Month: August 2011

On Italy and Aletta

I’m in Baveno, Italy today and will be coming back to the U.S. tomorrow after my 8:30 a.m. presentation. As this video shows (and tells), this has been quite an eventful trip since I left Rochester, Minn. on Saturday morning:

I’m about to go for dinner, and this time I’m fairly confident I won’t be locking myself on the outside patio. Last night I had to call my host Hans and have him get someone from the front desk to rescue me. I’m not sure what I would have done if I hadn’t brought my phone out there with me, and if I hadn’t previously talked by cell with Hans. It’s about 30 feet to the ground, and I’m sure I would have freaked some of the other guests if they had seen a big blond guy crawling on the roof.

The hotel staffer graciously assured me that this had happened many times before. I’m blaming this incident on jet lag.

And while I’m not blaming my need to run to the Mall of America for dress pants during my MSP layover on my wife Lisa’s absence, it sure will be good to have her back home when I get there Thursday. She’s been in Grand Rapids, Mich. for the last 11 days to help my daughter Rachel, who just gave birth to our third grandchild, Aletta Louise Borg, last Wednesday. Lisa flies home Wednesday.

Here’s a picture of Rachel with her little brood, including the newest arrival:

I’m glad Lisa has been able to help Rachel, but with her home I will hopefully be less out of sorts.

Should states ban student-teacher interactions on Facebook?

Yesterday’s Washington Post had an editorial about a misguided trend among state legislatures to ban communication between students and teachers through sites like Facebook and Twitter:

However, in some places, new laws and proposed measures are impeding teacher communication with students outside of school-sanctioned e-mail systems. The most recent practitioner of educational technophobia is Missouri, which last month adopted legislation intended to ban direct communication between teachers and students via Facebook.

The law is so broad it could effectively also bar student-teacher contact via Gmail or other non-school e-mail services. “No teacher shall establish, maintain, or use a nonwork-related Internet site which allows exclusive access with a current or former student,” the law reads.

The Post editorial board makes a good case against laws like this. I agree that these laws seem overly broad. I think are they well-intentioned as ways to prevent inappropriate relationships between students and teachers, but that banning Facebook messages is overkill. Facebook is just another means of communication, a platform more than 10 percent of the people in the world use.

Banning Facebook interactions seems analogous to prohibiting telephone contact between students and teachers. A private Facebook message can be sent even between users who don’t have a friend relationship, just as telephone conversations can happen between anyone via cell or land line. Should there be laws against phone calls too?

What do you think about these laws banning Facebook messaging in the schools?

 

Belated Blog Birthday

For a blog that started out with a nondescript alliteration as its title – Lines from Lee – it’s only fitting that I would have a similar approach to the title of this post as I celebrate the fifth anniversary of my first blog post – four days late.

I’ve made it a point each year at this time to take a look back on how this blog has changed – and changed me – over the previous 12 months. See my first, second, third and fourth blog birthday posts for my journal on the journey.

This year, as I celebrate the fifth birthday of what has become SMUG, I’m also celebrating the first anniversary of Mayo Clinic establishing our Center for Social Media.

If I thought the first four years were eventful, this last one has felt like a Space Shuttle launch. It’s been gratifying to recruit a fantastic External Advisory Board, a tremendous staff (click to enlarge the team photo from our recent retreat) and to see more than 80 organizations join our Social Media Health Network.

And while NASA is winding down the Shuttle program, we’re just getting started. We’re holding our Third Annual Health Care Social Media Summit in Rochester in October in collaboration with Ragan Communications, along with our Network Member Meeting and Social Media Residency. We’re also holding a contest for patients and caregivers to attend for free (and even get airfare and lodging costs paid.)

Much of my blogging has been on the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media site (and the related Network member community), so my posting frequency on SMUG has suffered a bit. I definitely plan to still keep growing the SMUG community and provide resources, though (we’re at 1,265 SMUGgles as of today), and maybe recruit more associate professors with honorary doctorates.

If you would like to be among the honorary SMUG Ph.D.’s, drop me a note using the Contact Form. I would be glad to involve other contributors on the SMUG Faculty.

These last five years have been amazing. Thanks to everyone who has been part of it.