Upon arriving to the school, signing into our lobby, and being greeted, each parent was given an ipad.  Parents were told that the ipads would be used as part of the questioning process but in the meantime, to please explore the wonderful educational apps available to the students while waiting for the open house to begin.  Once we were ready to start, the parents were asked to click on the Twitter app on each of their ipads.  In order to facilitate the navigation of locating the Twitter app, we made sure that the Twitter app was anchored at the bottom of the ipads so that it would show up on each screen.  Prior to the open house, we created a Twitter account for each ipad with Twitter usernames like Davis Academy Guest 1.  Once the parent clicked on the Twitter app, they would see that they were already logged in with their unique username and could see a message welcoming them to the open house.

Once everyone was settled in with their ipad, I proceeded to explain that we really wanted to hear what the parents wanted to know.  Our hopes were that parents would feel comfortable tweeting their questions in an anonymous format throughout the open house.  This would serve several purposes: 1) while parents were in classrooms hearing from teachers and students, learning about the curriculum and seeing the classrooms, they could instantly tweet their questions that would be addressed later 2) parents would feel uninhibited in seeking answers to their questions and 3) it would demonstrate the ways in which we are incorporating technology into our instruction and encouraging students to share their “voice”.

As the tweets were being received, I tagged them with descriptors enabling me to generate a Twitter cloud.  An example of this is the question that was tweeted that said, “How do you meet the needs of diverse learners?”.  This question was tagged as “differentiation”.  After being in the classrooms, the parents returned to the media center where I displayed the Twitter cloud on a large screen.  The remainder of the open house consisted of the administration, the teachers, and current Davis parents addressing questions that were raised via Twitter.

Although we have had positive feedback regarding our open houses in the past, using technology in this way generated a new level of enthusiasm and excitement.  Providing the technology as a tool to encourage open communication while still allowing parents to get a strong sense of all that is offered at The Davis Academy, created an environment rich in collaboration and an environment that ensured that all questions could be addressed.  We are pleased with the outcome and will continue to explore innovative tools that will enrich our open house experiences.

Drew Frank is the Lower School Principal at The Alfred and Adele Davis Academy in Atlanta Georgia, where he previously served in multiple teaching and administrative roles in both the lower and middle school. Drew is a proud member of the Day School Leadership Training Institute (DSLTI) cohort 5, and he has incorporated many of the constructivist and collaborative learning activities (spiritual check-ins, fishbowls, case studies, and consultancies) in to these and other school and faculty programs.  You can follow Drew on Twitter @ugafrank.

Last night I gave one of the first ELI Talks at the North American Jewish Day School Conference (NAJDS). As I sought a “network” image for my presentation, I noticed how different the shapes of these maps can be.  In a fascinating discussion with Deborah Fishman we explored different types of skills and personalities in network weaving  – those who have deep connections with a modest network.  Those who have tentacles that reach far and wide.  Those who are nodes, connecting people to one another.

I’m going to hypothesize – I don’t have data on this, and I’d be interested to know if it exists – that different styles of network weavers (personality, skills, training, preferred tools, strategic objectives) will produce different patterns of network maps. For example, compare the structure of the following:

I hypothesize that we could codify these types in some way akin to a Myers Briggs Type Indicator evaluation to better clarify network weaver types.  Further, I think that organizations, if they are able to clarify what they want from a network weaver, would have a preferred “type” of network weaver.

In our challenge to develop excellent network weavers, and encourage more organizations to effectively use them, could this sort of “type indicator” help organizations clarify what they are looking for, and help match-make employers and employees more effectively?

I wonder to what degree these types are influenced by personality, training and/or experience?  Can you train or assign someone to be a type of network weaver, or are they predisposed to certain styles because of their personality?

I welcome input, research, challenges here – I’d love your help in refining these ideas.

Today’s shift, which adds posts, photos, profiles and conversations from Google+ that are public or were shared privately with the person searching, is valuable for users because it brings “your world” (as Google refers to it) into search, aggregating all of the information you might be interested in seeking.  It’s valuable to Google as  further boosts the centrality of Google+ relative to other social networks (which for now are not included), and positions your search engine as the singular window into all aspects of your world.

If I’m planning a trip to Paris I might find in my search hotels, reviews, discounts, maps, historical info, and now tips from friends who have been there, or even become aware that someone I know will be there at the same time.

But more than the search engine as the window into the world, these changes position me as the center of the universe, with information orbiting me.  Helpful, perhaps.  But what are the implications?

The Filter Bubble

But the flip side of all of this is the narrowing of our worlds. Eli Pariser’s The Filter Bubble describes how because of the search algorithm (the ‘filter’), we don’t even know what is being hidden from us.  What we’ve done and sought in the past strongly influence what we are exposed to in the future “leaving less room for the unexpected encounters that spark creativity, innovation, and the democratic exchange of ideas”.

Now that’s not so radically different from the way we lived prior to the internet.  If I live in a particular neighborhood or my kids go to a particular school, I’m more likely to be friends with those people and remain in that orbit.

But other recent research shows that young people today, while fairly technically savvy, have not been taught skills to evaluate the information they find.  “Google’s a trusted web site,” says one British student in a BBC segment. She used the first result Google returned and didn’t really think about it any further.  While teaching a course at the high school Genesis program at Brandeis University a few years ago, I challenged my students to do a research project with limited access to resources:  Only books, internet minus Wikipedia and the top 5 Google search results, or anything.  As you can imagine, the results were vastly different.  The students who were limited in their online search had a much deeper understanding of the material because they were exposed to many more sources and forced to evaluate and synthesize the information.

The bottom line here is the difference between information and knowledge.  We often confuse the two.  Google’s shifts may change the way we access information, but it is our responsibility to create our own knowledge.   And it is the responsibility of educators and parents to recognize that this process of knowledge creation and meaning making is different today than it has been in the past.  We must teach these skills, and illustrate to students the implications of Google’s decisions, lazy searching and the conclusions we draw.

Happy searching and socializing.  And don’t forget to get outside of your own orbit from time to time.

More on Google’s recent change:

Mashable: Google Merges Search and Google+ Into Social Media Juggernaut

Huffington Post: Google ‘Search Plus Your World’ Brings Google+ Into Search Results

New York Times’ Bits Blog: Google’s Social Move Attracts Critics

New York Times’ Bits Blog: Google Adds Posts From Its Social Network to Search Results

Managing lots of information, relationships, and resources can be a challenge for any organization. While it can be easy to be overwhelmed by the variety of options on the market – and their pricing – there is one platform I recommend you explore, and it’s free: Google Sites.

I came across Google Sites while searching for solutions for managing the production of PresenTense Magazine, which entailed upward of 80 volunteers collaborating around 30 articles over the course of several months per issue. Our contributors spread from Los Angeles to Jerusalem to Budapest and everywhere in between. I needed to store items as varied as drafts of the articles themselves; spreadsheets recording who was working on what; and running blog-style thoughts from conference calls and online and in-person brainstorms. It was crucial that everyone on the team could easily access the information necessary to do their job – true when working with colleagues, and perhaps even more so when working with volunteers.

Satisfying all of these specifications could be seen as a challenge. However, once the right platform of Google Sites was discovered and properly developed, managing our bountiful ecosystem of data helped enable us to convert our advantages – such as geographic diversity, a multitude of ideas, and an eager crew of enthusiastic volunteers – into opportunities.

Here are some benefits, tips, and drawbacks I’ve discovered in Google Sites. I hope you will consider them and that they will similarly help you turn your organizational assets into opportunities.

Why use Google Sites?

Everything organized in one place.
Rather than dealing with a litany of Google Docs, you can not only store them in one place, but also use article-style pages to organize links to spreadsheets, blog pages, and “file cabinets” (where you can store files such as images, documents, or presentations).

Easy to learn to customize your own site.
To set up a site effectively might take a bit of practice, but it does not take knowledge of HTML. If you spend some time exploring the different template options, you can build a functional site in just a few clicks – and it is easily customizable to exactly your needs.

Convinced? Here’s how to use it!

Learn how to take advantage of the templates
Think about how the different templates could make sense for your use. The templates can be highly effective if you apply the right template to the right purpose. For instance, the template called “List” can be a to-do list or task management tool, a spreadsheet that stores contact information, or a list organizing other items stored in the site (i.e. you can link directly to article pages or file cabinets within the site). The templates each offer great flexibility so you can customize them for your purpose.

The more organized you can be, the better!
You can at any point reorganize the skeleton outline of your site (which pages are organized under which other page). You can also create a table of contents which allows users to easily jump to the page they’re looking for. Take advantage of these organizational methods to make sure everyone working on the project can find what they need, fast.

A word of caution: A few Google Sites drawbacks

Not the best tool for engagement
While Sites is a great way to store information such that it is easily accessible, in my experience it has been difficult to use it to start conversations. Perhaps the user interface is not intuitive, or requires a greater investment of time to figure out than people who are just looking for information to do their job are willing to give.

Sharing can be a little complicated
If you do not have a Google account, you have to go through the extra step of creating one. While in theory this should be an easy process, I have had some non-Gmail-users unable to find how to access Sites, and this can be a source of frustration. If your information isn’t particularly confidential, you could consider making the site public (viewable to anyone) for the duration of the project. I’ve used this approach at times and it has helped overcome this obstacle.

Whether or not you ultimately decide to use Google Sites, I do recommend that, before embarking on any new endeavor in iformation management, you take a moment to answer these questions yourself, and/or survey your coworkers on their thoughts and needs:

• What tools do you currently use to manage your projects, and if they are not working, why not?
• What functions are on your wish-list for information management?

Then, you can more knowledgeably find the tools that will work for you – and find ways to more consciously tailor and employ them for your specific purposes. After all, at the end of the day, tools are only as effective as what we make of them!

Have you used Google Sites in your work?  If so, how?  What other tools have you experimented with for information management?

Deborah Fishman is a network weaver interested in new opportunities to create change in the Jewish world. She was most recently Editor and Publisher of PresenTense Magazine. She blogs at hachavaya.blogspot.com.

Jewish tradition has always supported technological innovation.  In fact, with apologies to Apple or Android, it was Moses who introduced the world to the first tablets.  Kidding aside, the events at Mt. Sinai as described in the Book of Exodus do provide us with a clear understanding of the role of technology in Judaism.  As leaders in our respective Jewish communities, we take upon ourselves the responsibility of presenting the values, tenets, and traditions of our religion in the most understandable and accessible medium possible.

With this in mind, I have created The QR Project.  QR codes are two-dimensional barcodes readable by smartphones.  In the past two years, QR codes have become a popular tool for advertisers and marketers.  The QR Project, however, is demonstrating that QR codes can revolutionize the way we approach outreach, education, and conservation.

The most comprehensive example of the impact of QR codes can be found at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis, MO.  Over this past summer, I worked with Shaare Emeth to insert QR codes into their Religious School curriculum.  We put codes on any pages that require the students to practice out loud.  When they scan the code, their smartphone pulls up an audio recording of their cantor chanting the prayer.

We have taken these prayer QR codes and created a bookmark to accompany their siddur.  Adult learners and b’nai mitzvah students can scan the bookmark to learn the blessings.  Additionally, the recorded prayers are now housed on the Shaare Emeth website along with links to further learning opportunities.

The results speak for themselves.  The QR codes in their curriculum have been scanned more than 200 times since their debut in mid-September.  The online site that hosts the prayers has attracted over 3000 hits in that same time span, with over half of them coming from outside the state of Missouri.  And finally, the existence of the QR codes means the cantor no longer has to create a CD for each student, saving over 100 CDs per year and hundreds of hours copying.

Curious to know more about integrating QR codes? On Wednesday November 30th, Darim Online and I will be hosting a webinar to talk about the potential for QR code integration.  You will have the opportunity to learn the basics of how QR codes work and how to make them, as well as how to use them effectively in your community.  By utilizing mobile technology, you will put your organization at the forefront of technological innovation, position yourself to engage those critical, often young members of your community, and meet your constituents in the place that is becoming the most familiar—their smartphone.

Webinar Info

QR Codes 101

Wednesday, Nov. 30th at 1pm

Click Here to Register

Also see our previous post, “QR Codes: What’s it All About?”

Is your organization or congregation using QR codes?  If so, how?  Share your thoughts and stories in the comments!

The Jewish Futures Conference is coming up shortly!  What is that, you ask?  Well…

The Jewish Futures Conference will bring together visionary thinkers, passionate individuals, and inspiring presentations in a conference designed to shift the horizon of our thinking in Jewish education.

Advances in media and technology are propelling rapid changes in the ways we live and learn that extend far beyond the technologies themselves. The Jewish Futures Conference will provide a space to imagine, learn and engage in purposeful and courageous conversation about the future of Jewish education and how it can thrive in today’s and tomorrow’s world.

-from the website, JewishFutures.net

And now, no matter where you are on the globe, you can participate in this years Jewish Futures Conference via live-stream - use passcode: Jewishfutures (case sensitive). (To access this live-stream you will need to download sliverlight software in advance.) You can also join in the discussion using the hashtag #JewishFutures on Twitter.

Join the Conversation:

• Monday November 7th
• 12:45 – 3:30pm Mountain Time (Live in Denver)

LIVE-STREAM TIMES- Live stream begins 12:45pm mountain time, program begins promptly at 1pm.

USA:                                                                                International:

11:45 – 2:30pm    Pacific Time                               7:45-10:30pm        Reykjavik

2:45 – 5:30pm      Eastern Standard Time         9:45pm-12:30am   Jerusalem

1:45 – 4:30pm      Central Time                              7:45-10:30pm         London

12:45 – 3:30pm    Mountain Time                         6:45-9:30am (11/8) Melbourne

Don’t Miss:

Tiffany Shlain (1:43 pm); Chris Lehmann (3:04 pm)

Darim Online’s own Lisa Colton (1:05 pm) Deborah Meyer (1:19 pm)

Shai Held (2:12 pm) Udi Krauss (2:36 pm)

Mimi Levine (2:29 pm) and Andrew Farkash (2:02 pm)

And the Jewish Futures Competition Winners:

Ben Wiener (1:31 pm) and Andrea RC Kasper (2:51 pm)

All times are approximate (mountain time)

The Jewish Futures Conference is a partnership between The Jewish Education Project and JESNA’s Lippman Kanfer Institute; in conjunction with The Jewish Federations of North America.  Collaborating organizations and sponsors include: Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation, The Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation, Moving Traditions, PJ Library, The iCenter, PELIE, 18 Pomegranates, Slingshot, Andrea and Charles Bronfman, Philanthropies, AVI CHAI Foundation.

The author thoroughly describes seven trends of Millennials; here is a quick overview along with what I took away from them:

1. The Role of Parents: Millennials have a close relationship with their parents; they look to them as more than role models but as friends and they want their parents to be involved in their lives.  Millennials are entering the workforce with less work experience than other generations, mostly because their parents would rather them travel, volunteer, play sports, and be involved with extracurricular activities.  This means that many Millennials are cultured and bring diverse experiences to the workplace.  This close relationship with their parents demonstrates that Millennials:

• Work well with other generations
• Have been coached their whole lives and expect the same in the workplace
• Need to have defined boundaries on privacy and confidentiality so they will not share private information
• Want mentors…and mentoring millennial employees will add value to them as employees and the organization as a whole

2. Entitlement: Millennials have continuously been told “the world is their oyster”, therefore if a Millennial is not happy in a position, they might just leave due to their idea of the availability of unlimited opportunities.  In order to keep Millennials in your organization, think about recruiting, retention, rewards, and respect:

• Recruiting: paint a realistic picture, have a great internship program, use technology (ex. videos) to help demonstrate what the org is like
• Retention: make sure Millennials have enough to do (no ZZZ’s), mix up their work, discuss their futures with them
• Rewards: rewards don’t have to be big to be meaningful, customization is great, reward while it is still rewarding (In relation to #5, Millennials move at extremely fast rates so if you wait to reward, it will not have as great of an impact)
• Respect: remember the golden rule, respect goes both ways

3. The Search for Job Meaning: Millennials want to make a difference in the world, be heard, feel like they are contributing, innovate, and know that they are succeeding—so help them do this!  This also connects back to entitlement.  If Millennials do not have meaning in their work, they are much more likely to leave.

4. Great Expectations: Whenever a new generation enters the workforce, expectations about work need to be re-defined to compensate for generational disconnects. 

• Set clear expectations for millennial employees during recruitment and training
• Coach on explicit and implicit matters…Since Millennials are entering the workplace with less work experience, they may need to be coached on these implicit matters, don’t assume they know all!  For example, how to sell an idea, how to leave an appropriate outgoing voice-mail message, what to wear to work, etc.
• Transparency—important to Millennial hires that there is a level of transparency both within the organization and to the outside world
• Manage and communicate expectations clearly

5. The Need for Speed: Simply, Millennials live in a generation that moves at an extremely fast pace and sometimes do not understand why everyone in the workplace is not moving as fast as them.  Make sure to:

• Discuss the speed:  For example, sometimes emailing is faster than phone calls however a manager might want a Millennial to make a phone call in order to foster a relationship.  Instead of just acting or assigning tasks, discuss with Millennials why you do things the way you do.
• Manage the pace: It is helpful to define what “ASAP” means and set timelines and deadlines.  A Millennial might take ASAP to mean within the next hour when the task really does not need to be done until the following week.
• Multitask efficiently: Millennials have grown up multi-tasking and can usually do a couple tasks at a time.  Let them multitask when it is efficient for them but also make sure they understand why sometimes just focusing on a particular task is important.
• Efficient meetings: Millennials might have insight on how to accomplish meetings more efficiently which might help to reduce meeting time.  For example, using Google docs before a meeting for members to collectively update each other and ask questions so meetings can address issues and new material.

6. Social Networking: The Millennial generation uses social media tools daily, unconsciously networking themselves to the larger online community.  Organizations have a lot to learn from Millennials as they have an innate ability to think in a networked way through social media and interpersonal interactions.  Be open to using social media tools to network and further your organization and develop a social media policy and strategy for your organization.  Lancaster and Stillman also discuss how Millennials find out the most information about organizations online so make sure your website is up to date and full of information to attract Millennials.

7. Collaborating: Millennials work well on teams.  They know how to delegate efficiently and choose the person best suited for a task based on skill, not hierarchy or seniority – Put Millennials on teams and make sure knowledge transfer occurs between generations (Millennials collaborate well with other generations also).

Lancaster and Stillman’s book is full of pragmatic approaches and they share many more tips and hints for working with the Millennial generation in their book, so check it out!

What have you experienced in working with Millennials, or as a Millennial, entering the workplace?

Hangouts, a group video chat function built into the G+ platform, are reason enough to join.  I hosted a Hangout recently and was delighted to see the connections and possibilities it opened up!  A relatively random group of folks in the Jewish world got together and ended up talking about the bridges between experiential education and new technology, and it was fascinating.  Here’s a quote that says it all from Peter Eckstein, one of the participants, from his blog “The Fifth Child”:

If you haven’t yet experienced a G+Hangout, you should.  All it requires is a Google+ account, a quick and painless browser plug-in download, a webcam and yalla…you’re in.  Video conferencing is old news, I know, but what G+ seems to have done is created a free and seamless environment for folks (up to 10 at one time, according to Google!) to come together to explore and learn together. What was exciting about this hangout experience was that it expanded my PLN that has, up to this point been, in a large way twitter based. Now, these tweeting encounters are being enhanced by virtual f2f encounters that deepen the educational experience. And it’s always fun to see the face and hear the voice behind the tweet.

With a little forethought and an openness to serendipity, Hangouts will revolutionize your networking efforts, expanding your core and engaging new hubs.  Why, you ask?  Well, because Hangouts are:

• Totally informal. It’s all in the name!  Everyone can let down their guard in a “hangout” in a way they never could on a “conference call.”
• Personal. Video is a powerful connective medium.  For more, check out this awesome TED Talk from Chris Anderson.
• Spontaneous.  Or planned. Plan in advance, or start one on a whim.  Add folks intentionally, or just see who shows up.
• Small-ish. Ever tried to “network” at an event with 300 people?  How many did you really get to know?  Probably about ten, which, it just so happens, is how many folks can join a Hangout.
• Built into a follow-up system. If you’ve hung out, you’ve got their contact info.  Send a message via G+ or Gmail and continue the conversation.
• Equipped with a back-channel. Software giant IBM always uses a live chat feature as a “back channel” to supplement its internal conference calls, for lots of reasons (check out the book “Now You See It” for more).  It can be a great way to collect resources, moderate or enrich conversations, or just clarify mis-heard words.
• Flexible. Spend twenty minutes, or two hours.  There’s no commute, and any bit of connection can help you reap bigger rewards.
• Low-commitment. “Should I stay or should I go?”  Whatever you want!  If a Hangout isn’t working for you, say thank-you and peace out.
• High-reward. There’s nothing like in-person contact.  When that’s not an option, video chat is a worthy alternative.  Meet people as they are, where they are.

image credit: k-ideas

I highly recommend trying out a G+ Hangout with a couple of friends to get the hang of it.  If it’s your first time using video chat through Google, you’ll need to download their video feature before jumping in (if you’re doing this at work, you may need to check with an IT person to get this going).  It’s a cozy platform, not terribly demanding once you’re there, but any new technology takes some getting used to.

Once you’re comfortable, here are some suggestions for setting up your first G+ Hangout networking chat:

Find a cool tweet or Facebook post (or heck, G+ post) from someone whose work interests you.  Reply or RT with a comment – begin a one-on-one conversation. If they’re responsive, and it seems fruitful, ask them if they’d like to hangout on G+ sometime, and pick a time.

Shoot a couple messages out to your friends and followers – let them know you’ll be hanging out with X cool person at Y time, and would they like to join?  You may be surprised as to who replies – go with it!

If you’re feeling super-motivated, you can also list your Hangout here.

Let the topic of conversation flow based on the people who come, don’t try to force a topic.  As to structure, it might be useful to try out the three questions community organizers use for engagement:

1. What do you want to do, but haven’t?
2. What’s stopping you, what are your roadblocks?
3. What do you need (resources, ideas, connections) in order to make it happen?

After every conversation, always follow up with everyone who came, connecting them to you AND one another.  Offer some piece of added value – a link to a resource, an additional thought on the conversation, etc. – and see how things grow asynchronously.

Remember: Networking sessions like this may not always reap great benefits for you personally, but they could be serendipitous for the others attending!  Your reward in “closing triangles,” connecting two other people, will be intangible and under-recognized, but deeply valuable to building your network for the future.

It’s unavoidable.  There are drawbacks to G+ Hangouts:

You have to be on Google Plus. Such is life.  But if you already have a Google account, half the work is done for you.  Signing up for Google Plus solely for the sake of the Hangouts is completely acceptable and, in my opinion, highly recommended.

image credit: ricardoromanoff

Technical difficulties. Ugh.  It can, and does, happen with anything technological.  It will happen to you.  But, keep in mind that this is a grand experiment, that we’re all learning together, and that there are always creative ways around technical issues if you can stay positive.   The technology is also changing and improving every day.  It will get better, and easier.

To wrap up, I’ll be hosting at least two informal networking Hangouts a month, and would love for you to join! Find me on G+, Twitter (@miriamjayne), or shoot me an email (mbrosseau@jewishedproject.org) and let me know if you’re interested in trying out this experiment.

So go forth and Hangout!  Have fun, and let us know how it goes!

How are you using G+, and Hangouts in particular?  What have you tried, and what connections have you made?

QR codes are created easily online on any QR generator site by providing the link, text, or other data that you want the code to contain.  I suggest using The QR Project or QR Stuff.com.  Basic QR codes are free from these sites, however customizable QR codes with a company logo or other graphics are available for a fee.

As a student at the University of Virginia, I have seen increased use of QR codes on flyers around grounds.  I can scan a QR code to sign up for the Fight Cancer 5K, ‘like’ Challah for Hunger’s page on Facebook, or find out more information about an organization.  I have walked around grounds and seen students seizing this opportunity, and have also started to use QR codes in my own organization’s marketing approaches.  QR codes are becoming more prevalent by users of smart phones, especially by people in my ‘millenial’ cohort.

I believe that the Jewish community can use QR codes effectively to aid in marketing and communication strategies.  The key to QR codes is they link printed physical material to online material.   So next time you’re printing up a flyer or newsletter, think about where you can include a QR code.  With QR codes, you can:

-Promote your organization creatively: The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) in Canada launched an iWalk mobile challenge where they asked participants to scan a QR code at registration that detailed instructions on two iWalk challenges: a trivia question and a challenge urging participants to take a picture at the event and email it back.  This event gave the UJA website over 500 hits and about fifty people chose to subscribe to receive future UJA event notices, promoting their organization in a creative way.

-Take an active step: TSA at the St. Louis Airport uses QR codes to link people waiting in security lines to their website, download an app that will tell them approximately how long security lines are at different airports, and a page that gives the most up to date information as far as what can be brought through security checkpoints.  Using QR codes in these ways, participants can actively connect to and engage with the organization or cause.

-Network: NTEN put a QR code on each attendee’s name badge at their 2011 Nonprofit Technology Conference with a link to their personal profile and contact information.  Attendees could network and get each other’s contact information by scanning each other’s QR codes.

Organizations are using QR codes creatively to coincide with their organization’s strategy and goals.  They key is creativity and pinpointing how to best utilize them in your organization.  Other examples include:

-On your next event program, put a QR code that allows users to sign up for your future events.

-Place a QR code at your event registration table that attendees scan to donate a specified amount to your organization.

-During your next mailing campaign, add a QR code that has participants start following your organization on Twitter.

Jewish organizations can use QR codes to increase social media in their marketing and communication approaches, shift focus from printed material to online content, and specifically engage those primarily online generations.  QR codes are gaining popularity in the social media world and will be on the scene for a while so start developing some fluency in the use of QR codes and begin to integrate use of them in your organization’s strategies.  It’s easy, cheap and a great opportunity to be (slightly) ahead of the curve!  Try it out and see how your organization will reap the benefits.

Kate Belza is the Darim Online student intern for 2011-12. She is a third year at the University of Virginia, majoring in religious studies with a minor in leadership. She is an active student leader at UVa Hillel, and co-founded a Challah for Hunger chapter at UVa, where they bake and sell challah and donate the proceeds to charity. She also serves as the fundraising chair for Relay for Life at UVa, and is Director of Philanthropy for her sorority, Alpha Phi. Kate serves as a student representative to the UVa Hillel Board of Directors.

1. Focus –  prior to entering the social media arena, zero in on simple and realistic goals.  As opposed to top down planning, it is vital to build personal relationships, be authentic and listen intently to the communal needs.  At Temple Israel in Memphis, we organized heterogeneous focus groups to hear individual thoughts concerning the temple. Based on their insights, a vision was constructed by lay leaders, stating our congregation’s role to connect Jews more deeply to Torah, spiritual fulfillment, community, and tikkun olam.  Using this as the foundation, our temple’s Facebook page, alongside my Rabbi Adam Facebook and Twitter accounts, ultimately connect to our community more deeply and, subsequently, help to drive our attendance, donations, long-term membership, and new member opportunities. While some might disregard this planning stage, successful social media approaches realize the importance of slowing down before speeding up.

2. Grab Attention – getting noticed by our audience is vital to social media success.  In an online world dominated with choices, we need to move away from the predictability.  Too many organizations explain events or communicate information in the exact same way as was done fifty years before – title the event, share the details, expect a crowd.  In the online world, this is not acceptable. Sparking the curiosity of our constituents must be done through innovative and audience centered videos and pictures that personally connect with and elicit an emotional response from our constituency.  Think of the Maccabeats, Yeshiva University’s all-male a cappella group, whose fun, entertaining and unexpected song “Candlelight” became an instant Youtube sensation and now has almost 6 million views.  While by no means the same number of hits, this video from Temple Israel exceeded expectations, generated excitement, and started many conversations about the event.

3. Engage – emotionally invest the community in the organization. One of the best lines of the book is that “to engage, it’s necessary to view yourself (and your effort) as a brand.” In order to do this, we need to tell our stories, which help to define and to build our constituency’s collective memories thus connecting them more deeply to the mission of and take action for the institution.  Answering questions such as what inspires the community, what makes an institutional experience meaningful, and why Jews would want to connect with us gears the online conversation to the community and makes it personal.  In promoting Temple Israel’s Sukkot and Simchat Torah experiences, we redefined them for the community where music became the center.  We ran a fun promotional spot and an online giveaway for autographed CD’s of the artists via Facebook and Twitter. By rethinking the marketing, we have helped our community become more engaged and excited about the experience and the artists.

4. Take action – get the community to act upon your cause by giving their time, money or both.  The most important take away here is to ask for time before money.  Too many Jewish institutions consistently ask for money via membership, programs, events, dinners, etc. and never truly get people vested in the experience.  In order to reverse this trend, it is imperative to actively seek and encourage volunteer participation.  Even though individuals are involved with so many activities, we have to rethink how we invite people to volunteer. Instead of asking them to join time intensive committees, encourage them to work on smaller and tangible projects that value their individual talents, skills and interests. When a group then becomes invested in the organization, social media then becomes a tool for reaching a greater audience and receiving much needed feedback. As one experiments with social media to motivate the community, make it fun and, as our communications director, Isti Bardos, always states, make sure to respond to every message or post for that personal touch helps the audience feel they are actually having a dialogue rather than a monologue.

The Dragonfly Effect provides the tools to captivate an online audience, and then inspire them to actively participate in social change.  The examples and illustrations can help Jewish institutions more fully realize the potential of social media.  By experimenting, having fun and continuing to evaluate results, these four wings can provide Jewish institutions a way to further engage Jews as our world proceeds to advance technologically.

How are you addressing these four wings, and more importantly, how are you getting them to work in congruence with one another?

Rabbi Adam Grossman is the Associated Rabbi of Temple Israel of Memphis.  Rabbi Grossman earned his Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 2008,  a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from The Ohio State University and a Master of Education Administration with a Specialization in Jewish Education from Xavier University.  He is an active user of social media, and contributes to Temple Israel’s effective use of online social tools for engagement and building community.  Follow him on Twitter, and find him on Facebook.