Thank you to everyone that participated in Speak Up America 2014! Over 85,000 students, parents, educators and members of the community spoke up about digital learning this week, and the Speak Up community took on social media by storm with multiple Photo & Video challenge submissions and a Twitter chat with our fabulous CEO, Julie Evans on new and surprising preliminary data findings from this year's surveys.
This year’s survey period has been amazing with over 421,000 surveys already submitted! We still have a week to go, so be sure to participate before the surveys close on Friday, December 19th.
To keep that Speak Up momentum going, we are excited to announce new Speak Up happenings and promotions taking place all next week:
If you haven't already please be sure to take the survey before December 19th! Already taken the survey? Start spreading the word about the survey to your network of friends and family! Word of mouth is always the best promotion, help us expand our reach!
Speak Up America week may be over but the fun is just about to begin! In a special extension of our Speak Up America promotions, our good friends and wonderful sponsors of Speak Up, Blackboard has offered a free BbWorld 2015 conference badge to gift to one lucky Blackboard district during our final week of Speak Up!
Winning is as easy as speaking up! All you need to do is encourage your staff, students, their parents and the local community to participate in Speak Up during the final week of Speak Up. This is a great way to reach out to different audiences that may have a lower participation numbers than you would like, for example to target your K-12 parents, teachers or local community members! The more surveys you get in, the more opportunities you have to win!
In addition to your free BbWorld conference badge, the selected recipient attending the conference will also have the opportunity to join our CEO Julie Evans for dinner in Washington DC. Here’s your chance to pick our CEO Julie Evans’ brain on all things digital learning!
It’s never too early to start getting excited for next year, so go ahead and pencil BbWorld in for July 21-23, 2015 at Gaylord National in Washington, D.C. To learn more about #BbWorld15 and all the great happening from this year’s conference please visit: http://www.blackboard.com/sites/Bbworld14/
*Transportation and housing costs are not included.
Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, and Washington districts turn up the volume and Speak Up!
As part of our Speak Up America campaign, our good friends at NCCE and NETA offered us free conference registrations to their upcoming 2015 conferences. With Speak Up America week coming to a close, we've received quite a few requests for an extension on these popular regional conference registration opportunities. To ensure everyone has a chance to Speak Up we will be extending this great promotion to all district’s in these states so that everyone has the same amazing opportunity to win.
So Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, and Washington get out there and SPEAK UP! Be sure to assign a primary contact to your school or district, otherwise we will have no way of contact you and more importantly we'll have no way to send you your 2014 Speak Up data results come Feb. 2015!
Know an educator in one of these states? Please help spread the word, and pass along information about this great opportunity. Learn more about these great conference registrations below:
Nebraska Districts: Mark your calendars for April 23rd-24th and be “On the Move” for the 2015 NETA Spring Conference with an opportunity to win a free conference registration for one lucky member of your team ($125 value). Our friends at NETA have offered a free conference registration to one lucky district in the state, all you need to do is encourage your schools to participate in Speak Up during the final week of Speak Up! The more surveys you get in, the more chances to you have to win! Learn more about the NETA conference and all of its great offerings here.
*Transportation and housing costs are not included.
Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington Districts: Our friends at the Northwest Council for Computer Education have graciously offered a free NCCE conference registration ($375 value) for their upcoming March 2015 conference in Portland, Oregon. Like our other free registration opportunities, all you need to do to enter is encourage your staff, students, parents, and the local community to participate in Speak Up. Each survey from your district acts as an entry into the contest – the more surveys taken in your district, the more chances you will have to win! Learn more about the conference and all its great offerings here. Also be sure to check out NCCE’s Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog at: http://blog.ncce.org/.
*Transportation and housing costs are not included.
Photo and Video Challenge Extended through Wednesday, December 17th!
Thank you to all who have submitted their #SpeakUpsnapshot photos this week! On Monday we will be choosing one winner from this week’s photo challenge entries to receive a $250 classroom/school grant.
Due to multiple requests, we have decided to extend the photo and video challenge through Wednesday, December 17th. We understand that many of you plan on participating in Speak Up next week and we wanted to give everyone an equal opportunity to win. Therefore, all photo and video entries submitted next week through Wednesday, December 17th by 12PM ET will be entered into a separate contest with a total of four opportunities to win $225 in classroom or school grants! With more opportunities to win, receiving $225 in classroom or school grants has never been easier – so get your cameras ready and submit your photos and videos today!
Winning a $225 grant has never been easier! All you need to do is take a picture with the Speak Up America 2014 Badge highlighting your Speak Up experience and upload the photo to one of our social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) or the photo challenge page. All pictures submitted through Wednesday, December 17th will be entered into a contest with up to four opportunities to win $225, so get your cameras out and shoot a photo showing you and your students Speaking Up!
We want to see you and your class “Speak Up” in action! In our social media video challenge, Project Tomorrow wants to know:
"Why is using digital tools for learning important for your (students’) future?"
All you need to do is create a short 15-30 second video answering the question above. Use this opportunity to get your class involved by making this into a class project. Submissions can come in the form of videos, animations (PowToon), slideshows, voice snippets and more! The more creative the better!
All videos submitted next week will be entered into our special Speak Up challenge contest extension, with opportunities to win a $225 grant! With only three videos submitted so far, your chances of winning have never been higher!
*All submissions already entered into the contest will also be included in next week's contest.
Daily Speak Up 2014 Preliminary data snapshots
In celebration of our Speak Up America, we pulled a special snapshot of preliminary data for students, parents, teachers, librarians and principals. Each day, during Speak Up America Week, we released a special video infographic on NEW Speak Up findings. Check out each snapshot below:
With one week to go there is still plenty of time to get the word out about Speak Up. If you just registered your district or are looking for new ways to promote the survey how about trying one of these ideas:
▪ Host a Speak Up Day: Pick a day in December to have your K-12 community complete the Speak Up Surveys! ▪ Focus on one survey type: Each survey receives their own data set with national comparisons (k-2, 3-5, 6-8,9-12, parent, teacher etc.) a focus on teachers, parents and/or administrators is an easy push and a great way to receive a meaningful dataset. Some recommendations would be to send an email or phone recording to parents or email blast to your teachers. Click here for a variety of sample emails. ▪ Highlight the Speak Up survey on your website using one of our Speak Up logos (with a link to the survey). Click here for the code to embed on your website. Make sure to include your survey password! ▪ Use social media networks such as facebook or twitter to get the word out about Speak Up to your stakeholders. Try retweeting one of our @speakuped tweets or post these sample tweets, just click on Tweet this!:
Participate in Speak Up and share your ideas about how to leverage technology in schools to promote better learning: bit.ly/SU14survey >>> Tweet This!
Join the #edtech conversation and share your viewpoints on 21st century education with @SpeakUpEd: http://bit.ly/SU14survey >>> Tweet This!
23 questions + 15 minutes of your time = valuable research for the education community! Take the survey today @ http://bit.ly/SU14survey >>> Tweet This!
Are you “Speaking Up” about digital learning this year? Make your voice heard participate in Speak Up 2014 at http://bit.ly/SU14survey >>> Tweet This!
Participate in Speak Up and share your thoughts and views on the importance of education within your community http://bit.ly/SU14survey >>> Tweet This!
There’s still time to experience the value of #SpeakUp by collecting &using the data to garner support for your key technology initiatives! >>> Tweet This!
Reminder to fill out your @SpeakUpEd Survey 2014 by Dec. 19! Don't miss your opportunity to Speak Up! http://bit.ly/SU14survey >>> Tweet This!
Many thanks to our sponsors and partners for the support of Speak Up 2014: Blackboard Inc., BrainPOP, K12, DreamBox Learning, Schoolwires, SMART Technologies, Rosetta Stone, American Association of School Administrators, Consortium for School Networking, Digital Learning Day, Digital Promise, edWeb, International Association for K-12 Online Learning, International Society for Technology in Education, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National School Boards Association, Secondary Education Teachers’ Association, and the Southern Regional Education Board.
