Technology Essentials in Education Episode 18:
The Secret to Thriving Educator Networks

Hello there. My name is Monica Burns and welcome to Technology Essentials in Education. Today is all about what makes an educator community thrive and I'm chatting with Elana Leoni. I've known her for a while. She's my go-to person when it comes to educator communities. She's the founder of Leoni Consulting Group and the host of the All Things Marketing and Education podcast. Whenever I'm wondering about an educator community or have a question related to community, she is the person that I go to. In this episode, you'll hear why these spaces are so important for educators, how to make sure they're sustainable, and I even share a bit about how educator communities have shaped my own journey. So we talk about what to look for, how to make sure they are thriving, lots of great behind the scenes look, as well as tips from today's conversation. Let's get into it.

This episode is brought to you by Jotform. Jotform provides an all-in-one solution to streamline administrative tasks, enhance community engagement, and foster innovation. Using their no-code drag-and-drop forms and workflows, your teams can securely collect and store data, automate tasks, and collaborate on team resources. Educational institutions are also eligible for a 30% discount on Jotform Enterprise. Head to their website to learn more. Jotform.com slash enterprise slash education.

Welcome to the podcast. I am so excited to chat with you today about what makes an educator community thrive. But before we get into all of that, can you share with listeners a bit about your role in education? What is your day-to-day look like?

Sure. And thanks for having me on the podcast, Monica. I saw what we were going to be talking about and I already got fired up. I looked at the questions and I was talking to my team. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm already fired up about this. So thank you for that. For everybody, my name is Ilana Leone and I come from a deep background in education, but my entire team and agency, we call ourselves community marketers. So community, just when you start community, it never leaves you. It's this authentic way to really create relationships and approach the space that you live and breathe. So I didn't answer your question around the day-to-day, but I run a marketing agency. So my day-to-day kind of ebbs and flows. But if I am running a community, which maybe a lot of your educators are interested in, I am spending my day listening as much as possible as a community person. I am jumping in and listening to my community. If I have one, maybe I'm listening to my audience and we can talk about the difference down the road. I am depending on where your community is in the life cycle. And we, maybe we can get into theory if we want to, but I'm either stoking conversations and asking people to jump in or I'm starting conversations. I am that communication glue, letting people know what we're doing in the community, bringing them in all of the things.

Yeah. And you know, your perspective is one I really wanted to bring on to the podcast because so many educators are part of communities, hear about communities, maybe go to a conference and there's a meetup and half the people there are part of this community that they didn't know quite existed. And when you talk about community of educators, how do you define a community versus a group or like a network?

Yeah, that's a great question. And you wouldn't believe how many people get it wrong. I would say that in education and tech, we call things community a lot, but a community is only truly a community when the people in the community actually say it's a community. So let's back up. You say it's a community. You might just have an audience and that's okay. An audience is really just people that you talk to and they don't there. Maybe they're not aware of everybody in the other audience and they're not engaging and collaborating with the other people. And the true test of a community is if they actually care about one another. My colleague, Porter Palmer, who spent a decade over in the Discovery Educator Network, our community, she says communities can truly save lives. She's seen marriages. She's seen all of the things happen within communities. There's life changing. Communities can only occur if your community itself calls itself a community. There are other things like networks and a network is really like you go in and you're part of a network, but sometimes you go in with a need in mind. Part of a group, it's fairly transactional. I'm not wondering if Monica's okay or how is she dealing with the snow? I just, I don't even know who you are. I'm just asking a question and getting it actually. I think that's a really important distinction for educators who are maybe invited into a space to kind of have an understanding of what the goal of that space is or what experiences other people have had.

And I'm right there with Porter when it comes to being parts of a community where my life would be different if I didn't have that group of people. To not just ask questions, but to check in with, I think back of course to the pandemic where having those communities that maybe met a lot face to face were now going more virtual. And so it's really something that is an important part of so many educators lives or they're looking to become part of a community because they've heard stories like that that it really has been impactful in lots of ways.

So I wonder, why has community building become such an important focus in education?

I'd say community from a brand perspective has ebbed and flowed in terms of emphasis because starting a community is always easy. They say, I want to start it. Maybe it's a Slack channel or a Facebook group, or maybe it's something they've purchased, or maybe it's just not online, but it's just offline and it's events. So starting everything is somewhat easy, but maintaining it over time takes a lot of what I call sweat equity, a lot of just heart and passion. And it's a long term investment. So for those of you educators listening, if you're trying to think of what communities you belong to, most of them have been around for a good amount of time. And I don't want to take that lightly because it is an investment from the brand perspective. And I work on the strategy side to make sure that they keep going and they can quantify their return on investment a lot of times. Because the number one thing when communities fail is that they just have lost their buy-in from senior leadership. That means that senior leadership says, gosh, I know you're doing stuff in community, but how does it really translate to what we care about as a brand? And I know that sounds harsh, but a lot of the times when they are cutting things, they need to cut the things that they can't establish a direct connection to their goals. So I help them with that. So I think that community is fundamental in the education space. I think that we've seen uncertainty in the marketplace. So the commitment to community has ebbed and flowed over time. And when we had the pandemic, for example, when we saw everything upside down and in turmoil, the brands that stuck around were the brands that had a solid foundation of community. And it still gives me goosebumps to talk about it because people were like, hey, no, we'll help you. Hey, if you want to do PD, we'll do like they were just jumping in. I saw it. And so the power of community extends way beyond anything you can put on paper too.

Within educators in particular we want to learn. We're lifelong learners. We don't want to learn from a forum of like, okay, here's exactly how you do this one path. I want to learn from somebody who's in the same environment as me and guess what, they're awesome humans. So I became friends with them and I'm a passionate human. I want to know how you have adapted lessons to your unique area. I want to help. That's why I got into education because everyone's so selfless and they want to help and they're lifelong learners. Community is your house for that.

That's such a great point for someone who's maybe experienced being part of a community that fell apart. I think you and I both probably have stories where you just see the reaction if something shifts and a lot of times that's from someone who is not part of the community at a brand or company. They're looking down or looking in and they don't really see all of the great things that are happening there if they're measuring something different in order to think about success. And I've been a part of communities that have felt very successful and ones that have not felt right as connected, if you will. So I'm curious if you have some elements that you would describe as being the elements of a successful educator community, like what do they tend to have in common?

Yeah, I think the number one thing, and I've learned this all from my talented colleague Porter, is that you move at the speed of trust. When I am at the helm of a community and helping it grow and foster these connections, I move at the trust of my community. I move at that speed. I don't want to all of a sudden just introduce book talks every day because that's what my founder said he wanted to do. I want to really monitor and respect the pace that they want to grow and what they want to do. Growing a community is very much like if any educators do design thinking, it's co-creation. And so you want to move at the speed of trust and trust is so critical for a community because if you don't have trust, people can't be vulnerable and they have to feel safe enough to say, hey, I'm struggling. Can somebody help me or this happened to me. They have to feel safe enough that they won't get something screenshotted and sent to their admin, which some of you are listening might say, oh my gosh, I can't believe that happens. That happens on the daily in Facebook groups. So you have to move at the speed of trust.

Another best practice we always teach is this. If we are creating a community and say it's in the beginning infant stage, we create this really cool group, this like power user group, it might be a launch crew sometimes we call it, and they co-own it with us. So it's like a co-ownership of everything. Maybe people have different jobs, but they're jumping in and helping answer questions. We're kind of identifying other people to jump in. So it's not just a one person. If you go into a quote unquote community, and I say that because again, a community can only be if other people label it as a community, feel the sense of belonging and caring. But if you go into a community and it's just one community manager posting all of the time, that's not a community. And if it's the community manager answering all the questions, that's a forum. So it's really important to elevate member voices and empower them and grow the community the way they want it. One of the things we talk about is like, what do you want as an educator? Make sure your voice is heard, but then the company has to figure out what is that overlap between the educator need and the company need. And then we need a little bit of a reality check and say, what's our capacity to support this in the long-term and that magic in the middle is where your community lies. And that's the long-term success.

And I think that's important for educators who are listening to understand the best practices behind the scenes. If they're in a community and it feels safe and comfortable where they're ready to share, they're ready to ask, they're ready to problem solve with someone. You can tell kind of the same way when you walk into a school building, the energy is a certain way. And you can kind of get a sense right away. Like this is a place where people feel like they could ask for help or they can share an idea and someone's not going to be snarky about that idea that they have, even if they would do it differently. They feel supportive. And so for educators who maybe are in a group, maybe they felt really empowered to contribute. Maybe someone who is behind the scenes has put in the effort to make that happen. So how do you encourage contributions from members who might be hesitant to participate?

The scary fact of community, it's not scary, but it's a true fact, is that 90% of a community, educator or non, will lurk. And I think we're getting into a realm where there's more lurkers. And lurkers mean they're digesting the information, they're showing up, they just might not be contributing in a way that exposes themselves because it's scary. And especially your first time commenting, it's our role as community managers and maybe the launch crew and other people to make them feel welcome and positively reinforce them too. So I think that there's a lot that you can do around just safety and making sure that you're positively reinforcing people as much as possible, but you will always have a majority of people lurking.

And that is okay. That's really okay. We just want to make sure that they're getting their needs met as much as possible. And when we're talking community, I think a lot of this is translating to online, but offline, you can't really lurk too much. If you're at an event, that's a really great way to connect with people more one-on-one and it's less intimidating and you have that humanity front and center right now. So I always recommend when we're building a community, one, you want to co-create with educators and say, hey, how do you like to meet? But usually it's a mix. It's online and maybe there's like monthly zooms or Google meets where it's a little bit face-to-face but virtual. But most, a lot of brands will piggyback off of conferences and create little meetups. And that's where that magic happens of in-person and like having accountability with monthly meetups online and then just having that real time kind of like, you know, imagine if you had best friends helping you all, like there's so many communities where you can jump into and make sure you just feel seen and you don't feel so alone. And that's especially important for education.

You asked why communities are so fundamental because teaching is one of the most isolating professions out there.

As you were talking, I was thinking about how some of the communities I've been a part of, I taught in a school where I was very supported by my colleagues. I'm very close with them still. It's almost 20 years since my first time stepping into the classroom as a first year teacher. And there are teachers from that first year from my building who I talk with on a weekly basis. So I felt supported, but I didn't always feel like there were people who I was bouncing the same ideas off of who had the same interest, like the affinity for certain things. And it was so important to find that community that just hit something different on my checklist of what I was hoping to accomplish as a classroom teacher. I had to go out of a building where I did feel like I had a community of colleagues. And when you talked about the lurkers, I know there's groups that I'm part of that I might do more lurking than participating. But someone facilitating may jump into the comments and give that support and encouragement. But for someone listening who is not leading the community themselves but is an active member, that's a role that they can take on too. They can jump into the comments that they see someone's new who hasn't commented before and they just put in that extra effort to make sure that person feels welcome. They don't have to have a leader hat on in order to do that.

When you think about changes that might happen within a community, I know I've been part of communities where there's been leadership changes and that kind of shifts certain things, maybe some of the dynamics or how people post or respond or share. What advice do you have for sustaining a community through leadership changes or just those shifting priorities you alluded to earlier?

That's a good one. I realized when you were talking, I want to add in one more best practice for the educators joining communities. Maybe it might be new or you really like a product but you're really not sure how to jump in. Don't jump in with so many expectations in the beginning. Just pick maybe one or two of your favorite tools or your favorite, it could be a community about project based learning and not even about the tool itself, but pick one or two and jump in without a whole lot of, I'm going to get this out of this and this linear framework. I'm an ed camper at heart. I jump into ed camps. I know I'm going to meet inspiring people and I kind of have to go with the flow and see how I can jump in. I don't know if that makes sense, but so much to get into this linear mindset of like, I need this now. And that's not a way where you actually establish a relationship.

If you're in a community, you will see each other at an ISTE or an FE2C or 2CEA, and those community people will run and jump and hug. People go, whoa, what's wrong with them? It's because they have supported each other. And I will say as community or as educators, you're naturally more inclined to be type of a community person. You foster community in your classrooms, within your staff teams. I see it. A lot of you are very empathetic. You're very selfless. So I don't need to tell you one of the best rules, but I'll say it anyways, is that when you join a community, you should give a lot more than you take. And that's just a rule. You go in and say, gosh, are there any unanswered questions? How can I help? Always give more than you take and never swoop and poop. Don't jump in and be like, hey this is my new book right. No way. Nobody likes those people at a party.

Yes, no such a good point and just a good reminder for someone who's wondering how to navigate those spaces. Where do they start? They don't have to have a question to join a community either, but being part of that group is a long-term commitment. They can be a part of it and get something two months from now, even though they might have answered questions or shared a story or something a little lower impact to start. So how can educator communities support ongoing professional learning in ways that traditional PD might not? You mentioned EdCamps as a really good example, but what do you see in your observations and your conversations with educators?

I think joining a community is the most beneficial way to professionally develop on an ongoing basis. I see people join communities and they get extra certifications if it's allowed. They might get some type of recognition, badges. They might get offered to speak on national stages. They have opportunities to also understand how products are developed and talk with senior leadership. I see educators sometimes even transitioning into the education ed tech vendor world because they're immersed in the space and they care. So there's so many opportunities to have consistent, high quality professional development. And then imagine all the networking you're doing across schools, across the nation, you're learning, you're becoming a better learner. It's just the most effective way, in my opinion, to learn. And you just get to grow as a human. So I mean, you could tell I love communities. It is so aligned with what educators want and need all of the time.

And just the lifelong learning piece, I think is huge. This ability to continue conversations outside of maybe just one space. You have this group that you can continually go back to and grow with, which I think is one of the parts that makes it so exciting. So this was wonderful for people to get a behind the scenes look at what it takes to have a strong community, what they can do to be a part of a community if they've been thinking about different things or things they might even take into their own community building in their school district or region. And I want to make sure people continue to connect with you. I know you have a podcast. Where can people connect with you? Where can they learn more about your work?

Yeah, no problem. I wish we had another hour to talk about community. So I run an agency called Leone Consulting Group. We have a podcast that I run called All Things Marketing and Education, and you can tell what we talk about. I'm a marketer at heart, but always with community in mind, first and foremost. So you can get us at All Things Marketing and Education on all the podcasts, and that we're at leoneconsultinggroup.com. You can find us on all the socials, and I'm at Elana Leoni pretty much everywhere.

Amazing. Thank you so much.

Yeah, and we'll make sure to link things out so everyone can find you, stay connected, listen to your podcast too. Thank you so much for your time today.

Oh, and because your audience is super learner oriented, if you want to know more about community, go to the CMX. It's a great place to learn about what community can turn into. You can turn into a community professional if you want to. And then there's a person that I've learned all things community from called Richard Millington as well. He wrote a book called Buzzing Communities. So for those of you who just want to nerd out, hit me up and then also read about it too.

Perfect. And we'll link out to those resources so everyone can find it. Thank you so much for all of these great ideas and strategies for listeners.

Thanks everyone. This was such a fun conversation with Elana. Let's make this ed tech easy with a few key points from the episode. Community is defined by its members, not by a brand, and only exists when participants see themselves as connected and invested in one another. True communities require mutual care, collaboration, and awareness of fellow members. Communities thrive when built slowly and intentionally, grounded in trust and co-creation. Sustaining a community requires long-term commitment and clear buy-in from leadership. Thanks for listening to this episode with Elana. Make sure to stay connected with her if you are curious about educator communities and education marketing. A big thank you to Jotform, the presenter of today's episode. To learn more about Jotform and how educational institutions can get a 30% discount on Jotform Enterprise, head to jotform.com slash enterprise slash education.