Higher Education has had a bumpy ride through the Age of Disruption. On one hand, digital tools allow endless resources. Innovation has created opportunities for greater access to education through online courses and endless points of contact for communication and collaboration.
As described on the Purdue University website, “Students in a classroom in the rural U.S., for example, can learn about the Arctic by following the expedition of a team of scientists in the region, read scientists’ blog posting, view photos, e-mail questions to the scientists, and even talk live with the scientists via a videoconference. Students can share what they are learning with students in other classrooms in other states who are tracking the same expedition. Students can collaborate on group projects using technology-based tools such as wikis and Google docs. The walls of the classrooms are no longer a barrier as technology enables new ways of learning, communicating, and working collaboratively.” They go on to describe the change in the roll of the teacher from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side.”
Rather than dictating and lecturing, the professor and other school leadership are there to disseminate the information and guide the students through the education process. This is a critical piece of value in education, as students move into the adult world where knowing how to sort through endless information critically, is invaluable. Scott Skypes in to college classrooms using one of our books as a textbook all the time. It’s one of his favourite way to connect with readers and see how students are learning from our work.
As in other industries, digital innovations have empowered education consumers - students - to share their experiences. When we were choosing schools, we only had an annual magazine rating to look toward, now there are online reviews for everything from classes, professors, housing and even meal plans - and University President Twitter accounts of course.
When a snowstorm hit the University of Kentucky campus, students went online to share their snow stories and Devan Dannelly, @DADannelly11 on Twitter, decided to see if he could get out of class the next day.
If you’re the President of a large University and one of your students tweets this to you, what do you do? You could certainly ignore him, or maybe you have an automated reply for all tweets to you, something like, “Thank you for reaching out, please call the Office of the President at…” Well, Michael Benson, decided to go a different way.
Great, right? The thing is, he didn’t just reply. He went, shovelled the snow and posted a picture of him with Devan’s mom!
Seriously, how awesome is that dog!?
True to his word, and with proof in hand, Devan didn’t have much choice. He showed up at class the next day as promised and shared some proof of his own.
We absolutely love this story. We love it because President Benson is fun and kind and takes the time to connect with his students. We love it because he uses Twitter to reply and show Davan that he is valued as a student, as part of the college community, and as a person. This wasn’t a community building campaign, or one time thing, Mr. Benson’s Twitter feed is full of amazing photos of him with happy students, excited to meet him. The best part of the story, is how it inspired others to connect and help one another.
Someone is Mr. Benson’s position usually has a lot of gatekeepers between him and his students, and in our experience those gatekeepers are there for a really good reason. If your CEO, or dean, is used to being able to say whatever they want - no matter how offensive - then giving them access to a platform as reactionary as Twitter, is probably not a good idea. In fact, don’t let them answer the phone either. Or talk to people…
When Scott reached out to Mr. Benson to ask him how we manages social media in such a refreshing way, he replied that “they were there to serve the students.” This is our lesson here - leadership as service, in the truest sense of the word, is immeasurably valuable. It fosters community within your organization, creates loyalty and defines your brand. With Mr. Benson, we see the potential for Twitter to facilitate community, and to share this community with others. By speaking to students respectfully and getting out and meeting them (and their moms and awesome dogs) he sets a wonderful example of what school leadership should look like. This is the kind of school we would have wanted to go to and the kind of school we want for our children.