Marilyn
There is so much being said about digital media. I am writing a book on how to disseminate any project. It is full of suggestions about how to use digital media. There is no way around it. A lot of our life is in the cloud. Even if you are conducting classes or support group in person, participants will want to prepare in advance and follow-up afterwards for additional information. Where will they go? The Internet of course. Just like we do. And there aren’t enough trees left on the planet to supply the number of copies necessary for everyone who wants the most updated copy of something we are distributing.
If a blog is not quite right for you, consider a Facebook page. They are easy to do, free and amazingly effective in getting the word out for any project you have going. Here is an infographic (another great way to present information) on which social media sites have the most users. Facebook is aggressive in developing all kinds of services and they continue to be a dominant force.
Take a look at YouTube (owned by Google). WOW! YouTube is the second biggest search engine. Who does anything without seeing if there is a video on YouTube first? You may want to just start disseminating a project on YouTube. You can also have a video chat/presentation. Other features include being able to add subtitles, link to social media and many more features.
My favorite source of information on technology is a website: FreeTechnologyForTeachers. To say that the information in “free” is not quite right. Nothing should be totally free. Although there is not a monetary cost to what you will use, there are several important things you can do to exchange the information you receive for value actions the sponsors of the website want and appreciate. Here is a list (you will want this too when you have your Internet presence):
- Share the information
- Link to the information
- Leave a review/comment
- Purchase product listed on the website (if you are going to buy them) by clicking on links or using special codes. This provides a small income to the developer to cover the cost of the website. There are costs.