Dell Responds

Bri Brewer from Dell Computers responded regarding my post of a couple days ago. In that post, I admittedly upbraided her and Dell for the senseless Tweets being published by the company's flagship ed tech program. Here's her response followed by my letter back to her.

I’m sorry if some of my tweets have offended you. Thank you for your feedback. I will be taking this into account for future tweets from the Dell Edu4U twitter feed. There are many Dell employees on Twitter and many of us think there is room to introduce some personality into the work we do. Just to be clear, the goal behind all of our education-focused social media efforts like Edu4U.com, the Education blog, Twitter and beyond is to connect with educators, students and school officials to help us be a useful member of the Education community. Mark's role on the board of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills is one part of our broader commitment to serving the education community, including students, teachers, parents, and administrators. In my own role, I am the online community manager for our education blog and work with our education team and industry experts to publicize resources and best practice sharing for teachers via our blog and Edu4U. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you in the future to this end and appreciate the sincerity of your commitment to education and educational technology.

Sincerely,
Bri Brewer, Dell

Dear Bri,

You know, it's not really a matter of being 'offended'. I'm a teacher; it's hard to 'offend' me. What I'm much more concerned about is that you 'represent' me.

Allow me to explain.

I'm a teacher in a paperless classroom. It's taken me three years of constant work to get to this point. I spent the first year obsessively studying educational technology and digital culture. I laid out the structure of what a successful paperless classroom would look like and I applied myself to the blogosphere like a fiend. In the second year, I went completely paperless; i.e. I stopped using paper altogether. I started organizing my classes by blogs and RSS feeds. And this last year I've had my students go completely paperless; all of their work -- including tests, quizzes, projects, and classwork -- is done online using the resources of Web 2.0.

And despite the comments of readers on this blog -- the majority of whom are excited about going digital in their own classes -- the overwhelming response I've gotten from veteran teachers has been one of fear and loathing.

Let's just say that Tweets about tequila shots posted by the online community manager of Dell's educational technology wing haven't made my job any easier.

Because you -- as a major public voice of the technological world and as representing the second most successful computer seller in the world -- represent us ed techies to many of our colleagues. And your Tweets -- your attempts to introduce personality into the work you do -- help define us ed techies in the eyes of those of our colleagues who are looking for excuses to bail on technology altogether.

I would think that anyone in your position would have thought long ago about the power that your words would carry.

I understand that this Digital Age thing is new and tricky. I've certainly put my foot in my mouth both on this blog as well as in comments on the blogs of others. But I'm just a small time teacher at a semi-rural suburban school in Maryland. You on the other hand are the ed tech voice of the 25th most powerful corporation in the known universe.

What I say may or may not be long soon forgotten. What you say can and may influence the way vast millions of people think about educational technology.

Twitter is an incredibly powerful medium. How we treat it and use it now may define how it is used in the future. Furthermore, how we treat social media at large is defining how our kids are coming to understand it. I take you at your word that you are trying to be a "useful member of the Education community". I hope to see this reflected in your Tweets.

I encourage you to follow some of the great ed tech Twitterers in getting a handle on what "useful" looks like. DM me at @TeachPaperless for more info.

sincerely,
Shelly

Dell Must Hate Us

Ok, so what does the Computer World think of us Ed Techies? Well, here's a clue as to what Dell thinks:

r u kidding? I am freaking out - I totally hav a problem! NYC is my fave!

Maybe that's not representative as to the corporate line... how about this:

either way not as tummy w/o the tequila:)

No, no, that's not it... how about:

showing my hubby how Twitter works, can anyone say hi? TY! :)

I'm sorry, I have to step away for a minute to throw up.

You see, these are not the rambling Tweets of a totally-freaking-out sorority girl wannabe. These are the 'official' public Tweets of the lead representative of Dell Computer's Edu4U program.

Now, I'm all for playful Tweets. There is a time and place for everything. And I'm sure that I've got more than my fair share of comments on the Web that can easily be taken out of context. I'm not a newb. I know how these things work. But, in looking over "Bri's" Tweets today, we're talking about the world's second largest computer-seller portraying Ed Tech teachers and thinkers as the Gossip Girls.

Now, why is this freaky and not just in bad taste?

Because Mark Horan, Vice President and General Manager for Dell’s Public Accounts group in the United States, is on the board of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

It is absolutely unlikely that the folks involved in Mr. Horan's work on that board would not be aware of the tenor of Dell's Ed Tech flagship site.

This is unacceptable.

If nothing else, it undermines the professionalism of the thousands of educators and ed tech thinkers who actually rely on Twitter and various Web 2.0 sites on a daily basis both for information and as platforms for creative expression and learning in their classes.

We're catching enough hell for trying to use these resources to teach kids. The last thing we need is a fake Ed Techie obscuring what we're trying to do with Valley Girl talk.

As a teacher who has been actively experimenting with Twitter as a learning tool and who has seen Twitter infuse the engagement of students with a fresh spirit, as well as better assessment scores, I find Dell's foray into social networking to be insulting and completely out-of-touch.

Redefining Vendor/Customer Relationships

My colleague, Joe Panettieri, reports that Dell has won its largest managed services agreement ever with the state of Georgia.

This contract illustrates how Dell, and other technology vendors, are shifting their go-to-market strategies to respond to customers' changing IT management needs.

Anyone who follows the technology industry knows that Dell has been struggling to keep pace with HP when it comes to computer sales. What few casual observers have recognized is how Dell has amassed a new set of remote management capabilities via a series of acquistions over the past year and a half.

Why Managed Services Matter
During that time, Dell has acquired SilverBack Technologies, Everdream, EqualLogic and MessageOne to serve as the foundation for a new portfolio of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and managed service capabilities.

Dell understands that it will have a difficult time outpacing HP and other technology vendors on the strength of its products alone as laptops, desktops and servers become more commoditized.

Instead, Dell and other vendors must differentiate themselves on their ability to help customers generate the greatest value from their systems. This means redefining their services to help customers, and their channel partners, better manage these assets to optimize their performance.

Redefining the Meaning of Support
The most cost-effective way for vendors to monitor these devices and proactively administer them is via managed services. The best way for them to offer these capabilities to their channel partners or customers is via SaaS solutions.

These 'on-demand' services redefine the nature of vendor/customer relationships. Customers no longer have to assume the responsibility for managing their systems and software, and wait for their vendors to respond to their problems when something goes wrong.

Now, they can shift the burden on their vendor to ensure the uptime and performance of their systems and software. By the same token, vendors can no longer boast about their customer support response times. Instead, they must demonstrate their willingness to take on this greater responsibility.