Tri County Technology Center, and they have an awesome idea that I can not wait to see completed!!

They are working on a story book for younger kids, more specifically elementary ages students, to get them interested in engineering and robotics.

My first thought was the "Pistol Pete and Me" story book from the OSU Alumni Association. It's bright and colorful illustrations and simple to read style could get any child excited about heading to Stillwater as Pistol Pete takes the students across campus and introduces them to landmarks like Old Central and Edmon Low Library.

If a robot character can get students interested in robotics, what other possibilities does it have for you? A talking hammer for Carpentry, a stethoscope for Bio Med or Nursing, or maybe a spark plug with bug eyes that tells students about the automotive careers.

Let your imagination fly!! I would love to hear back from you and what see what characters you can think of.

October

September is halfway through and Autumn is coming quickly!! If you have not thought about what you will be doing to recruit students to your campus, let us give you a few ideas.....

FRESHMAN
OKCIS awareness and training classroom sessions for high school and postsecondary students
Personalized letter & email to high priority students
Telemarketing campaigns

SOPHOMORE YEAR
Student/Parent night
Attend OK College Day/Night fairs, follow up

JUNIOR & SENIOR YEAR
Student/Parent night

Let us know what you are doing or shoot us an at jzwei(at)okcareertech.org if you want the year round plan.

A Brave New World Wide Web

Viewed a well done video by David Truss shared via the Dangerously Irrelevant Blog that does a great job showing the transformation and tools of a instructor in the 21st Century and why these tools should be used in the classroom.

Think, Discuss, Share

Chatting with Lincoln

Lots of ideas running around this morning, but I thought first I would share a cool new Beta website that I stumbled upon reading the Moving at the Speed of Creativity Blog.

The post was about Virsona. Virsona is a "virtual person" who you can train, educate and interact with. Conversations with people, movie stars, presidents, scientist whose conversation is driven by user input and knowledge.


Possible uses could include classroom studies, using it to develop a school mascot or telling the world about your most famous alumni.

Try out a chat with President Lincoln, let us know what you think.

GuidanceFest 2008

Wednesday was our first event for GuidanceFest 2008. We held it at NWOSU in Enid and felt that it was a successful event.

The room was full with about 30 attendees. They got to hear from a variety of speakers about the Past, Present and Future of the CareerTech System. I think it was pretty informative!!

One thing to note, we did without the traditional handouts of power point presentations to the attendees. Instead, we are posting them to the GuidanceFest page on the Tech Prep website. It saved only 240 sheets of paper or about $1.40, but as we work to transition more presentations and more conferences online, it will start adding up and CareerTech will be helping the world be a little greener!!

Dalton Sherman's DISD Keynote

This morning I received a link to Dalton Sherman's moving keynote address for the Dallas ISD. Dalton is a 5th grader at Charles Rice Learning Center, home of the Tigers!! Thought you might enjoy.

CareerTech Hall of Fame

Did you ever wonder who was in the CareerTech Hall of Fame or who the pictures on the wall in the state department were?

Check out the new Hall of Fame website!!

September

It is the end of the recruitment season, your new students are on campus and they have all been properly welcomed and are finding their classes…...

…………..now it is time to start recruiting your students for next year!!

What are you doing to reach out to those students? If you have put together your plan for year round recruitment you would already know the answer to that question.

A few thoughts from our plan:

• Sit down and review your plan with the Enrollment Management Council. What recruitment and marketing strategies worked, what didn’t, what were our results and what can we change? Did you make use of Web 2.0?
  
• Does you campus have an Outdoor Classroom, time to start thinking about inviting elementary aged kids to campus and working with the local NRCS.
• Never to early to visit some 8th graders, Make it fun and excite them about career and technology education.
• Send freshmen students a personalized letter & email helping them plan for the upcoming year.
• What final things should Sophomores be doing in order to be prepared to enter the technology center, send them and their parents an email?
• Junior and Senior College Alliance Night including presentations and meeting with college partners.
  

What are you planning in September? Go to the Blog and let us know. If you want a copy of our year round recruitment plan, let us know and send us an email.

Happy Recruiting!

Cooperative Alliance Spotlight 2008

The 2008 Cooperative Alliance Spotlight is now online at YouTube!! Special thanks to Brian Bendele at Oklahoma Horizon for putting this together for us.

PhotoSynth

Just read about a new spatial photo organization system on the .eduGuru Blog called Microsoft Photosynth.

You can create an account, enter in some pictures and through the magic of Web 2.0 you are brought into a "virtual tour" of a campus, room or that special place that truly brings out the character of your campus.

It seems that there may be some bugs to work out, but what are your thoughts about technology center virtual tours? We have some 360 degree tours, could Photosynth be an application for all?

You can take a tour of OSU's Boone Pickens Stadium or here are some views from around Oklahoma

Can't wait to see which technology center is the first to develop a Synth.....

OK CareerTech YouTube Player

YouTube now allows you to make a video player for your specific YouTube channel. This player is for the account http://www.youtube.com/user/okcareertech

Please feel free to visit the player or ask for the code for inclusion on your website. Be sure to check it often for more videos.

Cooperative Alliance Spotlight

Last year, Oklahoma high school students in area technology centers had a very successful year with over 4,400 enrollments earning over 31,000 transcripted college credit hours.

This Sunday, August 24, Oklahoma Horizon will be showing the latest installment of our Cooperative Alliance Spotlights.

You can see when the Horizon show will play in your area at: http://www.okhorizon.com/

Here is last years video.....

GuidanceFest 2008

GuidanceFest is an opportunity to learn about the CareerTech System and where we are headed in the future. Speakers will talk about the impact of the programs to courses movement, how CareerTech aligns with Oklahoma’s Promise, and many more topics valuable to you as an education professional.

To learn more and to sign up for an event in your area, please go to http://www.okcareertech.org/techprep/guidancefest.htm

Pass this to your friends and co-workers. We look forward to seeing you there!!

New Blog -Testing

The CareerTech Blogosphere grows again!!

The testing division of CareerTech is putting together a new Blog. The Blog, entitled CareerTech Testing Center, will be your source for news and information related testing throughout the CareerTech System

You can visit the Blog here: http://careertechtesting.blogspot.com/

To see our complete list of CareerTech Blogs, visit http://www.okcareertech.org/techprep/links.htm

CareerTech 2.0

This morning I was told about a new social network site for career and technology educators.

http://careertech20.ning.com/

The site was created by Tine Steele from Tri County Technology Center. Not a lot of conversation yet, but go and sign up and see what your fellow CTE friends are doing around Oklahoma, I did!

Summer Conference Presentations

For those of you that made it to Summer Conference, or if you missed it and you want to catch up, here are some links that might help.

The Summer Conference Presentations for Tech Prep are posted here: http://www.okcareertech.org/techprep/presentations.htm

You can get the Guidance Division Summer Conference Presentation here: http://www.okcareertech.org/cac/Pages/guidance/SC2008/2008presentations.htm

In other news, the CAC Division has a new home on the www and you can go there here: http://www.okcareertech.org/cac/

Your Big Idea-Just Do It!

Sunday night the family and I braved the rain and went with church to the Cushing Aquatic Park for Family Fun Night. The Cushing Aquatic Park is not huge compared to major water parks, but the $1.5 million water oasis has all the essentials and offers a variety of activities for kids and adults alike. For the small ones you can head to the kiddy pool and slide down the frogs tongue, or you can head over to the main pool that features an incline pool, a couple of mini slides, and two multi-story water tubes-one full and one half tube.

Since we have kids that are 5 years old and don’t swim, we decided to stat out at the kiddy pool with the frog slide. That did not last long!! As my son watched the big kids go down the tubes, he started asking why he couldn’t do it.

At last, his aunt decided that she would take him up to the top of the tower, go down first and wait to catch him. Up the tower they went and down came his aunt. As she went down the tube my son eagerly awaited his turn atop the tower. Finally, the lifeguards said go and down the half tube a brave, excited 5 year old boy headed. No screams, no tears and just a huge smile as he came out the end into the waiting arms of his aunt. Back up they went to conquer the full tube!
What is stopping you from conquering your fears? Many times an idea or thought will pop into peoples heads and then they think of all the reasons why they can not implement it, who they should not share it with or why it will fail.

What is your big idea? Maybe you came to the Enrollment Management presentation at Summer Conference and have ideas you want to approach administration with like developing a plan for year round recruitment, but are afraid of bucking the status quo? Maybe you saw an ad during the Summer Olympics and you thought it could be applied to your technology center, but they have always done it this way? Perhaps you have been thinking about a strategy for retention and you need a few dollars to implement a new program, but don’t know who to ask? You have an idea. maybe the next great idea and you want to act on it, but you just don’t know how.

Just do it! Take the first step and share that idea with those around you and start heading up that ladder. If you stay at the bottom of the slide and don’t face your fears you might never know how much fun the ride can be.

Enrollment Management and the August Recruitment Plan

The CareerTech System just finished its annual Summer Conference in Oklahoma City and I was excited to see more presentations this year on recruitment and marketing.

For my presentation this year, I spoke on Enrollment Management in CTE. It went well and the point of the presentation was not to have an in depth conversation (those will come later), but to introduce the concepts behind enrollment management and I felt that it hit the mark.

Of course we also talked some about recruitment, but in a big picture sense. I introduced a recruitment plan that has been developed through reading Tech Prep grants, Guidance grants, TCTW grants and others, combined with my knowledge of higher-education practices and techniques.

Here are some ideas for August:

MEDIA
Success stories in newspapers and other publications

PRINCIPALS AND COUNSELORS
Send P/C newsletter with technology center highlights featuring success stories of local students
Utilize email to send periodic updates of school specific student success stories

8TH GRADE YEAR
Targeted mailing to parents

FRESHMAN YEAR
Conduct fall freshmen/sophomore visits in local high schools

SOPHOMORE YEAR
Personalized letter & email to high priority
Letter from Superintendent

JUNIOR YEAR
College Alliance night invitation mailed to parents and students

The "Recruitment Plan for Oklahoma Technology Centers" has more ideas and concepts for recruitment year round. Some asked about it after the presentation and if you will give me an email, we would love share it and to work with you, develop it further and help implement it throughout the system to help Oklahoma continue to grow.

I'll continue to talk about Enrollment Management here, I hope you'll come back. If you went to the presentation, let me know how I did, I hope that you learned at least one thing that you can implement on your campus.

go green oklahoma

The State of Oklahoma has recently published a Green website! Aimed at informing the public about Green efforts in state agencies, it has some interesting information on go green oklahoma.

According to the OK.gov online license renewals reduced paper consumption amongst state agencies by over 281,000 sheets of paper since January, 2007.

If you missed it, Francis Tuttle Technology Center has launched a Green Web site, Think Green, which talks about their efforts to be a little more Green.

Why don't you share how you or your technology center are helping to make Oklahoma a little more Green?

Wordle

Today, I read a post from The EduBlogger about Wordle.

Wordle is a cool application that uses word counts from various sources, feeds or those that you enter, to create a word cloud, a visual depiction of user-generated tags, or simply the word content of a site, used typically to describe the content of web site. (Wikipedia)

You can create one here, for free!!

I can think of uses in blog post, showing importance of words in a presentation, etc. Or, it might just be a fun application that you can use to make some really cool graphics!! The Wordle for the Tech Prep Blog is above.

Either way, you might just see a Wordle in my next presentation!!

Campus Visit

Through Tech Prep and the Cooperative Alliance programs the CareerTech System is working to transition more high school students to college and toward degree completion. Through the Academies like Bio Med and Pre-Engineering, students are being exposed to and completing AP level coursework and passing the required exams to get college credit.

We are preparing them for the work, but how are we helping them transition?

Since you can only learn so much from a viewbook or website, one way that counselors, teachers and parents can help encourage students to attend college is by taking them on the College Visit.
Getting the students to campus is just the first step. With prior planning and a little effort, an uneventful trip to a college campus can transform into an event that they will remember, appreciate and that just might encourage them to enroll!

Before the tour takes place, encourage the students to do some research. Find out about the
student body, what majors does the college offer that they are interested in, do Freshmen have to live in the dorms, and what student services does the college offer? The more knowledge that the student has about the campus , the more in depth questions they can ask the admissions counselor or college representative.

Some things to do on a campus tour:

1. Talk to an admissions counselor. Seeing how Cooperative Alliance credits will transfer into their degree, and just how many courses are left to completion, could motivate a student to complete.
2. Take a guided tour of the campus
3. Meet with a professor or academic advisor in your major of interest
4. Meet with student service personnel and learn where you can obtain services like tutoring, guidance, testing and disability services.
5. Tour a residence hall and if it is offered, eat in the cafeteria
6. Take some time to explore the campus on your own
   

During the visit, encourage your students to ask lots of questions, take notes, gather materials and even ask people they meet on campus what they have experienced as a student.

If you can not take the students to a visit, another alternative to experience what a college has to offer is special recruitment events. Oklahoma State University host OSU Experience this year on September 6 and the University of Oklahoma host Sooner Saturday in the fall

If there is a particular college that many of your students matriculate to, build a relationship
with the admissions office, get on the mailing list, attend the counselor days and stay involved with your students. You might just be the difference!

CTE Silos

Wikipedia defines a silo as a structure for storing materials. When you compare a silo to a technology center that material becomes knowledge with individual silos representing the individual offices and departments that are created to store that knowledge. Silos tend to create communication barriers and the free exchange of ideas begins to break down between the members of the origination.

One of the principles of enrollment management is to bring together the key players in marketing, recruitment, admissions and retention. Breaking down existing barriers that are either real or artificial allows more opportunities for the free flow of information.

By having the marketing and recruitment staff in the same meeting, you bring together the staffs that communicate on a daily basis with the students and that staff that is responsible for the brand identity of the technology center.

A marketing person knows how to lay out an organizational viewbook. They have an eye for how photos of students will interact with typeface and can put a storyboard together. The recruitment person knows what students are interested in. They know a student wants to know about their opportunities, not necessarily the rigor and relevance of a course or major. By the two working together, a message is created that works well with the student population that is being recruited. Together they can create a powerful message that students will understand with the brand recognition of the technology center that parents will recognize.

By bringing together people in different offices through enrollment management, you will build upon the brand of the technology center and begin to unify your message to your constituents. Continue to work in silos, and who knows what the message may be.

CareerTech Art Walk

NEW THIS YEAR!!!

Want to know more about the history of downtown Oklahoma City and the many sculptures, historical buildings, and other art works?

Then Join your friends, co-workers and quest in the first ever CareerTech ART WALK!

The CBITS Division is inviting all CareerTech employees and friends to come along on a tour. (Free For All)

™ Starts at 6:30 a.m., Tues. Aug. 5th-Sheraton Hotel Lobby
™ Great way to start your morning
™ Tour lasts no more than 35 minutes
™ Great (and free!) way to learn of the history
™ Tour Guides will lead groups of 10-12

Sign up in the Information Booth-Exhibit Area-Cox Convention Center or contact Jim Roblyer at 405-743-5558 (office) or 405-747-7283 (cell).

Self-paced tours and maps available free of charge!

DID YOU KNOW…THE LAND RUN MONUMENT ON THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF THE CANAL IS THE LARGEST MONUMENT OF ITS KIND IN THE WORLD!!

ALSO-THE OKLAHOMA CITY MUSEUM OF ART HOUSES THE LARGEST DALE CHIHULY GLASS SCULPTURE!!

Part of the CareerTech System

As technology center websites like Indian Capital, Moore-Norman, Northeast, Pioneer, and Tulsa Technology Center are starting to add taglines like "Part of the CareerTech System" maybe it is time to develop a standard logo.

Here is a quick logo, what are your thoughts? It would serve the System well to have something that all technology centers could incorporate into their website and link back to the CareerTech website.

Pass this along to your webmaster and see what they think.......

Making Recruitment Personal

This morning I came across a story about an individualized screen-printing application.

You can go through NASCAR’s virtual apparel personalization process and pick your favorite driver, color of shirt and what you want on it and where. Long story short, they are personalizing the process for the customer!

One of the requirements of the millennial generation is for individualized attention. That individualized attention is very evident in the personalized apparel store.

How are you personalizing your recruitment efforts? Are you sending “Dear John” letters or have you tailored each one to the resident with their name? Have you thought about a student portal that welcomes the user each time they log on? Have you placed virtual content that allows them to submit a suggested plan of study tailored to their school or an interactive cost calculator? Can they see where they will be attending class through a virtual tour?

Making the process personal and letting a potential student feel like they are an important part of the process can greatly enhance your recruitment efforts. It is when a student feels value that they will leave your campus with a feeling of place and want to come back as a student.

How are you making it personal?

The OK CareerTech System

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CareerTech News Feed

We are pleased to announce a new service for the CareerTech System.

We have put together an alert that will combine news stories relating to the Oklahoma CareerTech System. This morning, it brought up stories about Moore-Norman’s student built house, a Canadian Valley retiree, the new Touring OK curriculum, Autry’s wind farm seminar and much more.

You can see the articles at the Tech Prep News page: http://www.okcareertech.org/techprep/news.htm

You can sign up for the daily email at http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=2191865&loc=en_US

We hope that this new service helps keep you updated about what is happening with the Oklahoma CareerTech System.

ACTE E-Media Email

On the 1st of July we were mentioned in the ACTE E-Media newsletter as an online resource devoted to CTE.

Wanted to tell them thanks and mention some of the cool stuff that they have assembled online.

You can go to their main page here.

They have a Facebook community and a MySpace community as well as video's on SchoolTube.

Go and check them out, you might find something that you like!!

Independence Day '08

On July 4, 1776, the Deceleration of Independence was adopted declaring the colonies independence from Great Britain.

232 years later, this Friday, Americans will celebrate that occasion with fireworks, hotdogs lemonade and parades.

We hope that your celebration is safe and fun.

CareerTech Champions Feed

Each year, thousands of Oklahomans reap the benefits provided by the Oklahoma CareerTech System. Read highlights about individuals who applied what they learned and became successful employees, entrepreneurs and leaders in business organizations.

Issue 5

Sign up for the CareerTech Champions Feed.

Google Maps

You probably already know that you can go to Google Maps to find out where you need to go. Did you know that you could build custom maps that can tell a story?

The LA Times has used Google Maps to build a representation of the California wildfires. Where there is a fire, they have placed a small icon and shared some information about containment and acreage burned,

As you develop your technology center website and consider user tools and add-ons, you might think about including a map of your district. Showing the schools that you serve could help people understand the scope of your technology center district and could help students visualize the proximity of their community and the campus they will be attending.

Here is the LA Times fire map…..




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Congratulations HOSA Students

Just wanted to pass along the accomplishments of the Oklahoma HOSA delegation from their National Leadership Conference.

Oklahoma sent 240 students, adviosrs and families to Dallas, TX for this year's conference.

There were 46 states in all at the conference.
—-Oklahoma was awarded the "Most Professional" state at the conference!!---

There are 46 competitive events. The Oklahoma event winner count includes:
Top 10----22
3rd Place---9
2nd Place---6
1st Place---15
Mastery Level-Kaiser Permanente Health Care Issues Exam----5

Congratulations Guys!!

Cub Scouts and Retention

Cub Scouts across America are working to earn the National Summertime Pack Award. It is given to those Units that hold three activities – one each one in June, July and August. The award is meant to encourage a year round program.

Why? Studies show that Units who have a year round program, engage their members and have fun are larger and more successful than those who don’t. Translation, they retain their members!

Earlier we posted some thoughts on summer activities for recruitment in technology centers. Pizza party in June, movie night on the campus in July and a Welcome Back to School BBQ in August – now your summer is planned.

If you aren’t doing anything with your recruits this summer, start planning now. It will help the transition from sophomore student to technology center student and might even let them know you care about them. It’s not to late.

iSpring

Need to convert your Power Point presentation to flash so that you can share it on the web? With iSpring you can upload your Power Point presentation to an account and have it converted to Flash. From their you can embedd your presentation in a blog, on a website, link it to del.icio.us or some other nest things.

Check out some of the presenattion on iSpring

Here is an older presentation converted to flash on iSpring

Hello, how are you?

An instructor walks down the hall headed to the classroom. A student is heading in the opposite direction to lunch. As they pass each other they both look down and mutter “Hi.”

How many times does this scene play out on your campus? We have all been guilty at one point about it. We are too busy to stop for a second, we’ve had a rough day or we simply do not want to be around people.

The way you interact with students says a lot about your campus. Image the impression that you will leave on a prospective student when the recruitment staff is telling them how friendly your campus is, and as they walk around on tour all they see are instructors and staff who don’t even flash a smile or simply wave.

Now, imagine the impression that you will leave on a prospective student when that same instructor or staff person walks to the student, smiles, ask them how their visit is going and then listens to the answer. Talk about delivering on expectations!!

Do you work on the campus where everyone genuinely takes an interest in how others are doing? Do people say hi and smile at each other? Maybe you ask how their parents or their kids are doing. Whatever the opportunity, by taking a genuine interest in each other, and in our students, we will deliver the friendly and family like atmosphere that the Oklahoma CareerTech System is known for.

Go say hi to someone. Who knows, you may be the highlight of their day and the head start they need on the way to a great weekend!!

Dog Days of Summer?

The dog days of summer are not quite here yet and that means that there is still time to recruit and engage your prospective students as they are deciding to show up for the first day of class.

In the enrollment funnel process, your prospective student should be right down in the neck, almost ready to be counted as an actual student. Still, there is work to be completed to help ensure that these prospective students arrive on the first day of class and can truly be counted as your students.

I have had conversations with people and we discussed that their classes were full in May, but when August arrived these prospective students did not show. This could be for a lot of reasons. Maybe their girlfriend or boyfriend decided that they were not going to go to the tech center, they decided that football was much more important, they were told that they can not go to a technology center and go to college or maybe they became apprehensive and a feeling of discomfort about starting a new school without their old friends set in. Whatever the reason, and they are all valid, the prospective student decided not to show up.

How do we as a system fix this problem? Engaging the student through the last part of the enrollment process is the answer. Universities and colleges spend big money on one and two day student orientation programs and enrollment days, Oklahoma State University has Alpha Week, Texas A&M has Fish Camp, and many more events happen throughout the country with the same objective, to give a student a sense of place and belonging.

How can this apply to the Oklahoma CareerTech System? Ideally each technology center would develop two to three events or ideas to keep your new students engaged. If you weren’t doing anything, implementing one idea would be a great place to start!

Some simple summer recruitment ideas:

New Student Pizza Party
Invite all incoming junior students to a pizza party located at your technology center. Invite all staff and encourage them to interact with the new students. This can help jump-start relationship building and lead to increased retention over the summer.

Movie Night
Rent out a local theater and invite your prospective students and parents. Let them watch the latest flick and incorporate recruitment opportunities in the process. Maybe before the movie they are allowed to watch the latest Alliance video, maybe with their ticket they are given a bookmark with a school calendar. The ideas are as limited as your imagination.

Orientation Day
Hold a special Orientation Day that will allow new students the opportunity to meet other new students, allow them to spend some time in their classroom with their instructor and learn where the preparatory services are located throughout the campus.

Summer Newsletter
What better way to let the parents know what is going on than by sending each new student parents a packet of new student information or newsletters? Reminding the parents about starting dates, driving rules, or student organization is a great way to get parents interested in what is happening at your technology center.

Parent Letter
Why not send a letter to the parents of new students directly from the students new instructor. Allow the parent the opportunity to interact with the instructor via phone, email or face to face and you have created an avenue to communicate down the road.

These are just a few quick brainstorming ideas. If you have more, please share them as we would like to hear about them.

Simplicity and Consistency

What can we learn about marketing from The Wiggles?

Never heard of The Wiggles, then first, background on the musical children’s group with ten multi-platinum records who have sold 17 million DVDs and four million CD’s.

According to Wikipedia, the Wiggles are a children's musical group formed in Sydney, Australia in 1991. The Wiggles are children's entertainers that have rewritten the book about how children can be entertained with song and dance, and my kids and their friends loved them!

On to my point.

This morning my daughter woke up bright and early and the only thing on was The Wiggles. They were being shown at one of the space centers and were all wearing a space suit, custom designed in their signature colors; Greg in yellow, Murray in red, Jeff in purple, and Anthony in blue.

Simple and consistent colors that they wear in most every episode regardless of costume.

How does this relate?

What got me to start thinking about how The Wiggles apply to marketing is that they are consistent and simple in their message. There is no confusion amongst their fans about who is who. Even during flashback scenes to their childhood, they are still in their signature colors.

Is your marketing message simple? What good is developing a marketing campaign if no one can remember it? Look at examples in the corporate world like Nike with their swoosh, Oakley and their “O” and McDonalds with the golden arches. If it isn’t simple, maybe it is time to rethink your message.

Is your marketing message consistent? Does your photography reflect your message? Is your website designed to have the same look and feel as your brochure and your Power Point presentations? If people get lost shifting through your different marketing pieces maybe it is time to align your message so that it is consistent through all your publications.

Some early Monday morning thoughts I thought I would share.

CareerTech Feed

We are proud to announce a new feed to the CareerTech family.

The Communications and Marketing group has added a new feed that will send you all the latest CareerTech news!!

You can find the RSS feed here

Please share the feed with friends and family. The more people know about the feed, the better people will be informed about what is happening with the CareerTech System.