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For the last several years at the HI-TEC conference a group of ATE grantees have shared tips, techniques, and tools that support dissemination and outreach. The ideas and strategies shared are created by and for ATE grantees, are designed to help broaden the impact of project and center work, and are free for anyone to use.  It’s always a great session but of course we only reach HI-TEC attendees; so after this year’s conference I thought it would be helpful to put together some of the information from the session to share with the rest of the community.

Communicate
Getting your message out though newsletters and press releases

Marilyn Barger, FLATE

FLATE (The Florida Advanced Technological Education) is an NSF Center of Excellence in high-technology manufacturing focusing on manufacturing and advanced technical education and providing best practices and resources that support the high performance skilled workforce for Florida’s manufacturing sectors. FLATE provides exemplary industry partnerships, workforce opportunity, and educational synergy throughout the state of Florida by connecting industry and workforce needs to targeted educational endeavors at many community and state colleges across Florida.  On FLATE’s site you can access their blog and newsletter, media kit and loads of other valuable materials.  Make sure to also check out their Made in Florida site.

Expert Tips:

• Communicate regularly – finding good content for your newsletters or blogs is critical (there is a reason for the phrase “content is king”) so staying in touch your partners and stakeholders is a great way to find out about new stories, sites, research and opportunities for the rest of your audience.   
• Be professional – don’t underestimate the power of politeness and timeliness.  Make sure you follow up with stakeholders; double check your facts in stories; remember to thank contributors.   
• Leverage content – If you create a long blog post use a shorter version or a teaser in your newsletter, social media, or on the front page of your website and then link to the longer version.  It takes time to create good content; make the most of it!
• Share your stakeholder's successes – remember that it’s not just about you! By highlighting the success of others you help broaden impact, show the strength of the larger community, and encourage deep collaboration. 

Inform
Using webinars to reach you audience

Mike Lesiecki, MATEC NETWORKS

NETWORKS is an ATE National Resource Center funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation. They provide venues for creating, sharing, and promoting digital resources and faculty professional development for semiconductor manufacturing, automation, electronics, and micro– nanotechnologies. Their digital library contains classroom ready resources that are current, relevant, and easy to implement into curriculum. They also provide free online webinars, blog posts, and their @MATEC Newsletter providing up-to-date information and resources related to emerging technologies and educational issues. NETWORKS also offer a fee-based webinar service used by many of us in the ATE community providing assistance and guidance to create your own webinars including rehearsal time.

Expert Tips:

• Prep time is critical – don't underestimate the time involved in the preparation of making a good webinar, it’s important to rehearse and work with all your presenters before the big day.
• Create new content – don't just recycle a power point presentation you gave in front of an audience – think of they webinar as a radio show with pictures
• Limit text – Make your slides visually appealing – use more pictures and less text
• Engage, engage, engage – use every option to increase interactivity and engage your audience

Connect
Exemplary educator resources and professional development opportunities

Elaine Craft, TeachingTechnicians.org

TeachingTechnicians.org is provided by the SC ATE National Resource Center for Expanding Excellence in Technician Education and provides resources and events related to professional development for STEM educators. The event postings and notifications help broaden the impact of all ATE grantees by announcing faculty development opportunities being offered as part of grant-funded activities nationally. This SC ATE Center website helps connect educators to a host of valuable resources and activities designed to support teaching and learning and increase awareness and participation. Successful practices and resources are broadly shared to promote program improvement, resource development, and useful evaluation.  With their long history of creating, hosting and promoting professional development events the information on their site, the SC ATE Center will help you as you develop or pursue related activities.  Make sure to check out their sister sites – Mentor-Connect.org and SCATE.org.

Expert Tips:

• Find opportunities – given the diverse number of events listed on this site you’ll be able to find a wide range of professional development opportunities; check back frequently as events are updated often.
• Disseminate your own activities – this is a great resource for promoting your own activities; use their online template to easily summit your activity or event.
• Discover and share best practices – an array of materials and other resources will help you make sure you’re adhering to best practice; you can pass these materials along to others in your community and use them to polish your own events!

Broadcast
Making the most of video

Anthony Manupelli, atetv.org

ATETV.org is a free resource that currently features more than 200 video segments that can be used for student recruitment. ATETV connects students and educators with prospective employers in technical fields. Educators, students, parents, school counselors, and others visit ATET.org, its blog or its YouTube channel to learn about technician education, opportunities, preparation, and real-world careers.  

Expert Tips:

• Search or Browse to find useful videos – ATETV provides various ways to search and sort through all their videos so you can find just what you need.
• Embed ATETV videos – put videos directly onto your own Web sites and within PowerPoint presentations. You can use them for recruitment, to educate audiences on technician education, and to help career opportunities. 
• Looking ahead – A bilingual series of recruitment videos featuring Hispanic and Latino students will be added to the site in October.

Reach Out
Outreach tools and strategies from ATE Central

Rachael Bower, atecentral.net

ATE Central acts as an information hub for the ATE community, with a resource rich web portal and integrated set of tools, services, and publications designed to support the community and showcase the depth and breadth of the ATE program. You’ll find great resources on the ATE Central portal to help strengthen and amplify the work of your ATE project or center and share the valuable work you’re doing with the rest of the community and beyond.  

Expert Tips:

• Put your audience first – spend some time with your team thinking about all the possible audiences for your materials; hone in on your primary audience and then get creative.  Remember your funders, industry collaborators, educators from programs in related fields, professional associations, etc.
• Plan for dissemination – come with a realistic plan for how you’ll spread the word – each week, each month, each year.  Target the audiences you identified and figure out how to best reach them.  The ATE Central Outreach Kit can help as you plan.
• Be strategic about social media – consider your audience and how they use social media, learn as much as you can about which tools they use; engage your students and get them to help with posts and tweets.  Check out the ATE Social Media Directory to connect to others in the community through social media.
• Consider access and accessibility issues – you want your resources and activities to be accessible to all members of your audience.  Check out online resources like these wonderful tools from CAST or see if there is help on your campus.  Remember that you want to make sure your work stays available after funding ends – check out the ATE Central Archiving Service for more information.