This document discusses generational trends in education. It notes that family is still the biggest passion for Australians and word-of-mouth remains the most trusted form of marketing. When selecting a school, consistent teachers, class size, playgrounds and facilities are most important to parents. While technology use has increased, television, email and radio remain common weekly activities. The challenges for schools are engaging parents through various communication methods, integrating appropriate technology, and developing advocacy through positive student and family experiences.

1. Generational Trends in Education
Jason Dunstone
Founder and Managing Director
Square Holes
www.linkedin.com/in/jasondunstone
6 September 2013
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2. Who is Jason Dunstone?
2

3. No brand, issue, school or uni is an island!
3

4. Digital RevolutionGlobal Financial Crisis
orConfused Excited?
4

5. “There is a lack of
confidence and lack of a
burning platform to do
something from both
consumers and business.
Business is saying ‘I’m
stable I can keep going like
this but if I take a risk...’”
[SA Business] 5

6. GFC
“It’s pretty tough”
6

7. GFC
iTunes launched January 2001… now 800 app downloads per second
[2B+ per month!]
Facebook launched February 2004… now 1B+ active users
iPhone launched June 2007… now 1.5B+ users
7

8. “I can do so much more over the Internet
without having to call a company”
“Technology does not make life better, just
destroys a sense of community by fabricating a
sense of informal non face-to-face socialisation”
“It has connected me with people who have impacted greatly on my life”
“My laptop opens the world to me”
“Performing every day tasks online - banking,
shopping, research”
“Keep in touch with family”
“Better connectivity to family & friends when travelling”
“Finding better-priced goods and services
through the Internet”
“I like
researching
family
history - and
technology
has allowed
me to do
this from my
own home”
“Allowed to me to apply for lots of jobs online”
“Has freed up some of my time” “Feel safer”
“Lose weight”
“Banking on the move”
8

9. “History is more or less
bunk. It's tradition. We don't
want tradition. We want to
live in the present and the
only history that is worth a
tinker's dam is the history
we made today”
Henry Ford [Industrialist]
“There are only patterns, patterns on
top of patterns, patterns that affect
other patterns. Patterns hidden by
patterns. Patterns within patterns. If
you watch close, history does nothing
but repeat itself. What we call chaos is
just patterns we haven't recognized.
What we call random is just patterns we
can't decipher. What we can't
understand we call nonsense.
What we can't read we call gibberish.”
Chuck Palahniuk [Author]
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10. 5 things that haven’t changed
1. Family is the biggest passion of Australians
2. Word-of-mouth is the most trusted marketing
3. People still watch TV
4. Donors give to what they care about
5. Life wasn’t meant to be easy
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11. What is the one thing you ‘love’ above all else?
11

12. Passions
44% ‘love’ their FRIENDS
82% ‘love’ their FAMILY
Good food 40%
Travel Oz 26%
Travel O/S 30%
Internet 22%
Reading 24%
Eating out 23%
Movies 24%
Relaxing 21%
New things 21%
12

13. 13

14. “I see the core unit as more
important than everything
else in my life. It comes
before jobs and finances, it
comes before everything.
Everything comes second to
my family.” 14

15. Selecting a school …
15

16. 1. Consistent carers / teachers
[64% extremely important, 96% overall]
2. Class size
[62% extremely important, 94% overall]
3. Open spaces / play grounds
[52% extremely, 93% overall]
4. Up to date facilities [43%, 91% ]
5. Extracurricular activities [30%, 78%]
6. Academic record of school [28%, 79%]
7. Location of school / centre [25%, 72%]
8. Family or friends recommendation
[16%, 65%]
9. Ability to stay in one facility
kindergarten-12 [13%, 37%]
10.Prestige of school [7%, 32%]
High importance
Moderate importance
Low importance
16

17. 4%
5%
7%
12%
8%
14%
17%
17%
15%
23%
22%
21%
18%
26%
35%
57%
4%
6%
7%
13%
15%
15%
19%
18%
20%
19%
26%
23%
27%
31%
34%
57%
5%
8%
11%
18%
24%
23%
21%
26%
28%
25%
31%
34%
35%
39%
37%
62%
5%
6%
8%
15%
16%
18%
20%
21%
21%
24%
26%
27%
27%
32%
36%
58%
Where I went to school [old scholar]
Prestige of school
Ability to stay in one facility from
kindergarten to yr 12
Sporting facilities and opportunities
Play equipment / play grounds
Extracurricular activities offered
My experience with the teachers / school
community
Cost [affordability]
Open spaces for children to play
Academic record of a school
Family or friends recommendation
Up to date facilities
Consistent carers/ teachers for children
from day to day
The class size
Reputation of school
Location of a school / centre- close to
home or work
KEY INFLUENCES IN CHOOSING A SCHOOL
Total [n=1201] 0-5 years [n=656] 6-11 years [n=743] 12-18 years [n=867]
17

18. “The private system
the facilities are
just to die for,
however, the actual
teaching is no
better or worse
than you get in a
State school.”
“Dedicated teachers
who genuinely want
to see children learn
and grow and
become the best
they can be, to be
encouraging and
patient and giving
of heart.”
“If you go back to the old saying that a person
doesn’t raise your child the community does. You
have to get everyone involved.” 18

19. Media – old and new …
19

20. Parents do this at least weekly …
97% watch TV at least weekly
92% email
89% radio
66% read local newspaper
61% use a smart phone
60% use social media
30% use a tablet / IPad
20

21. 41% access school
website at least
each term
41% likely to follow
school on social media
such as Facebook 21

22. “I don’t know if it’s just
our generation, but we
look at Facebook as a
fun thing not as a way
of telling me about
important things.”
22

23. “Technology is evolving and
this is how the world is going,
so we need to put effort into
something different, and you
know, heaps of teachers are
resistant to it because it’s time,
it’s confidence, it’s
understanding how to use it.”
[Primary school teacher] 23

24. Early childhood
• Intimate
• Highly involved
parents
• A few carers
Primary school
• Parents
transitioning to
less teacher
contact
• Students start to
have more
teachers
High school
• Formal
• Passive parents
• Many teachers
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25. Early childhood Primary school High school
Teachers
Gaining parent trust
Need to be available
Give feedback
Mixed parent engagement
Mixed parent expectations
Intense
Formal
Through administration
Parents
Involved
Friendly
Drop-off / pick-up
Personal
Individualised
Community
Involved
Depends on the teacher
Depends on the principal
Developing
Drop-off / pick-up
Passive
Not engaged
Don’t ask
Formal
Parent – teacher relationships
25

26. Communication at schools
Number of Mediums + Parent Distance
Early childhood Primary school High school
Primarymediums
Blog
Chart (sign-in/out)
Communications book
Email
Face-to-face
Phone call
Photos
Pigeon hole
SMS
Communications book
Diary
Edmodo
Email
Events
Face-to-face
Forms
Newsletter
Online/email newsletter
Phone call
SMS
Social media
Website
Word of Mouth
DayMap
Diaries
Edmodo
Email
Facebook
Face-to-face
LearnLink
Letters
Moodle
Newsletter
Online/email newsletter
Phone call
Portal login
SMS
Website
26

27. Current perceptions of technology availability
Classroom Teachers [personal use] Parents [home]
Device
Early
childhood
Primary
school
High
school
Early
childhood
Primary
school
High
school
Early
childhood
Primary
school
High
school
Desktop
Computer
5 5 9
Laptop 5 11 21
Smartphone 3 8 19
iPhone 3 7 13
Tablet 3 0 4
iPad 3 1 5
Internet
Not available High availability
27

28. [Educational]
ABC Kids, ABC Reading Eggs,
ColourMatch, Cool Math Games, Google
Earth, Google Maps, Jolly Phonics,
Leapfrog, Mathletics, Maths Workout,
Maths Online, Memory Games, Sightwords,
Star Walk, Typing, YouTube
[Operational]
Facebook, Skype, Twitter
[Support]
Beyond Blue
[Services]
CFS, Family Assistant, Immunisation,
Medical Assist, School Library Association
Types of apps:
Parents
28

29. Types of apps:
Teachers
[Educational]
BurstMode, Click View, Dartfish, Flash
Cards, Letter School, Pearson, Story Book,
The Wrong Book,
YouTube
[Operational]
Attendance Tracker, Class Dojo
DayMap, Drop Box
Edmodo, Gmail, Google drive
Learn Link, Moodle, Skool Bag,
StudyLab, Vivo, Weebly, Word Press
[Support]
Drug Free
[Services]
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30. Early Childhood Primary school High school
Teachers
Enhance learning
Finding quality of apps
Come up to speed – wi-fi etc
Teaching and learning apps
Sharing between centre and home life
Better alignment of parent expectations
Having teachers on the ‘front line’ making
decisions
Making teachers more accountable
[making ‘good teachers’]
Making the teacher workload more relevant
Safety alerts to parents
Training
Universal consistency
A ‘running’ grade
An ‘Adelaide Now’ style of school newsfeed
Consistency
Empowering keen staff
Improving attendance
Keeping parents engaged
Policies
Removing ‘clunkyness’
Social media
Technology for staff
Uploading by students/teachers
Parents
Teacher profiles
Community and social sharing of events
Consistency
Continuity from care to home
Forums
Need feedback from kids that is accurate
Online booking of teachers
Points/topics to talk about with children
Real-time notifications
Regular updates
Time saving
Absentees
Broader offering
Calendars & reminders of dates
Child progress
Diary interaction
Homework assignments
Curriculum
Issues management
Opportunities to volunteer
Reporting bullying
Sharing content
Teacher booking service
Absentees
Access to teachers
App version of a portal website
Calendar
Child progress
Curriculum
Events and meetings coming up
Helping students to plan
Reporting bullying
30

31. Education and marketing
31

32. “If you are not relevant you are invisible”
“If you are not sincere I can’t trust you”
32

33. Brand building
Demonstration
Usage
Advocacy
Marketing from the outside in,
and inside out …
33

34. Brand building
Demonstration
Mass media
Open days
Success stories
Philosophy
Visibility
Facts
34

35. Demonstration
Usage
Advocacy
Word-of-mouth
Word-of-mouth continues to be the most relied upon and
trusted form of marketing and nine in ten share …
98% verbally
20% via email
12% Facebook
02% Twitter
Much of the
strategic
challenge is
how to
generate
positive
word-of-
mouth
35

36. Usage
Advocacy
Developing a strong school ‘community’
Around 35% parents
have a strong
connection
50% engaged, but
open to alternative
15% unengaged
Alumni
Parents
Students
Teachers
Leader
In addition to positive
word-of-mouth, these are
the future donors,
bequests and supporters. 36

37. Brand building
Demonstration
Usage
Advocacy
Mass media
Word-of-mouth
Marketing from the outside in,
and inside out …
37

38. There is indication that consumer
confidence may be improving, but
life will continue to be tough.
Fears of increasing household and
other bills impact confidence and
the willingness to lock into
expensive items, donations and
other discretionary spending.
38

39. Dreamers Jo Average Survivors Carefree
A bit about me …
My mind is firmly set
on the future – living
the dream.
Experiencing life,
learning new things
and chilling out.
I’m a typical person.
My family is
important to me, yet
I also love new
experiences.
I’m on a lower than
average income just
getting by how best I
can. My family is
important
I’m older focused on
my family. Other
loves include new
experiences, and
time to relax.
Segment size 29% 48% 11% 12%
Age Skewed to younger Spread across Spread across Skewed to older
Confidence High Moderate Low Mod-High
Experiences 73% 78% 28% 71%
Personal Growth 32% 38% 13% 35%
Time Out 55% 51% 33% 55%
Active Lifestyle 34% 39% 14% 29%
Escape 24% 33% 18% 6%
Family 47% 87% 50% 92%
39

40. “That love that is
there and it just
grows, you’d die
for your kids.”
40

41. Generational Trends in Education
Jason Dunstone
Founder and Managing Director
Square Holes
www.linkedin.com/in/jasondunstone
6 September 2013
41