It's now time for members' statements. I recognize the member for Mishkegawak James Bay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The members of Moose Creek First Nations are concerned about a type of backroom deal this government does. On January 30th, the Ministry of Energy Northern Development Mines awarded Nairobi Mental Inc. an exploration permit for drilling and eventually developing a Naiobium mine. The exploration is to take place on the shore of the South Bluff Creek watershed by the North French River in the James Bay area. The area in question plays a critical role in the lives of the Moose Creek for spiritual, cultural and environmental reasons. At the time, and again, they have made it very clear that the opposition to this drilling project. Mr. Speaker, a Moose Creek opposition to this mining exploration development in the era is not new. In 2003, a different company tried to drill in these sensitive wetlands and the community said no. Now the Conservatives are bluntly approving an exploration permit with no serious consultation with Moose Creek Chief and Council. Their right to oppose the drilling must be respected, Mr. Speaker. We are talking about an extremely sensitive ecosystem with one of the very few untouched watersheds in Ontario. People drink directly from the water source. Let me make one thing very clear. The role of the Minister of Energy and Development of Mine is not to issue exploration permit as he pleases. His role is to consult, mediate, fact check, project, especially those that are as sensitive as the South Bluff Creek watershed. Thank you. Thank you. Member Statements. Member for Peterborough Corathon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to talk about an event that we had in Peterborough just a couple of weeks ago. It was held by the Humane Society of Peterborough. It's called the Furball Gala. The Humane Society has started a project to construct a new building for it on seven acres. We're really excited about this because it'll give enough land that it'll be an area for the pets, the dogs, the cats to explore outside. We raised 50,000 at the Furball Gala. One key thing I'd like to talk to you about, though, from that event, we had a specific fundraiser referred to as Snoopy's Balls. They are Christmas ornaments that have been decorated for cats and dogs. And it's named after Sue Dunkley, the organizer of the event. It's named after her dog Snoopy. 82% of women who have a pet that are in a domestic violence situation refuse to leave for fear of what will happen to their pet. Snoopy's Balls, that fundraiser, provides a safe night for the pet of a woman trying to escape domestic violence. I think it's a fabulous fundraiser. I'd like to see more people do those types of things because it does so much for our community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Member Statements, the Member for Oshawa. I stand today in solidarity with teachers, education workers, students and parents who know that our children deserve a quality education in our provincial schools. I was a teacher for over 10 years and was proud to do some of the most rewarding, important work that I will ever do, helping our children reach their full potential. Our educators and education workers love what they do and should be appreciated and supported.  Well, they aren't. Is this government incapable of recognizing the need to invest in our schools and students? We have a $16 billion repair backlog. This government is ripping funding away from families of children with autism who will be funneled from needs-based therapy into our schools without transitions and without support. And this Premier thinks the way to improve is to cut. Here are some constituent thoughts for the Premier. Tracy says, quote, Austerity measures are never an excuse for harming our most vulnerable population, our children. Your proposed changes are inequitable and dangerous. Christina says, with class sizes increasing, online courses being mandatory in the threat of removing university-educated teachers from K-3 that only means one thing for me, my job, which I love is at risk. Melanie says, this isn't what's best for our children. I support low class sizes for all Ontario students and implore you to consult before making such sweeping changes. Stephen invites. I would love if some politicians came into my class to get a firsthand account of education. Tammy says, we can't afford to find efficiencies at the expense of students by taking teachers and support staff out of classrooms and cutting funding for programs that help kids thrive. Our schools are the heart of our communities and of our democracy and must be fully funded now. Speaker, this Premier must stop the cuts to education and start caring about our future. Thank you, Member Statements. Member for Perry Salma School. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to recognize the volunteers who made the Ontario 55 plus winter games happen earlier this month in Huntsville, Muskoka. 898 Ontarians between age 55 and 86 came together in friendly competition to encourage healthy, active lifestyles. They took part in alpine and cross country skiing, skating, badminton, volleyball, table tennis, hockey, curling, bowling and duplicate bridge. Events like this don't come together without a lot of hard work. I want to thank the organizing committee chair, Fran Coleman and General Manager Sherry Renaud for all their work. I also want to thank volunteer co-chairs Wendy McConnell and Ruth Ann Cook, events chair Kelly Haywood, sport technical co-chairs John Cowan and Jonathan Percival, accommodation co-chairs Steve Carr and Jennifer Brockett and medical co-chairs Emma Love and Angie Paulson. The work of these volunteers was supported by local businesses including Gold Sponsor, Drive Muskoka dealerships, Silver Sponsors, Your TV and Hunters Bay Radio Bronze, Sponsors Downtown Huntsville BIA and Lake Abays Brewery and Bullock's Independent Grocer and so many more. Finally, I want to recognize Huntsville Mayor Scott Acheson and Town Council for their vision in applying to host the games for the second time. While Huntsville was host, events took place in Berks Falls, Bracebridge, Gravenhurst as well as in Huntsville. The games were a great success both for the athletes and for the community. The event brought added business to local hotels and resorts, restaurants and stores that are traditionally quiet time of year. Congratulations. Remember for Niagara Falls. Thank you Mr. Speaker. I'd like to rise and talk about Meals on Wheels, Niagara Falls, Niagara and the Lake and Fort Erie. Last Wednesday, I had an incredible opportunity of riding along with them as they did their deliveries. They delivered their food to elderly, to disabled, to veterans, to anyone who needs meals with a dietary restriction. They delivered hot meals, nutritious meals five days a week to those in need. They delivered cold food, run a lunch program, arranged for dining in apartment buildings. Over the course of the year, they delivered, listen to this, 42,000 meals and they need even more than that Mr. Speaker. When they show up at the door of that senior who can't go outside their friendly face, they check on them. They build lasting relationships and they do this all as volunteers. It's a service like this that shows how caring communities work. I want to say thank you to the bottom of my heart to every single volunteer who does this for our community. I want to thank Roger Smith for showing me firsthand what it looks like to build a compassionate society. Lastly, I want to say and this is the most important part and I want my colleagues to listen. They're only able to do this work because of the funding provided by the Ministry of Health. That funding has been frozen for eight years. I can't think of fewer things that provide a better service for our community with provincial tax dollars than supporting volunteer work of Meals on Wheels. So today I'm asking this government to unfreeze and increase this funding. Do it for the elderly, the disabled and the veterans who depend on this friendship and service often by some of our community's most dedicated members. And if you want to keep people in their homes, support Meals on Wheels. Thank you. Member Stevens, the member for Richmond Hill. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Thursday, March 21st marks the beginning of spring and a new day for the Iranian and Persian community. I would like to take this opportunity to wish them Neroos Perous. A prosperous New Year. After spending almost the entire month of February attending events celebrating the Chinese New Year I can now look forward to sharing the celebration of the New Year and welcome spring with the Iranian and Persian community. I've already had the privilege of attending three events last week to celebrate Neroos and I was particularly touched by the celebration organised by the Iranian Canadian Teens Club. I want to thank the dedicated parents and leaders for gathering teens and young children to celebrate, perform and learn about the customs and culture. I learned from that too. The Neroos celebration includes the custom of setting the halftime table. I also purchased some Sajid which is dry fruits and representing love and affection. And I also bought a bowl with gold fish which symbolises new life. Well for all Canadians, Neroos provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on the tremendous contributions that people of Iranian and Persian heritage have made to this country and rich and diverse heritage. Neroos Perous. Thank you. Thank you. Member Statements, the member for Nicobelt. Thank you. I would like to wish you all a very good Francophonie week. I would like to thank the Legislative Assembly for their support toward my motion to modify the practices of our legislature when we are writing laws in French right now. The masculine is used as a neutral by our redactors and as we've said for a very long time the masculine form is stronger than the feminine. We are trying to modify this practice by having an inclusive language for women. It is a known practice. I would like to thank the clerk for their support with this change. I can't wait to see the first bill talking about the minister and the member as a woman. I would also like to tell you about what's going on in my constitution during this week. I would like to invite everyone at the Collège Boreal for an evening of songs with the artist cooperation of Ontario and he will sing some of my favorite songs. Daniel Bédard is the artistic director. Steph Paquet will be there. It will be quite the party. I would like to invite everyone to Sudbury. I wish you all a very good Francophony week. Thank you very much. Member statements to the member for Mississauga Center. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week my fellow Mississauga members and I had the honour of hosting the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport at the Living Arts Centre. Together we announced more than 2.6 million in grants to organizations across Mississauga through OTF. This funding will go a long way to support a number of initiatives that promote art and culture as well as strengthen our local NGOs. We heard from a number of organizations about how crucial these funds are in sustaining and improving their services aimed at some of our most vulnerable.  The funds Interim Place is receiving will be invested in developing their peer support program. This initiative is a peer-led workshop which will explore harm reduction from the unique lens of women who use substances. Speaker, the work of Interim Place is instrumental to protecting women from abuse and to building inclusive, equitable and diverse community spaces in Mississauga. Their efforts resonate with our government as we move forward in addressing sexual violence in Ontario. That is why I was so honoured when the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services responsible for women's issues called on me to co-chair a provincial task force with her PA, the Member for Cambridge, on combating human trafficking. We are both looking forward to meeting with survivors across this province and listening to their lived experiences. We will be seeking insights from frontline workers such as those working at Interim Place, Hope 24-7 or VoiceFound and other experts in the field. Speaker, our government is committed to supporting our art and cultural communities as well as the most vulnerable members of our society. Thank you. Thank you. Member's statements. The Member for Flamborough, Glenmore. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm thrilled to rise today to recognize the City of Hamilton for being chosen to host the 109th Grey Cup Championship in 2021. The Grey Cup is a national institution and one of the largest sporting events in Canadian television. It will be the first time the iconic Canadian Football League Championship game will be played at the new Tim Horton's field. The last time Hamilton hosted the Grey Cup was the legendary snowball in 1996 when the game was played in a blizzard. Hamilton has a long and storied history of involvement in the Grey Cup. During the early years in the 50s and 60s, the Hamilton Tiger Cats were a steel town dynasty. They went to the Grey Cup 10 times. They were first in the East 13 times. Joe Monford, Ben Zambiasi, Danny McManus and Rocky Di Pietro are just a few of the Tiger Cats inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. And then there are CFL legends, Bernie Filoni and Angelo Mosca, whose Tiger Cat numbers have been retired. Both Filoni and Mosca played in multiple Grey Cup Championship games. The Grey Cup will be a wonderful opportunity to showcase what Hamilton has to offer, including its world-class restaurants and entertainment venues. Hamilton is beginning to plan the week-long festivities, which will feature gala concerts, parties and fan festivals. And Mr. Speaker, the economic impact is expected to be huge for both Hamilton and the province of Ontario. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our times for member statements this afternoon. I beg to inform the House that today the clerk received the report on intended appointments, stated March 19, 2019 of the Standing Committee on Government Agencies. According to Standing Order 108 F9, the report is deemed to be adopted by the House. Reports by committees. Introduction of bills. Member for Beaches East York. Thank you, Speaker. I move that leave be given to introduce a bill entitled an act to proclaim a day of remembrance and action on Islamophobia.


hello everyone welcome to another video I'm live coming to you from the Far East and yeah this video is just about not letting people dim your shine and just becoming the best person that you can be that's what this is about and of course some people will point out your weaknesses and they will be expecting you to fail but this video is really just to encourage you to become the best person that you can be that's what it's about this is a motivation I want to remind you about my journey I know I started about four years ago just over four years and before that many of you know it was very difficult for me and I managed to move past that through hard work and determination because I was unhappy there it was a very difficult time for me and I wanted more so now here I am I am traveling the world as many of you know and yeah I was in Sri Lanka for about five months and then I was in Malaysia for three months and now I'm out here in South Korea very far away from my home in the UK so yeah and that that's really what it's about you know is just getting out and embracing new experiences and that doesn't mean that things are always going to go your way I know it may look that way for me it looks like things are just so easy but that's not always the case I read a quote somewhere that said life is 90% of what happens to us oh no actually it's the other way around life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how we react to it and I completely agree with that I think that's very true and I think we should all live our lives in that way of realizing that our reaction to things is far more important than what is actually happening when you do that take responsibility for where you find yourself you take accountability and most importantly then you can then take action to correct whatever it is that you're not happy with and yeah I mean at the moment I am struggling to find a car that I can rent and drive around in travel and all of that but that's the 10% of what is happening now the 90% of me reacting to it is what then changes the entire situation because now I'm out here I just had a curry and I managed to find someone who can speak English that I told him what I wanted to eat it was made vegan for me and yeah I mean I've only been here this is my second day and I've already met a lot of cool a lot of cool people having a great time and yeah I mean I'm just expecting to feel more comfortable as the days go on as well I mean that's another thing is that things do take time you're not gonna have everything figured out straight away it takes time for things to unfold and then things get easier for you as well you can't just figure everything out all at once so keep that in mind and yeah as you can see I'm out here in South Korea traveling all the time you never know where I'm gonna be next but yeah just don't let people dim your light don't let people bring you down this video is meant to inspire and encourage you to be the best version of yourself and yeah I mean you know so many people today what they tend to do is they mold themselves to what people want and expect them to be but it's not meant to be that way you be you you do you and you let other people work their way around that you ain't got to work your way around everyone else but of course you can have empathy and take into consideration you know other people's needs I mean that's important too of course you can't just be thinking about yourself all the time and I think that's another important thing to remember is that the focus shouldn't always be on not letting people dim your light but also how can you reflect some of that light onto other people so that you can help them as well I think that's another thing that we need to think about and be aware of so yeah keep that in mind too one thing I will say though it is very cold here I mean especially for me now I mean I know I'm from the UK and it is it's pretty cold there too but I would say it's slightly colder here and not only that I did just come from Malaysia and it was really hot there it was like over 30 degrees Celsius and here it's gotta be maybe 10 degrees I mean it's really cold that's why I've got my jacket on here keep me warm and it's gonna be Christmas soon so what's everyone doing for Christmas let me know now down below in the comment section I want to hear from you I want to know your plans let me know what you've got planned for Christmas 2022 love to hear from you I actually don't know what I'm going to be doing yet you usually you don't find out what I'm doing until after when I let you know on my Instagram those of you who follow me on there Marksify the YouTube so yeah Leo Ganes says London on Xmas you never know that could happen that could be what one of the possibilities who knows who knows where I will be okay yeah that's all for this one just like thank you all for joining me here today and as always if you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up down below helps to support our community so yeah thank you all and I will talk to you in another one very soon


When the subject gets into the MRI, we're trying to collect the brain scans from the subject while the subject is watching the movies. We take brain scans every two seconds and we look at the whole brain to see how the brain activity goes up and down at every place in the brain. After we acquire the brain scans from the tumor subject, we use deep learning models to reconstruct what the people see. And what is more interesting is that the model also can predict how the brain interprets what the person see. For example, when there is a person, then the model can predict it is a person. What's new in this study is that for the very first time we showed that we can use a convolutional neural network to understand how the brain process information while a person is watching a video. A major goal is to use machine learning algorithms to help understand the brain and then to use what we understand about the brain to advance artificial intelligence.


Welcome. Today on the show, I'm joined by Acting Undersecretary for Personal Honorariness, Brad Carson, to talk about the future of the force and personnel management. Sir, thank you for joining us. Now, sir, my first question is, why? Why all the personnel changes and initiatives, what changes in society and the makeup of our force has the DOD seen that's kind of prompting the big personnel changes that your office talks about? In the House Department of Defense, we have the greatest number of people who are working in incredible jobs, doing incredible efforts. But the question I think for all of us is whether we have the force we need for the future. And that's what Secretary Carter asked me to look at, is thinking about how we're going to redesign the personnel system for the 21st century. We need to rejuvenate some of these processes if we're going to meet the needs of younger people who are coming in and to make sure we keep women in, that we have the adequate diversity across the force, and that we, again, the best asset our military has, which is the people. That's what we're trying to do. For sailors that have followed some of these initiatives, they might think they're very familiar to some of the stuff, SACNAV, CNO, and CNP have also been discussing. So how are those Navy efforts to kind of reform personnel linked with the DOD larger effort? Well, the Navy is the leader in this. Well, Secretary Mabas, what the CNO, Admiral Greenert have talked about, are exactly the kind of things we're trying to do across the force. But sometimes the Navy is hamstrung by legislative proposals that keep the Navy from doing all that it wants to do, and the other services too. So what we're trying to do is restrict, or in some of the restrictions on the law, requires to encourage the services to adopt the best practices that the Navy is showing us. Let's start when we talk about the future of the force that your office is pushing. A lot of times people will mention the overhaul of personnel policies. Is that accurate? And what are the main things going into this overhaul? It is an overhaul because we have a system, a personnel system that's really based in the 20th century in an industrial era. Today we're in the 21st century in information age. I think new people coming into the force, the millennial generation, want a more flexible system. They want a more narrowly tailored one for their own talents. They want the chance to raise their families. They want to stay in certain stations longer than previously allowed. They want the chance to go to graduate school. They want the chance to have their promotions based on merit, not merely time and grade. And so we're trying to change all of those kind of things. For the military, it brings a revolution in human capital that is found elsewhere in the private sector, but hasn't yet come to the Department of Defense. We're trying to change that. Well, sir, thank you again for joining us and talking to our audience about the future of the force and what that means for the Navy. Thanks, MC1. I appreciate it. Thank you.


Hi everyone, my name is Sonya Trivedi, communications major at Moodle and we are at day one of Moodle Mood Global 2023. Today I have with me Frederick Dixon, who is co-founder of Big Blow Button Moodle Certified Integration. Hi Fred, nice to see you today, thank you for joining me. My pleasure Sonya. Today you had a great presentation that I attended and it was on how AI and analytics are shaping the future of virtual classrooms and Big Blow Button. And I'm curious to ask you a few questions about it. To start with, can you tell me more how AI can assist educators in creating more opportunities for applied learning? So I think the key word there is assist and also applied learning. So if we think about how our brains work, they haven't changed in the last, you know, 60,000 years. AI shouldn't replace what we're doing and if we look at how we actually learn, it's like plier cells, we struggle a bit, it's how our brain chemistry rewires. Anything that can enhance that opportunity to have that struggle and struggle is good, then you have more learning. And this is the part I think that AI is trying to say, look, you can learn without struggling. No, that's just not how our brains work, right? So think of a soccer coach, right? And they want to hone the team and get them to be better. You don't bring the team on the field and just listen. You get them to practice and play and apply themselves and the teacher is like seeing how the players are doing. Now the teacher may have a strategy. There may be like nutritional coaches. There may be like motivational coaches. You may be able to like film the players and give them feedback. But all this is really just wrapping around making sure the players are making the most effective use of time on the field as they apply themselves. That's the same thing that should go on in a virtual class. AI should support the teacher in creating that playing field. It should support the students in terms of like being there in the best moment and applying themselves in the most efficient way. But you'd never get away from the teacher present to motivate and encourage students. And you never want to get away from students actually having to sit down and think about what's going on and not have the AI do it for them. If we get to that place, we're going the wrong place. Absolutely. I agree with you. One thing that I remember from your presentation is that you shared the framework for creating effective virtual classroom. Could you please elaborate a bit more on that? Just a few highlights maybe? Right. So it's complex, right? So if I said, hey, what would be, how would you deliver an effective virtual class? People may think, well, I'll just do what I did in the physical class. And no, I mean, to use the soccer analogy would be like, how would I broadcast a soccer game? You don't put a camera down in a chair and just say, hey, let me replicate your experience in a soccer game. It's amazing experience watching online. So what the teachers should do or what the AI should do is help the teachers and the way we do it is by a framework. So think about what is an effective virtual class. It's not very complex. But at the beginning you want to have some time at the beginning to build relationships up between students. Why is that important? Because you need to be able to make mistakes. Learning, making mistakes is an important part of learning. In fact, I would argue the best time is learning is when you've made a mistake, right? The cognitive dissonance. Like you start questioning yourself, like why is this not working?  But if you kick it in a higher order, then the learning is going to occur. The next bit would be, okay, if you've got some activity where the students feel comfortable with each other, maybe they're moving the mouse around, they're asking them fun questions. The teacher would then check up to see what students already know, like do some quick review of the past. And that's important because our knowledge is all in hierarchies. So if you were to learn something and you didn't have one of the foundational pieces to do it, it's going to be really hard. This is like the Swiss cheese theory of learning. I've learned 80% in grade seven and I learned 80% in grade eight and 80% in grade nine. But then I get to something in grade 10 that needed all these pieces that was the last 20% I didn't learn. And then I struggle. So as a teacher, you want to make sure the students have a good scaffolding, a good foundation to build upon. Tell them what to do in the class. You have the class at the end. You get them to think back what had happened in the class, get them to recall it, right? Because it's another form of learning. No taking during the class isn't as effective as forcing your brain to recall the key points during the class while you're at the end of it. And then you preview what's next. In the main segment, you just want to teach maybe for 8, 12 minutes. You're going to give them new knowledge and basically create a scaffolding of knowledge that you can get them to apply. And the more activity that you can apply, the more that you get students to apply themselves, the more you can see how they're doing and the platform can help you do that through analytics, give the students feedback the faster they learn. And that's the virtuous cycle you want to get. You want to get students applying themselves, struggling a bit, getting help because that's the most efficient way. That's the role of the coach or the teacher. You know, don't worry if you get blocked, struggle, I'll help you and get you that next level understanding. And students realize when they come to the virtual class, they're not coming there to passively watch because that doesn't work. They're coming there to apply themselves. They're going to make mistakes, probably have a little bit of fun. But the teacher is there as a coach to help them make that class the most effective use of their time and the most efficient way to learn. And we call that the virtuous cycle of applied learning. So we believe the most effective virtual classes are the ones that create the most space, the maximal time for applied learning and feedback. And that's how we learn. Absolutely. And you mentioned that AI should be the assistant, not really replacing the teachers. I don't think that's possible, right? Right. So for your viewers, I'll give the same question I asked. So imagine the AI is there in the class and it's near in the end. And imagine the AI could summarize the class for the student. Is that the most effective way of using AI? Not really. Not really. Okay. So for those of you that are watching this, just pause the video for a second. Think about the classes being summarized by AI. Is that the most effective use of AI? Okay. The answer is no. It seems like it is, right? People would tell you, I'll summarize the class for you. But what it does is it takes away an opportunity for the student to think about what the most important parts were. And imagine the platform allows the students to give, let's say, two key points. You spend three or four minutes, what were the two key points that were in the lecture? And imagine the AI is helping the instructor filter those. Maybe take away the ones that are silly and come back to the curated list with instructor vets and then use it as a way to summarize and then gives the students back the summary in their own words. And now we're getting to a place where I've gotten the students to work on something to think. And the AI is an assistant, that assistant coach to the teacher to help curate the list. But the teacher is still the final person and then give it back to students. That's how AI can assist learning, but it can't replace it. Absolutely. Totally agree. Let's touch a little bit on the topic of analytics. And I'm really curious to ask you, how can teachers, trainers, use analytics in the virtual classroom to improve learners' outcomes? Right. So you, I think a coaching analogy example, like if you have your players in the soccer field, you can reward them for the effort and you can reward them for the outcome, right? So if you're in a virtual class and you're applying yourself, and this is where Big Glue Button, we have built-in tools to apply yourself. Well, when you apply yourself, that generates analytics. I raise my hand. I respond to a poll. I'm talking. So we'll give you a sense of the effort that students are putting forth. And we're not, this isn't a grade, right? This is telling you who's applying themselves. And that gives you the instructor, the opportunity to say, hey, Sam, like respond to the questions. Like don't worry if you get them wrong, right? Just like a coach in the field would say, I need everybody running. Like, you know, Sam, like go for it, right? And so the teacher's role is visibility. Because think about what happens when you use a video conferencing system and students don't share their webcam, right? You've got, you know, like you've got a couple of webcams and you've got 30 students and you have no idea what they're doing on the other side. If you have the analytics, you can encourage students, you can call out and say, hey, Sam, you have to answer every question. It's just how we'll learn. And Sam would be there like, what? The teacher's aware of me? Yes, because we're not relying on video. We're monitoring the effort. And then you could ask about the outcome. And this is where quizzing and polling can come, right? So formative assessment. You're halfway through the class. You want to do a temperature check. Maybe AI can help you create a poll question based on the content, right? So it's not replacing you. It's just assisting you. Hey, is this a good, a good five questions where one of them is correct on what you've taught so far in the class? You'd say, okay, yeah, press the button. The poll goes out. You get immediate feedback from the students and you see if they're, if they're gas grasping what you're doing or they're learning. And this will tell you what you should do next. You need to shore up the knowledge a bit more. Or can you move on to the next one? So again, good information is coming back to make the most efficient use of the time in the class. It helps the teacher like an assistant coach. And the students realize they're coming there to run on the field. They're coming there to work and struggle is good. It's okay to make mistakes. It's just the natural part of how we learn. Yeah, absolutely. And last but not least, I would like to give you the opportunity to tell our audience a bit more about Big Block Button. What are you guys doing? What are you creating? And just if you can explain the basics first and then why do people should use Big Block Button as the virtual classroom? All right. So Big Block Button is a virtual classroom that is built into Moodle. The integration is there. It's been developed over 14 years and it focuses on one market, which is online teaching and learning. So if you use video conferencing systems and kind of the world looks like video, but as I sort of shared in the theory, real learning occurs when the teacher is getting the students to apply themselves, ideally getting some analytics back in terms of how the students are doing, and the students are there trying to make the best use of their time. And if you can give them feedback in the moment, then they realize the more I apply myself, the more I learn. So Big Block Button is designed around this theory of maximize the time for applied learning and feedback. So we develop things like visual assessment, where you can have students point at something on the screen and they can't see each other. But you as a teacher can see where everyone's pointing at. So if it was a tree or a map, you would instantly see, are they getting it, right? Breakout room is another good example. And then we take the content of the slides and we create poll questions for them on the fly. So Big Block Button is a platform designed to help the teacher teach and the learning learn by recognizing the more that we can help the teacher make the scaffolding of teaching easier. So like knowing where students are, getting them to give feedback, raising their hands and so on. And the more that we can get students to be applying themselves, so we free up that time by making it easier for the teacher to teach, we can create that opportunity where the students spend most of their time in the class applying themselves. Teachers can see how students are doing. So for us, it's like, well, can break out rooms? Can we get the teacher see all the break out rooms? These are things that we're working on. Can we get the students to like, maybe work on the whiteboard individually? And the teacher has this amazing bird's eye view of all the students working on the whiteboard and they can see this student struggling. Press that, they go into like a cone of silence, help that student out for a few moments. And the next one would be, okay, where's the next student? So you've got the class applying themselves and then you've got jumping in to help students out to get that level of knowledge. You can't really do that in a physical class. And this is where I believe the opportunity for virtual classes is not to replace the physical class. It should never replace that human to human. But like, you know, if you watch a soccer game live on TV, it's an amazing experience, right? You have commentary, you have different camera angles. Well, if you're in a virtual class, you should have this amazing experience where you're quickly going from like different modes of learning, different ways of engaging. And the teacher is there as the coach, helping the students bring out the best, challenging them and giving them feedback to get that next level of understanding. Thank you very much, Fred. I think we are really comprehensive on this one. I wish you a wonderful day and wonderful time here at World with Global. And see you soon.


Hi everybody, my name is Steven Jackson as Rita said I'm the director of content and communications here at TechSoup. I'm really happy to be here with you guys today to talk about. Sort of what I think about all the time and that's creating content for our nonprofit community also creating content as someone who works at a nonprofit himself. So, I have a whole lot of information to share with you folks. I'm going to be definitely checking the Q&A throughout if there's some good opportunities for us to start to stop and handle some questions in the moment that's great. I would really love to leave a fair a big chunk of time at the end to answer as many questions as I possibly can. It's kind of a bit more of my style in so please don't be shy with those questions and answers I will, I will answer every single thing I can and I'll let you know if I don't have the answer for it, honestly. Okay, a little bit about me. I'm so I've had kind of an interesting career background. I spent the first 10 years of my professional life as a high school teacher. I was teaching mild to moderate special education in San Francisco to big public high school there. And there I was actually specialized in reading instruction and I would co teach large English classes specifically in the areas really be in the area of writing. And there I became I spent time as a journalist in San Francisco as well and I was writing for SF Weekly and a bunch of other local publications there I will still moonlight with when I can. I do bring to the position here at TechSoup, a journalistic background, and I have found that to be a real guiding light for me as I think about creating content here at TechSoup, and then I've been at TechSoup here for about five years. And I've always been in the marketing department I started as a copywriter and sort of just stuck with it and here I am today. So, in my free time. I'm an avid surfer and in a home chef, and so I really enjoy using all the different parts of my brain that I'm that that I can. And first and foremost, I'd say my true passion is writing though so that's why I'm really excited to be here to talk with you all today. Okay, so TechSoup for anyone in this webinar who is just learning about us have just heard about us just received a link five minutes ago. So TechSoup, our mission is to build a dynamic a bridge that leverages technology to enable connections and innovative solutions for a more equitable planet so what we really are we are a technology capacity building organization. It's truly our mission to see digital transformation in the nonprofit sector globally. And we do that in what we do that in a number of ways. So what is TechSoup. We are ourselves a 501c3 nonprofit in the US and we are part of the TechSoup global network. And our goal is to support nonprofits as in their use of technology. And all of that is is because we believe in frankly it's true that using technology allows organizations to better deliver on their missions, especially today so, and what is that what's the end result there well hopefully a more equitable planet more. We hope that using technology at this scale can really bring about massive change in the world to make it a better place. But so how do we do that. But many people are first and foremost aware of TechSoup via our product catalog. So we help to deliver donated and discounted technology products to the nonprofit sector by the techsoup.org catalog. And so you again if you're not familiar, give the catalog again or it has probably most of the stuff you could ever need at very low in prices and sometimes very free. We also offer services to help nonprofits so we have consultative services we have implementation services we help with the installation and migration of software and data. We also have tons of content and we'll get to that a lot today but also courses and trainings that are really designed by nonprofits for nonprofits. So there's a ton to access here at TechSoup and I do hope that if this is your first time please poke around, ask questions, if you're returning you know maybe go deeper with what we could possibly offer to your nonprofit. So, oh, and lastly, we do a grant enablement by another part of TechSoup which is called NGO source and that's where we are helping grants and funding reach other NGOs around the world. So, big numbers with TechSoup we don't really have to get too far into this but we do serve 236 countries and territories around the world. To date we have supported over 1.4 million civil society organizations around the world we have over 60 global partners that help us deliver on all of the promises that that were laid out in the slide before. To date we've helped to deliver over $19 billion worth of technology resources and funding to the sector, and our programs are supported in 39 languages. And that's very much because we are a large network the TechSoup global network has many local on the ground partners that both help us deliver that programming but also let us know what the real on the ground needs are for communities abroad. So, what we're all here for. And we're going to go over today, the five biggest mistakes in content creation at your nonprofit. So, we're going to, in thinking about how I wanted to structure this webinar. But to be honest, it was challenging because there's content is such a huge beast and in this short amount of time it would, it's impossible to kind of get into all of the nooks and crannies that need to be discussed in this area. The, the five, these are sort of the five things that I thought would be most helpful for a quick webinar, you know, on a Wednesday morning so we're going to go over the mistake of creating content without a purpose in mind. Another mistake that that's out there is ignoring these acronyms SEO and CTA will get into what those two things mean. Another problem is you only using content once. And we're going to get into how to really what we call expand the life cycle or extend the lifespan of your content. Big mistake is avoiding video still there's it still can be scary for lots of folks but there are. There's an approach to it that is can be quite accessible and there's a lot of really user friendly tools out there now. And then the last mistake is, is to not market or promote your content. And we will get into an old adage in the industry about websites and content. You need to not think about it in the field of dreams mindset where if you build it, they will come. That is entirely untrue in today's world. Let's get right into it again I'm going to be taking a look at the Q&A when when I can. But so, if I pause I'm just kind of looking over at this screen over there trying to see if there's anything that I that folks want to talk talk about in that moment that I can address. All right, getting into it so the first one of the first problems that people can run into and creating content is sort of this idea of creating content for content sake, okay. Everybody knows that, you know, we need content for our website we need a blog we need to do this we need to do that. And, and so that imperative sometimes can cause folks to just start putting content out there because that's what they heard they have to do. And part of that's true. Everybody needs content. Content serves a whole host of purposes for nonprofits and we'll kind of get into what those purposes could be. But it's a content is, and also let's clearly define kind of what we mean by content in this webinar we're talking about blogs, videos, podcasts, etc. But not so much your, the nitty gritty of content that's on your web page, and that's kind of for a different conversation. In this case, I want to be clear with with how I'm defining content so blogs articles videos. We can kind of just stop there and so that's going to be the most of what I'll be discussing. So, the first thing to do is to really clearly think about what you want to accomplish with a given piece of content. Right. So, we'll go over five examples here. And the first one will be raising awareness about your mission or your organization. Sometimes content is used to encourage donations. Content can be used as to create pieces that serve as thought leadership in the space. Some content is, is just advertising content. You know, and we can get into that and sometimes content can just be purely educational and we'll get into why that's important. And last one, given my background probably as you can imagine is sort of one that I feel very strongly about. But regardless of what the format is, the most important thing to do is to always get to your point quickly. So digital content on the internet where you are in a cutthroat world of competition for people's attention. And so, as you create content at your nonprofit, if it's a video, if it's a blog, make sure at the very top of that piece. You are clearly stating what that what the purpose is of your content. Okay. It's different than fiction writing, you know, it can feel almost mechanical, but it's a tried and true way to keep engaging users engaged or users readers engaged early, and it entices them to continue to read what you're putting out there. Let's go through some formats and styles of content you can see how the purpose of a particular piece of content might inform the format. Okay, so that first example, a video that would serve to raise awareness of your content or encourage new volunteers. And also, these things are kind of interchangeable you can obviously do a video for to encourage donations right and, but these, these type of typically would be produced via a series of short clips of videos of either as people so that that would mean people kind of talking direct to camera about your about your mission or how great it is to be a volunteer at your organization. And then those clips can be edited together. And then, if possible, and again, there are some pretty easy video production tools that we'll get well I'll share later, but it's not as hard as you think to create something where people are talking and then in using a very basic editing tool you have a clip of what they're talking about running under that. And, but we don't really have time exactly to get into the nitty gritty of that. The first thing here though is that that video should be personal. And it should be inspiring you the purpose of that content is to connect with with the viewer and in some cases viewers who have no idea what your organization does so again that gets into the importance of getting straight to the point. Again, showing clips, visuals of your mission and action this can be very powerful and it's very it's a very economic way to show what you're up to and why and how you need support. And, you know, it's an it's an opportunity to provide insights into the type of work you do in your communities in a way that is that that is very tangible. So, it is, if you're planning on getting into video this year. One thing I would suggest is, even if you have events, if you're doing anything out in your community. Bring even an iPhone, right with a with a good camera and that can shoot high definition video and shooting that content, even if it's like, you know, a little shaky or it's a little sort of DIY that stuff can all be powerful and usable right on a budget so start thinking about what are some great examples of your mission and action, and just having volunteers are going out there yourself and you know kind of starting to create that media library on on your own. Another very common type of piece of content for nonprofits is a blog that is meant to encourage donations. So this these are shorter pieces of written content with again that very specific goal in mind. So, early on in that blog, you want to state your purpose, you want to kind of lay out what folks are going to learn in that blog, and then really leading them that blog is meant to really lead them to a strong call to action to click a button to donate to that Okay. Um, and in this case, blogs really should be in between 500 and 1000 words, you don't really want to get much larger than that. You also want to think about breaking up that content into subheadings at any time. And also I think that there's good examples of blog writing style on the tech soup blog so I encourage anybody to kind of take a look at what we're up to over there just to see kind of the basic format that we write blogs in. I'm just gonna I see that there's a number of questions cropping up in the q amp a, I'm just going to make it through this neck, this section here and then I'm going to take a look and see if we can start peeling off some of these questions. There's another piece of content that to consider at your nonprofit that I think is really important, and it's thought leadership, and thought leadership is typically written by a leader of your organization or movement or a mission area expert. And it's really, I feel that thought leadership is meant to jumpstart a conversation, jumpstart a conversation in the space right.  It's, it can be used to really investigate a problem that your nonprofit is working on in your community and perhaps the root causes of that. If you're not a blog that's meant to encourage donations. That's again that's something with a very specific purpose and that is to get support direct support to your nonprofit. With a thought leadership piece that could start a conversation with perhaps a larger donor, but really what you're doing is using that time to almost get into the philosophical implications of what you're up to. It's a great opportunity to demonstrate any kind of insight or expertise as it pertains to your mission. For example, if your nonprofit did a survey in your community in your community, or you've done any sort of research or, or there's a particular, let's in some cases maybe your nonprofit put out a white paper on a particular issue area. And a thought leadership post that connects to some recent sort of media activity can be really, really effective in a great way to point people to some of this larger work that you've done in the community. Here I wrote medium as a great channel, partially because TechSoup that's where our thought leadership occurs is on our TechSoup global network medium account. I like that because I like the format I like how easy it is to produce that content. And I, and I think it's a space that's meant for more commenting and sort of engagement, then perhaps maybe a blog that just lives on your website. So, again, consider medium as a great place to sort of do that but also again, consider that thought leadership often should be on a certain channel that feels different from places where you are doing kind of more typical day to day content on your at your nonprofit. Okay. Another example, is it more of a traditional video ad. So, this is could be similar to the first type of video that I was talking about but a traditional video ad would, it would be something like if you are trying to get people to go to a big community event and you want to use social media, etc, to get the word out about that event and you want to create an advertisement that's designed to get people to do a very specific thing. So that could be for donations that could be for an event that could be to end up for an end of the year gala. I mean, there could be a number of different things that an ad could be used for. I mean, it could be an advertisement to make people aware of the services that you provide to that community. And again, these are really short so ads I always like to think of ads are things that are shared on social media predominantly. And because of that and again because of that cut through competition that you are in for people's attention. These ads should never be longer than a minute and make them 30 seconds if you can. And lastly with video, you always want to make sure that the tone of your video is matching the purpose of the ad right if you're talking about some really heavy stuff in the ad. Maybe it's like the funky backbeat music is not the right call for for the soundtrack on that video. And then as promised, the last thing that I want to talk about is educational content. So it. One of the challenges of creating a webinar about content for nonprofits is that nonprofits serve such a broad variety of purposes in the world. So content for one nonprofit means one thing. And it means to a different organization, something entirely different and I'm aware of that right so I guess that's a sort of a caveat to everything that I'm saying, but there are many opportunities to provide education to both your communities, your beneficiaries and your donors, donors via content right so there could be a number of different opportunities to provide that educational material for any specific purpose at your organization. So it could be as simple as answering common questions about your cause, it could be educating more deeply about the issues that you're working on, and in your in your methodology for doing so. Again, like educational content could be video interviews you could have timelines of put into a blog, you know anything that could maybe bring that educational content to life so it's not only written material, but what I'm saying is that providing authentic education to people is one of the best ways to build meaningful connections with supporters beneficiary beneficiaries beneficiaries and the public at large. So if it's also a way to really show your mission in action, right, I mean, education that it's educational content at its core should really just be providing value with without really asking for anything in return. So, again, that's kind of a personal favorite of mine. I'm going to stop just for a second just because there are a ton of questions going on in the q amp a I'm going to just take a look at some of the first ones. And let's see here. So, Tia young what's the difference between a 20 minute video and a 20 minute podcast is it makes sense to do them both. So if I if I'm understanding the question correctly, I think with podcasting today, there are sort of two different sorts of podcasters podcast that is up on YouTube and it is showing kind of a split screen or a hosted sort of studio where you can have a video of talking back and forth or it's audio only. I'll address that one first. You know, I think that if your if you have the capability to do a podcast that is also on video. If you have the bandwidth to edit that properly and get the sound right and make it really look good. Then I think that there are more opportunities to share that podcast in different ways so if you can't really put an audio only podcast on YouTube. You know, it's obviously going to be more engaging on your social channels etc. And then an audio only podcast gives you the opportunity to do a lot more deep behind the scenes editing to really kind of craft the conversation in this in a certain way right so what we're where the trade off is where you miss out on maybe you know that video content which is good and sticky, you know from a social media perspective, you do have a lot more flexibility on the back end of producing. And then I can assume maybe what a, another thing that that question is, is getting at is that, you know, in general a 20 minute video. Ironically this will be a recorded podcast which will be much longer than 20 minutes. There really has to be a super specific purpose to have a 20 minute video of just somebody talking. Because user interest can fall off pretty quickly. You know video online these days is really defined by short snippets and so even if you did want to talk about something big that could take 20 minutes. If you were sharing that on social media that that would be better served as a series of shorter videos that are getting at different sort of sub topics in your main topic. Not to say, in some cases, maybe a video of a panel discussion could be valuable, but I would say that that sort of content is really best delivered directly to an interested party, like, you're, you likely won't get that much success just throwing a really long video up in your social media channels are on your website. So, and it. So, shella is you can we give some tips tips for to talk and best posting timelines for nonprofits again. So, I would say before. Again, I'll be honest, we are lucky enough to work with a great social media and community team who does more of the nitty gritty in terms of like scheduling, posting sort of strategy, etc. So, I would say that of like the strategy around posting on social media, I wouldn't want to wait into a topic that I don't have expertise in I will say that for tick tock and those shorter format videos again really short content is super important. Especially for tick tock that you are not salesy that the content is just sort of existing on its own as interesting content that you know eventually maybe draws people back to your organization but the demographic that's really engaging with tick tock is so a verse to being sold to that you really want to be careful there. And so, and then again like I would say with tick tock there are many things that can in Instagram reels etc you know, plugging into the native sound and soundtracks that are available on those platforms is super is a super great way to have the algorithm work for you. And yeah, and so I'm going to go just for one more here about blogging to promote donations. And then I'm going to continue to move on so Asia on a hallway. So. Okay, so your question is could you delve a bit more into the blogging to promote donations our organization is considered this but struggles with how to have different information and perspective from newsletters and social media content that we already utilize. Yeah, great question so. I would say that if you were blogging to promote a donation, a really good angle would be to again like focus on specific areas of your mission that you can really tell a more personal story about right or the work that you're doing in that in your community. Blogging is different than newsletters and videos etc because it gives you this channel to kind of like to dive a bit deeper in a very contained space so for a specific. You know, it's an impact story around a problem that your nonprofit helps solve in a very tangible way with an individual in that community again it's hard for me to sometimes give specific examples because I'm not sure is you know what your mission area is, but blogging gives you an opportunity to make that appeal that more that much more direct specific and personal.  Again, if there is a video that you can embed into that blog it kind of creates this contained space that itself is very specific. That becomes more tactical for the audience that you're targeting for that specific donation. Okay, tons of questions this is great I'm so, so grateful to have such a engaged community here on this on this call I'm really going to try to get to as, as many of these questions as I possibly can. I'm going to move on now to the second, our second section, second section of the webinar so. So, one mistake is ignoring these acronyms, and this isn't going to be a very acronym rich presentation I promise you but there are two things to give a little bit of consideration to when you're creating your content. The first one is one problem is to not it. So you want to give a little bit of thought to SEO which stands for search engine optimization and that can help boost the number of visitors to your content and by extension, your website. You also want to in your content think about CTAs which means calls, which stands for calls to action in that those are typically seen as buttons sometimes they're just links in in the text that people click on and then they kind of continue on the journey that you're trying to set up via your content so to the Asianus point you know for a blog that encourages donations right that you know the button would be donate now, etc. Okay, so we're going to do. We're not going to spend a lot of time on SEO. And that's for a number of reasons, one of which is that everybody's trying to figure out the sort of magic of SEO there are a number of different best practices that folks can employ when thinking about content and SEO and there are tons of sort of resources out there and we're publishing a blog on some SEO best practices next week. So be on the out on the lookout for that one on the tech suit blog. But I'm just going to spend a few minutes kind of going over why it's important and maybe a few little tweaks you can make. So SEO at a very high level is is the practice. Well, keeping SEO in mind at a very high level has to do with the practice of getting the search robots to understand that your site is accurate and authentic, and is providing information that when people click on how do I do your site provides an answer to that question. That's at like the 1030,000 feet level whatever that saying is okay. So the way that you do that in the tried and true methods of doing so have to do with making sure that your site has links to other reputable sources so that you are showing that you're part of this network of accurate information around that particular topic. Another way to do that too is having links that are on your own site so that you're linking in between all of your different pieces of content, the search engines like that. Keywords including key relevant keywords in your titles and headings and then in the first 100 words of your copy so there there's a whole sort of practice of keyword research that that we won't get too far into right here there are a few different keyword research tools that you can use, but keywords have to do with like, again, very key words and phrases that are related to the topic that your content is about. So you want to just be very mindful of making sure and this kind of gets to the get to the point early piece from a couple minutes ago. Make sure that your keywords that would be people might be searching for in Google are being revealed in the first little bit of your content. And then also content considerations, creating really good evergreen content which which in the biz, it refers to content that will kind of be relevant for a really long time, creating evergreen content can be really good for SEO because it can over time build authority. So, a few more SEO best practices make sure your website operates well and it's quick to upload. If your site takes forever to load that can actually hurt what's called your bounce rate which which is the rate at which people get to your site and immediately leave.  As I said earlier, including internal links around your own site to keep people sort of in your own little universe is important, creating unique content is it is key to because then you can sort of rise to a certain level of authority when people are searching for that specific thing. And then if possible and I know that this is very hard and not applicable even for many folks on the call but you know if it makes sense to translate your content you should look into that. And so, the next one is to consider is calls to action so including relevant CTAs is really important so if your content is about one thing that the thing that you're asking someone to do after reading that content needs to be directly related. So, for example, you wouldn't want to. You wouldn't want to have a blog that's encouraging donations to an animal shelter. You can finally have a CTA that points to getting to know your board of directors right like that. That's a very almost crude example but when you're writing content. You have this ability to kind of walk people through this process of your own thought process and then hit them with a specific thing to do. So, your copy in a CTA button or hyperlink if that's what you're doing needs to be brief and punchy, and it needs to have strong language donate now help today, etc. The shorter and more direct and actionable that language is the better. I do see an axle of a request from Melanie hamburger to share some visuals to demonstrate. Here's an example of what some good strong CTAs could look like so you know at tech soup as you know, one of the things we do is that we provide education and products to products and education about how those products could help nonprofits to the nonprofit community and so in something like this where we're doing a round up of all the different specific softwares in a particular area pieces of software that work in a particular area of your digital stack. We have short copy that explains how it can help your nonprofit and then right there you'll get hit with a button that will take you to a place where you can acquire that software if you're a nonprofit member of tech soup. Okay, real quick. Let me see. I'm going to some of these I'm going to get back to you at the at the at the tail end because I see that we're already at 1037 and I have a number of things to get through. So examples thought leadership in the chat I think we can share our the tech soup global network medium account Amy if you could do that I think that would be a good example and we will get back to some of these other questions at the end of the presentation. Another so number three, one mistake that's made is to create a piece of content and then move on, and then never revisit it again and just think that one blog or one interview needs to stay there as just that one piece of content forever. Not true.  There's an imperative to make sure that every minute you spend on creating count content counts. So, in the next for the next little bit I'm just going to show a quick progression of how one zoom interview can suddenly be expanded into many different types of content. So here's a basic timeline of something that again I think that everybody could kind of relate to. So this is how to create a top supporter. Or that you maybe as part of your social media network and how to create a piece of content that can do anything from encourage donations to encourage volunteers to just raise awareness of your organization. So you find somebody who's just like all in on your on your organization online right, you send them a message requesting to do an interview to kind of share their experience with your nonprofit and in how perhaps your nonprofit has helped them. And at that point you also want to be sharing a media release. You can find, if you have any kind of legal entity that helps with your nonprofit or somebody who is willing to do some pro bono work there's a lot of boilerplate kind of generic media releases out on the internet I would definitely suggest having someone kind of take an extra look at that to create a media release for your nonprofit if you don't already have one. You would conduct a video interview. These can be done really easily, they can be done on zoom. They can be done in person if that's if that works again like iPhone is totally fine if you have access to a camera or you know you have a volunteer or supporter who works in that space and they're willing to donate time even better. But the main thing is is that it's okay to do these interviews on zoom. And if you do it on zoom. There's a really easy way to live stream that in that interview if that's something you'd like to do and that's a whole nother sort of social component to this. You take that video that interview. I'm going to break that up into short clips. Okay, it could be a few clips, maybe from one 15 minute interview you just get 30 seconds of content where that person is talking about all the great things your organizations does for their, their family or their community or them individually. You edit the video, you edit it together, and I know that's a bit of a flyover I know there's this like, oh, just edit the video I understand that there's a lot of learning curve. There's a big learning curve there. And for some folks, that's a bigger ass than others but if you can, again, get access to these really simple video editing tools, it's a lot more accessible than you think. And then those videos can be sort of reshared as snippets etc on all your social media channels so now we have potentially the live stream, we have multiple social media videos. And then what you could also do is take that video in the interview pull quotes from that interview, and turn that into a written blog post right where it's more of a traditional kind of article you might read in a paper where how my this XYZ organization is about blank right and then there that could be a blog post that's encouraging donations right and you're just writing out the quotes that you have from the video, and you can even embed that video in the blog post. So now I think we're up to about four pieces of content. And then be shared on social media right so that's another piece of collateral that you can have out in the world. And then that blog is that much more easy to share in your newsletter right so now you're also creating newsletter content. And then lastly, the piece of content that you want to create is perhaps a sharing kit that makes it easier for that person, or other folks interested in your cause to share that on their own social media sites. And again this is sort of a, a sort of basic like flow chart of what that would look like where it's just as simple as doing an email to an interview that turns into a video to a video that gets embedded into a blog to a blog that gets linked to in your newsletter. So, the big headline for this section of mistakes folks might be making is always be thinking about how, if you do one thing and you spend your valuable time doing an interview. How can we sort of blow that up into as many different pieces of content as possible so approaching the content creation process with that mindset will be really beneficial. Next up, avoiding video big mistake. You know video is super intimidating. Honestly, it's for for folks who haven't dipped their toe into the world of video creation at all it's it feels like there's so much that one needs to learn how to do in order to make a video look good. So, a couple, there's a couple things. In today's world. The realness of videos is actually in some cases seen as a positive thing. Right, so the, the, especially during during these times, you know, cell phone capper videos captured with cell phone. I'm like, aging myself videos that are captured with you know your device can be almost what folks are expecting online so don't be afraid to sort of use the tools and the resources at your fingertips to start creating immediately. And, and you can really use video for a whole host of different purposes I guess at this point I've sort of touched upon a lot of them. But the bottom line is that there's just no question that video content on social media is more engaging than written content alone. So it's really important that in one way or another you start sort of diving into the world of video creation. If we have a number of different types of videos that we like to do. I think I what I can do is, I will share at least one, and I'm going to see what the time timing looks like after this, but in one of these this video was that I'm going to share was created with the purpose to increase awareness of tech soup and how we can help nonprofits with you know, gaining more tech soup members getting more people involved in the tech soup community and, and then getting more nonprofits to be using technology at their, at their organization so I'm just going to share this video now it's only about a minute 22. So, I know that there's been a number of requests for visual aids and I hope this helps break out a break break this up a bit. Food for Thought is a nonprofit based in Sonoma County, California that provides comprehensive nutrition services to over 2000 people living with serious illnesses including HIV, COVID-19 and a range of other conditions. Through discounted and donated products and services from TechSoup, Food for Thought has saved thousands and thousands of dollars on programs that we use every day, and this saves us time and money that we can then use to help feed our clients in need. From TechSoup's blogs and articles, I've gotten helpful tips on everything from grant reporting to how to transition to working from home during COVID. I've taken webinars with TechSoup this year to help me plan events. We had to transition our events from in-person events to virtual events and TechSoup webinars have been super helpful in providing me with tips and tricks on how to do so. I always tell anybody that I come into contact with in my profession if they don't know about TechSoup to join right away. From one nonprofit to another, if you haven't joined TechSoup already, I recommend you go for it. You'll save money, you'll learn a lot and you'll be connected to other nonprofits all around the world. I'm looking at the time, and so I did have these other two videos to share, one of which is just a tips and tricks video, which would fall into the educational content category. And another one is more of a traditional advertisement that maybe some folks on the call have received about getting a free Adobe Express, which I guess works here because it's a wonderful video creation software that's super affordable and easy to use. But just to dive into that example, I just shared a bit. We did that obviously like there's a little bit of earlier COVID days that are sort of tonally around that, but I will say that in order to produce that video, I produce that myself with our team. And those interviews were all conducted remotely. We were able to find an organization who was interested in working with us. In that case, I did something and I'm happy to sort of share this in more detail if someone reaches out. But like, there's a whole process that you can conduct a video on an interview on Zoom, but then ask that person to speak directly into their smartphone camera to in order to get the video clip because they're going to have a higher degree of resolution from a phone than you might from a webcam. And so those were remotely conducted interviews, and then we requested from the organization if they had any existing video of their mission and action which they did. That's called B roll. So we were able to sort of gather all of those pieces together and use some royalty free music behind it in order to create that video entirely from, you know, six different places around the country for it. And we did so with a relatively low drain on our resources so that's, I wanted to share that one if I only had time to share one because I think it's a good example of how accessible video content creation really can be. Okay. So, again, like these, there are a number of different, you know, sort of tools that you could be using to create video adobe expresses sort of a lighter weight version of adobe creative cloud and definitely certainly certainly more accessible to the person just getting into video content creation. Canva. I feel like many people are familiar with Canva. That's really more for like, almost like animated slides etc, which are also like super important to folks and they can be really easy to use, and then video scribe is is a whiteboard animation software again, anybody can use that as well.  And then here's the last thing that I do want to get into and this is the, if you build it they will come pitfall that folks will fall into. So, a lot of it's easy to think that you put the time and the energy and the resources into writing this perfect blog, or creating this perfect video. And it's just itself is so beautiful and so hard hitting and so emotional that, of course, everybody's going to engage with it right just because it exists and because you put it up on your basic social media channel. And then everybody's just going to come and they're going to tell their friends and everybody's going to suddenly like, you know, engage with this content and the truth is that that's just not true. Your content needs to be shared in a really intentional and strategic way in order to get people to the message that you are putting out there. A quick caveat SEO helps with this because SEO will having a post a blog post that has high SEO value will get served up to somebody in the event that they ask a specific question Google and that's the first result that comes up. Sure. That's like kind of a whole nother thing. But for this section I want to talk about kind of three ways that you can actively promote your content. The first one is email, email in the world of social media and paid ads and everything email is still so effective as I think many people on the webinar probably already know but creating a new, you know, if you have a newsletter and you're building out that email list, creating like a structured time and place where you're sharing content to that community is really crucial and I'll go over the example from tech soup in a moment. Social media, of course, keeping your social media active with and make in creating content that's that's really engaging for your community who are just following you super important. You also probably there's also the idea of using paid ads. If you do have budget to do so. And again that that can also be done in a fairly economical way. We're not going to get into the specifics of setting up social media ad campaigns or Google ad campaigns but we can share some links to specifically the Google for nonprofits program which in some courses that we have around the Google ad grant. So, in tech soups by the cup newsletter. It's that is produced by myself and my colleague Amy Hooper and that is our content newsletter and so what you what what we do there is we share the most recent blog content, and then also webinar content in that send so we've spent years building in our email list for recipients there and that's where probably that's one of the most direct channels that we black blast out our content to and without that newsletter. You know, we would not get as much engagement with all the great stuff that we're producing a tech soup so the power of your newsletter as a channel to share your content can't be understated. There we go. The next thing is social media ad content. It's a great way to push people to your content. The way social social media algorithms have changed a great deal to really make an impact. A lot of times you really unfortunately do need to have a boost. So that's that's something to consider as well. And lastly, using the Google ad grant and Google for nonprofits there are a number of ways to set up a search engine advertisements that will more directly push people to the content that you create. But in general, in the same way that you don't want to spend time creating a video or doing one interview and then getting just one piece of content from that. So you're all the time. Either paying someone to write content or to create that content without thinking in mind how you're going to distribute that right though that that that second piece is something that where the balls dropped a lot and it's really important that that second piece is considered. Okay, so that brings me to the end of my planned. presentation. I see that there are tons of questions in the q amp a which is amazing and I'm going to go in and I see that there's been a number of. There's been a lot of activity in the chat itself so thank you to Susan 10 be thank you to Amy Hooper for really helping out there. So let me let me kind of go through a couple things. I know we have five minutes left and I want to be mindful of everyone's time but trade Warner Warner where would I find a person to do this work for my nonprofit so they're, you know, going to a site like fiber or up work can be really, really helpful. There, there are a lot of these online sort of talent marketplaces where folks, you can search for job skills and put in the budget that you have and, you know, to be honest the talent varies quite a bit on those sites that you do need to do quite a bit of money, but there are certainly looking on on up work and fiber can be really helpful in terms of finding an affordable content writer. And, okay, let me see here. I see that Shannon for Gerald's question was answered by another folks, a person in the Q amp a so thank you there. Hi, at least what's the best strategy to balance preaching to the choir and actually bringing in new and uninitiated audiences. Do's and don'ts creating content meant to be consumed by audiences within the organization. So, yeah, so I mean that comes down to really central question of creating content for specific audiences right like if they're, you, I guess one, a quick way to consider that would be if you're creating content from for an audience that doesn't know about your work or your mission. Always assume that you have to provide a certain degree of background education and information to a new audience I think that that's something that happens. A lot. Oh my gosh I've been off video for a little bit here. That's something that happens a lot. Where you.  So I think that would be easier. LinkedIn posts how should the content. How should the like okay so question about LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a channel I think that is that that's much more formal than, you know, any kind of other typical social media channel so I would say that that's a place where I think thought leadership is a great place to be. You are most appropriate for places like LinkedIn, not exclusively but yeah I would say that that's sort of your most professional channel. Let's see here. Oh, Jared the question about chap GPT. You know, I think I think the jury's out on all of that. I think that there are tools that are going to continue this is maybe my own personal opinion there are tools that are continue going to continue to come online that are going to do more and more of this work. I think that you. The one thing, I guess the one thing I would advise. I think it's a personal and organizational decision around the extent to which you want to leverage AI technology in that way. I would, I would say, never think that the AI does all the work for you in that as of right now. It is so important to continue to be infusing that with a regular human perspective in specifically a human review right especially if you're creating content that's really meant to connect with folks very specific. Very specific communities with very specific needs, the, the life, the danger of kind of creating something that just really, really feels like it was written super generically is pretty high. So, regardless of where, you know, AI takes us in 2023, especially for organizations involved in mission driven work. I think it's maybe more important than ever to make sure that that content is personally connected. Okay, let's see here. Oh, in, you know, I'll end with this. Do we have to get immediate do you have to get me releases signed. The short answer is yes, I mean, you, you, it's very important to get a basic signature for immediate release signed just because you always want to be protecting yourself from any liability out there for using someone's likeness in a way that they were not expecting. Okay, so I would I, I definitely air on the side of on the side of caution with media releases for sure. Wow. This has been so wonderful folks I'm, I'm so thrilled that we have that that there's been so much conversation happening in the chat and so much engagement with the question and answer. It, you know, it's been a real blast for me to sit here and talk to you folks this is truly what I love to do. I love helping nonprofits and I love to share anything that I possibly can that makes this sort of that makes the whole content creation process that much easier or more meaningful for your organizations. Here's my email, you can email me directly. And if there are some extra questions that you know that you may have or some suggestions or you just want to stay in touch. But that is all for me. Again, I hope you enjoyed this conversation and the information that I shared will have this up on the textbook website pretty soon, the recording and the slides.  It's, it's been a great time talking to you. So take care. Happy Wednesday. Hope to see you soon.