Sustainability Education at a Tipping Point in the Tertiary Sector

A tipping point towards education for sustainability may have been reached in the tertiary sector in the South Island as institutions move quickly to explore, and in some cases, implement cross curricular education for sustainability.

Tertiary education institutions have traditional organised learning through disciplinary models of teaching and learning making it difficult to implement interdisciplinary learning around complex social issues like sustainability. Despite this limitation there is an emerging focus on content related to sustainability in both the Polytechnic and University sector.

Over the last two years the Otago Polytechnic has worked quickly to implement the concept of all graduates as sustainable practitioners. The upshot has resulted in a redesign of qualifications and course statements, student profiles, student outcomes, assessment and the teaching and learning process to address sustainability education. Much of this change is focused on a more cross-disciplinary learning process that is beginning to challenge traditional organisational structures.

CPIT in Christchurch is currently reviewing the impact of education for sustainability across the institution to determine next steps. Furthermore, both the University of Otago and Canterbury University have established terms of reference for cross-institutional management teams to review and report back on the implications of how to manage education for sustainability in each organisation.

Watch this space! We might see some new opportunities emerge from the tertiary sector over the next couple of years!

Barry

Image source: Otago University

Twitter, why have you abandoned me?

I was one of the late starters of Twitter. While I knew of its existence, it wasn’t until end of last year (or was it early in January?) that I opened an account with Twitter as @mrsgooding and within a week, I was hooked.

The problem with being hooked with something you like is when the source of the addiction is withheld from you against your will, you get symptoms of withdrawal and in my Twitter addiction case, I am currently getting Twitdrawal symptoms.

Why did I get suspended you asked?  My account @mrsgooding got suspended on 6 August when Twitter experienced the ongoing Denial of Service Attack on their system. I didn’t really know that my account got suspended till I got home and logged on to Tweetdeck and find my account is ‘not authorized’. At the time of my suspension, I had around about 600 followers and I was following around 400 tweeps. Now, they’re all showing 0.

Logged on to Twitter and find that my account was suspended for malicious activity due to this tweet:

*”Hey evry1, peep http://ThursdayProfit.org <http://thursdayprofit.org/>; ! ez way to make some extra cash!”*

Funnily enough, I only knew about this tweet when I checked my Facebook account as all my tweets automatically fed to my Facebook status. Since that fateful day on 6 Aug, I have done the following to get my account re-instated.

1. I did the first thing recommended by Twitter Support and that is, to lodge a request to get my account re-instated:

I followed this up with a couple more explanations:

and another pitiful request:

It has been 10 days since I lodged my original request. The request has been assigned to ‘Tiger‘ and I have not received a single response or activity.

2. Since I was getting no joy from the request above, I also tweeted the following using our corporate account @shannonsway_nz: @ev, @twitter, @spam hoping to get a response out of them but nada. Nuttin’.

3. At the same time I tweeted @ev, @twitter and @spam, I also left a comment on TwiTip hoping to get advise from them on the best way to get a response out of Twitter. At time of this writing, I haven’t received any response back from TwiTip.

4. I posted a request for help at the NZ Social Media Network hoping that someone has a bright idea on what else I could do for Twitter to lift my suspension. From this thread, Simon Young told me about a similar incident that happened to a Local Council employee in the UK that was featured in Simon Wakeman’s blog. Fortunately for Alastair Smith, his account @alncl got reinstated.

5. I also left a comment on Simon Wakeman’s blog regarding my plight but have received no response so far.

6. As a last resort, I lodged another request with Twitter via email hoping that they might notice my request for action but nothing as well.

All in all, it’s been close to 2 weeks since my account got suspended and I’ve yet to hear from Twitter regarding my account.

What I’ve learnt from this? As a social media consultant, it poses a risks for professionals like myself and the clients I manage to rely on social media platforms like Twitter for their communication strategies. The service that Twitter offers is free and given that, they can pull the rug under any of its users and all we could do is protest. We could protest all we want but Twitter is not bound to its community to provide ongoing service. Why should they when they provide this service for free.

All I could hope for now is for Twitter to take notice of my request and lift my account’s suspension. Until then, my account is lost in cyber oblivion. I know, I know, I could start from scratch but just thinking about creating @mrsgooding version 2 is giving me a headache.

If you happen to read this, I’d like to request that you forward this to your friends, re-tweet it with the hope that this post will fall in the right people who can then action it and allow @mrsgooding to roam free again.

Please HELP ME FREE @mrsgooding.

Sigh. I miss Twitter.

Newspapers going out of print soon?

The recent coverage in the Press around the trials and tribulations of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire brings out of the closet what a number of us have known for some time …..the traditional newspaper business model he has championed for half a century plus is on the skids and potentially going the way of the dinosaur…..into extinction.

The problem is that more and more readers are getting their daily news fix online without the need to buy a newspaper.  Now while the cost of the paper at the newsagent or your 3 monthly home delivery subscription only goes some way to cover the cost of producing your daily read, it doesn’t cover the cost of producing quality journalism.  That is why advertising revenue is so critical to the papers.

While advertising revenue has been steadily dwindling away, lost to online placements, it has been the current economic crisis that has accelerated the plight. The traditional newspaper publishers like Murdoch find themselves in as the lower level of economic activity has seen a savage fall off in placements for jobs, cars and houses. Ultimately though it will be the new paradigm of advertisers increasingly using digital platforms that will stuff the old newspaper business model because it is already clear that editorial content and the news itself follows the advertising bow wave.

So Murdoch has floated the idea of charging his online readers to get access to online newspaper copy. His suggestion at this stage is aimed not at his readers however but at his competitors to get them to do the same. Even if he is successful, there has to be an overwhelming doubt that such a rare show of oneness will be sufficient to even slow what appears to be the irresistible force of the digital revolution which is threatening to be the new business model that mortally wounds its predecessor.

News Corp’s recent announcement of a 32% fall in its latest full year profit suggests that at least some injuries have already been inflicted.

From our experience at Shannon’s Way the news is not the only thing that is increasingly going digital…..we are finding strong interest from all sorts of clients in learning how they can complement their traditional offline social marketing messages with online social media activity which can help them reach new audiences as well as their traditional customers cost effectively. As well as corporate clients, we are finding strong interest from the education, local government and not for profit sectors.

What do you think? Are newspapers endangered species?

Image source: sxc.hu

Christchurch Super City?

The current debate that is raging in Auckland about the pros and cons of becoming a ‘SuperCity‘ has spilled over in the last week or so into speculation that other cities around New Zealand may want to put their hand up to be supersized.

Now this discussion is nothing new for Wellington with their city leader indicating earlier in the process that perhaps an upsizing to cover off at least the Southern ends of the Wairarapa might not be a bad thing, particularly for regional stuff like water and roads.

But what about Christchurch?  We were all warned 20 years ago about the dire consequences that would result from including Waimairi, Riccarton and others into Christchurch City but 6 months on no one remembered what it was like in the good ol’ days before the amalgamation.

Similarly, Queenstown was going to become a democratic wasteland a couple of years ago if amalgamation went ahead and most would agree they haven’t looked back afterwards either.

So what about Christchurch?  The Urban Development Strategy already includes significant parts of Selwyn and Waimakariri Districts alongside Christchurch recognising that for many service delivery functions they collectively form Greater Christchurch.  Many would argue why not formalise the reality?  Of course the Regional Council is also a signatory to the UDS – under a merged up model what would they do?  Indeed would they be superfluous?

The other debate being promoted by Rodney Hide, the Local Government Minister, is to get local Councils, whether they be super or otherwise, to just stick to water, roads and sewerage and keep out of social, environment and economic issues – but that’s a debate for another post.

What do you think?

Chris

Image source: cdc.org.nz

Are NZ’s carbon emissions worth reducing?

I believe it is! If we don’t make a serious effort now and radically reduce our CO2 emissions, the cost in the future could mean that future generations will not be able to meet their needs.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to see the movie ‘Earth’.  The movie explores the pressure on biodiversity from the Arctic, through the perma frost, northern forests, the Himalayas, the tropics, through Africa to the Antarctic.  It investigates fragile ecosystems, changing landscapes and the effects of global warming on our planet.  The movie offers some wonderful scenery, but didn’t really connect me visually to the problems causing global warming.

However, following the movie the news on TV3 showed the effects of sea level rise experienced by one journalist in the Cook Islands. The sea wall around her home was eroding and her only hope was to move to higher ground. Not an easy feat for some people in the Pacific when you understand that their homes are on atolls that are only 2-3 metres above sea level.  The female journalist has become an active participant in the climate change debate because sea level rise is directly affecting her family and local community.

The journalist’s concern about sea level rise, along with the movie ‘Earth’ highlighted my concern about what we are doing in New Zealand to reduce our own CO2 emissions.  It raised the question; what level of reduction will our government commit to at the Copenhagen Summit in December?

Dr Nick Smith commented over the weekend that a carbon emissions reduction is the “biggest environmental challenge of our generation” and that New Zealanders will have to do their bit and “set a serious reduction target”, all good news.  However, it will be interesting to see how serious the government is, and if they consider the long term environmental, social, economic and political consequences in their decision. Or, does realistic and achievable targets mean, what is achievable economically?

What do you think?

Image source: greenchicgeek.blogspot.com

Tips for Surviving the Recession

On the off chance that there’s still a bit of recession still to go we thought we’d share with you what we did fledgling start up to make sure we’d still be around to fight another day.

Some of the pointers that follow are from SME Survival 101. Others are based on our experience over the last 12 months, some of which was in hindsight a bit trial and error.

So here we go:

• As a cash and carry business, cash is king so you have to know where it’s coming from to pay the bill – you need an idea of cash flow three months out.
• Batter down the hatches; when your customers are not spending, it’s a good idea to follow their example! So keep going to the dairy for the bread and milk but pass up on the chocolate!
• For a start up like us it was important to get same runs on the board with clients you want to form long term relationship with – you need reference sites to show to potential clients.
• You’re in for the long haul so if you have to in the short term cut back your drawings if you can. Often the business needs the money more than you to survive.
• Don’t fret too much when the work dries up for a wee while. Use the time to develop and test new products and services to ready you for the post recession business opportunities that will appear as clients start spending again.
• Finally and easy to say I know but learn to laugh and don’t stress out too much – afterall it’s only a job! Yeah right!

All for you, talk to you again soon.

Chris & Chris

Image credit: sxc.hu

Happy 1st Birthday to Us!

It’s been a year since Shannon’s Way (NZ) opened its doors in New Zealand and what a year it has been!

Starting up a business in the year when the global economy was at its worst since the 1929 Depression proved to be a huge risk. Of course, we didn’t know that when we were planning for the opening. We finalised negotiations in March 2008 and opened on 1st July of the same year. By September, the signs of an impending plunge into recession were imminent. The global downturn was here. Literally.

But still we persevered because like many small businesses, we really didn’t have a choice! The challenges seemed to be too many to count and the wins only slowly trickled in. However, things took a turn for the better in the second half of our financial year of 2008-09 so here we are still in business and we couldn’t be happier

We’d also like to thank our Australian business partners, Shannon’s Way Pty for believing in us. You guys have been great! We look forward to progressing the opportunities across the ditch that we have identified which point to exciting stuff for the Shannon’s Way Group on the horizon!

To our clients, a big thanks to you. Thank you for believing in us. We look forward to continuing to work with you in the months and years to come.

To our team at Shannon’s Way (NZ) — Ange, Barry and Pierre — thanks for the great company, the laughs and hard work. We look forward to growing the business with you!

Till the next update.

Chris & Chris

Welcome to the Shannon’s Way Blog

Hello there!

Thanks for visiting our blog.

Shannon’s Way is a social marketing communications company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with branches in Adelaide, Australia and Christchurch, New Zealand.

In this blog, we will share our thoughts, opinion and experience not only in the field of social marketing but our expertise in various tools that we use — research, strategy development, social media, evaluation and all that.

If you want to know more about us, feel free to visit our corporate sites:

Main: Shannon’s Way

New Zealand: Shannon’s Way (NZ)