I Want My School TV

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November 27, 2013 by Brad Currie

Do you remember the song “Money For Nothing” by Dire Straits in the 1980s? One of the lines from the Grammy Award winning hit went a little something like this….. “I Want My MTV.” Well that is exactly how I felt recently and wanted to share my story.

Way back in August a good friend of mine, Jimmy Casas, tweeted out a picture of a television monitor that Bettendorf High School in Iowa installed in one of their main corridors. The purpose you may ask? Simply put, to promote student and staff achievements and inform stakeholders of important information. Utilizing Twitter, text messaging, and Gmail with Jimmy, I was able to gain better insight on how Bettendorf High School uses this powerful public relations tool. It would be my mission for the months thereafter to develop a game plan and acquire funding in order secure a similar television monitor at Black River Middle School.

Fast forward to November and Black River Middle School in Chester, NJ now has a SmartTV that is located on the wall in the main entrance hallway. Our wonderful PTO graciously purchased this device and it has generated a lot of buzz throughout the school community. For now, I control the content using ChromeCast and a ChromeBook. Looking into the future, I see our students taking control of this device so that they can tell their story. Each day school stakeholders are greeted with a good morning message and motivational quote. As the day goes on student pictures, school work, announcements, video footage, and social media feeds are displayed.

The pride and joy that permeates the building from telling our story through this media device can not be explained in words. The entire process was made possible through the connections I have made on Twitter. From the actual idea all the way to the specific details involved in how the TV would be set up were made possible from a relationship I have with Jimmy. The support from administration, our spectacular Parent Teacher Organization, and the unbelievable maintenance staff made my dream a reality. It was a team effort through and through, and will ensure our school’s story is told for many years to come.

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