Hi Mike, I have a teenage daughter who is college bound in the next few years. She is more connected electronically to her friends than I could ever hope to be (or maybe want to be). She does not use Twitter either, but it escapes me how this tragedy could have fallen into the black hole of silence (especially given the time lapse)… given the social media tools this generation depends on for everyday activity. There must be more to it I’m not seeing. Thanks for dropping by. Susan.

Hi Dennis– I have a feed on your blog, but did not see this. I will comment there. Thanks.

Mike - my kids draw a blank when I mention Twitter, too.

Susan, I have talked to several educational institutions on sync/async communication and they struggle with notifications to students (cancelled classes and such). While students receive an e-mail account, many students rarely check it, prefering to keep their own e-mail accounts as their primary inbox. The same goes for IM accounts. Students use multiple online services. This fragments the problem across AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!. Students often also have different cell phone carriers (Verizon, AT&T, etc) and schools are not always kept current on what changes students make to personal cell phone services - some students may not want to share their personal cell phone numbers as well. Not all campus environments have good reception either (for instance, I cannot call my daugher on her cell in her dorm, she needs to be out on campus somewhere). Finally, not everyone is aware of Twitter (or similar tools). I have asked various friends of my daughter’s (around 20 so not scientific at all) and they had not heard of it or had not tried it.

I don’t disagree with the need for a student alerting system, but unfortunately it is not as easy as it sounds given the diversity of what people might be using. That said, there should be a manageable way to contact all campus employees (via e-mail or an SMS alert) since a school can dictate communication tools and procedures for staff use.

Susan-

Check this out:
“What Is Your Family’s Emergency Communications Plan?”
http://smc.blogtronix.net/blog/DennisMcDonald?bid=7352

- Dennis