Never Left College

Manhattan Marketing Maven had some good insights as a parent who recently began  college visits and has come up with a few lessons not only for colleges, but can also apply to any business.

how good they have it.

I know I sound like my grandmother with her “10 miles walking to school with a brown paper bag to carry her books in” mode.

I was talking with colleagues about standing in the gym in the middle of cold January as an undergraduate waiting to add/drop my elective courses.

Now, students can register online or call in to sign-up for classes.

I also read in Lifehacker, that one of the options students have is actually renting their textbooks for the semester.

This is definitely one of those “why I didn’t I think of that” moments.

A few days ago, I talked to a former colleague who is currently enrolled in a doctorate program. She told me as part of her requirements, that she would  have to maintain a blog. This propelled me back to when I was teaching and I made my undergrad students maintain blogs.

Before one makes their students create a blog for educational purposes, there are some things that need to be addressed:

1. What is the purpose of the blog? Is it to chronicle a process, to record information or for research?

2. What happens to the information after the fact? Is it going to be turned into a paper, dissertation, and/or book?

3. Who “owns” the information? Is it the college’s or the student’s?

Pondering these questions, one can have a clear vision of what and how to proceed with their education based blog.

I am proud to announce that the Metropolitan College of New York’s MCNY Admissions Blog had its first student blog post. The blog is nearly 2 months old, but it has already gotten some great responses. I hope more students will become motivated to blog about their experiences with the college.

Yahoo posted  it take on it earlier today citing a post from SEO In-House.  For traditional college professors, this is frightening. They, like most professors today stressed referencing actual books than online references.  When I taught a few years ago, the sources for most papers were 66% online and a third from books. It is probably more online now.

I’m actually reminded of an incident 5 years ago when I found a student’s marketing plan online. It is up to professors to set the tone now and not a day before a paper is due to lay down the law on references and formats.

Whatever the case may be, its time to get back to business. Extra special recognition to the people where both instances apply, it takes a lot to teach and it also takes a lot to return as a student.

Speaking of recommended reading lists reminders and such, Staples is back at it.

My Gram loves theses commercials. She plays the part like if she still has little ones going to school. No wait she does. Me!

Ironically I have been in Staples three times this week alone, and I may have to go back tomorrow.

Thanks to Sparkplug CEO for the funny.

Every week I go from client to client learning and discovering new things about their business. I look at my weekly calendar that changes every week and realized that it look almost like it did when I was a student. Work on this project for an hour, work on another project for 2 hours.  Taking certification exams. Going in to socials like SummerMash NYC, joining a bunch of Meetup Groups and conferences like greek conventions. It’s like if I Never Left College

When I saw a text messaging  ad  on the subway, I thought:

a. if anyone would remember to text it when they emerged above ground?

b. What kind of responses are they getting.

A local college is giving a go at this. Of course this could turn into 20 questions about if they are doing it for an experiment or are qualified leads are actually coming through.

I realize that I am in a bubble here in Gotham,  So if anyone else is using mobile ads/text messaging  in their ads and they have had interesting results, please let me know via the comments.

Its that time of the year again when 1st time college students or students entering into a new program are receiving their recommended/required reading lists. I was reminded by this by a friend who is returning to school for their masters degree.

During the eduweb2008 conference , quite a number of books were recommended for reading.

I plan to get stared on my reading list soon, but in the meantime, you can check out some of the recommendations made during the conference that I’m pondering.

• Transforming a College: The Story of a Little-Known College’s Strategic Climb to National Distinction
• How to Drive Your Competition Crazy: Creating Disruption for Fun and Profit
• The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual
• Minority Report (Full Screen Two-Disc Special Edition)(I know this is not a book, but I had to see if you were paying attention and this movie is a possible indication of web 3.0 (connecting people to devices)