Hello, I’m Vinnie, the teams’ socialite journalist.

As Community Manager I am the connection between you and our investigation: “Are West Midlands universities doing enough to prevent student drop outs?“ My engagement with the community will expand as our investigation progresses, eventually drawing insight and direct responses from the likes of students, drop outs, those in the educational profession, unions, and many more sources.

Twitter:

Our Twitter account is my first tool of community engagement. Here I have already started to follow appropriate sources for our investigation. Each follow has been listed accordingly (with further lists in development) for ease of locating particular information from particular sources.Here are some examples of lists I have created and accounts we are following:

Education-related news: which follows accounts such as @TimesEducation.

Student-sources: which follows accounts such as @studentroom.

Official bodies: which follows accounts such as @educationgovuk.

Universities: which follows accounts such as @MyBCU.

Professionals: which follows accounts such as @AnnMroz.

Unions/Groups/Other: which follows accounts such as @ESUtwt.

If you have any recommendations for me to follow then I welcome your suggestions…

Google Reader/RSS Feeds:

My investigating of educational and appropriate sources is done efficiently through the use of Google Reader and RSS feeds. With this tool I have created my own bundle that allows me to get updates from useful sites in a uniformed and easily accessible manner. Feeds already added to my bundle include: BBC Education, The Department of Education, the NUS new-feed and the Guardian Education. I will be expanding the feeds within my bundle as time progresses, if you have any recommended feeds than once again I welcome your suggestions…

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is another resource tool I am using to engage with employers and professionals who may be useful in our investigation. Through LinkedIn I will build contacts and communication with professionals who may shed light on answers in our investigation. Are you on LinkedIn?, you may be useful to us…

Delicious:

Lastly, I am also keeping track of the useful sites, forums, and blogs I discover by creating my own stacks (bookmarks) on Delicious.com. By doing so I can keep record of any important discussions in the communities I am engaging with. Delicious gives me the advantage of keeping all of these sources of engagement in a uniformed and easily accessible manner.