General
Advice for Macintosh-using Educators
Ten
Steps to forming a Mac User Group at your K-12 School
by Bill
Palmer
So
you're the tech specialist or resident geek at your K-12 school,
and you're also a Mac fanatic. You believe that your staff would
be more likely to put your school's Mac computers to good use
if only they had a better understanding of the Mac platform,
but you're not sure how to go about making that happen. Hey,
I've been there. When I first joined my elementary school, I
was the only Mac user on campus! By the time I left five years
later, not only was the staff embracing the Macs on campus and
excited to put them to use...several of them had switched to
the Mac at home as well. It takes a lot of hard work, but trust
me, it can be done.
I
had to do it alone at my school, but you don't have to suffer
the same fate. By working with the Billpalmer.net Online MUG,
you can create a
local MUG
chapter at your school, for the benefit of your
own faculty and staff. Here's ten steps that will get you well
on
your way to enlightening your coworkers about the benefits
of the Macintosh, and enhancing your school's technology program
in the process:
1.
Get signed up. What you're doing is creating a local
chapter of the billpalmer.net online MUG at your school, so
the first thing you'll want to do is become a member of the
MUG yourself. You can do that by going
here. Once you've become a member, send a separate email
to MUG@billpalmer.net stating
that you want to form a local chapter at your school. If you
have a small school or staff, you might want to create one
local chapter for multiple schools in your neighborhood. On
a monthly basis, I'll send out suggested meeting topics, printable
resources...and I'll always be available to you for any assistance
you need in building your group.
2. Get
the OK from above. Notify your principal or director
that you
plan
to
create a Mac User Group chapter at your school. Work with him or her to determine
whether
it
is more appropriate to hold group meetings during school hours,
or on employees' own time; on campus, or at a staff member's
house; open to spouses and family members, or limited strictly
to staff members. Set up clear parameters for your user group
ahead of time.
3. Choose
when to meet. Work with the most tech-savvy
members of your staff to determine when the best time will be
to hold
monthly
meetings. Once you
choose a day and time, be sure to consistently stick with it
every month. Changing up the dates and times will only confuse
people.
4. Publicize! Advertise your group's first meeting
unabashedly. Send an email to the whole staff, put up a sign
in the faculty
lounge, and
get as many people to commit to attending the first meeting as
possible. Because this is a new endeavor, be sure to offer food
or snacks of some kind at the first meeting -- and be sure to
advertise the fact that food will be offered!
5.
Rationalize. Make
sure that your staff realizes that even if they don't use a
Mac at home, they are all Mac users
by virtue
of using one
at school. Split the topics of your meetings evenly between
issues that are specific to educational technology (new gradebook
software, for instance), and broader issues that concern the
platform at large (the iTunes Music Store, for example). This
way, you provide attendees with both something that they can
put to use immediately, and a healthy dose of Mac enlightenment.
6. Get a speaker. Line up guest speakers for
your meetings. Think local: your three best potential sources
for
a guest
speaker are your
district's Apple Education Rep, the Apple Rep at the local
CompUSA, and the manager of the Apple Store. In many cases you
will find
them to be surprisingly helpful when it comes to helping to
plan meetings, making presentations, etc.
7. Get
them signed up.At your first meeting, let
attendees know that your group is a local chapter of an officially
recognized
Apple User Group,
and that in order to get the most out of the group, they should
join the billpalmer.net MUG so that they will receive the monthly
newsletter, opportunities for discounts, etc. In order to make
it easier on them, simply place a checkbox on the sign-in sheet
that gives you permission to register them with the billpalmer.net
MUG. There's no need for you to type each of their entries into
the billpalmer.net membership form; just send a list of names
and
addresses to MUG@billpalmer.net.
You can send it directly in an email, or as an attachment from
your favorite word processor.
8.
Join in on the monthly iChat meetings. You'll want
to participate in the general monthly online "meeting", held
the first Monday evening of each month at 7:00 pm EST via iChat
and AOL Instant Messenger. And you'll want to encourage as
many of your members as possible to join in on the "special
interest meeting" just for Mac-using educators, held the second
Monday of each month at 7:00 pm EST. This is their opportunity
to communicate directly with other educators around the world
to share experiences with using Macs in the classroom, etc.
9.
Share your success! Whenever
your local chapter has a meeting or event, send the good
news to MUG@billpalmer.net so
that it can be shared with other members! Remember, no amount
of success is too small. If you want to send stories or photos
that can be used as part of a webpage dedicated to your local
chapter, feel free.
10.
Get your Mac on. While the "official" reason for
starting a MUG chapter at your school is simply to enlighten
the faculty about getting the most out of the Macs on campus,
various opportunities will arise for you to make converts out
of your staff. The more that they are exposed to the many exciting
aspects of the Mac platform, the more likely they will be to
switch to the Mac at home, and the more likely they will be
to fight to keep your school all-Mac, if the issue
ever arises. In other words, everyone wins.
If
you're ready to create a local chapter of the billpalmer.net
online MUG at your school, or if you simply want more information
or have questions, write to MUG@billpalmer.net.
In the mean time, be sure to sign yourself
up for the online
MUG so that you can begin receiving updates and get in on the
action.
Click
here to return to...billpalmer.net/educators
