Join Our Team – Hiring an Account Manager for Red Rover
Red Rover** is a free online tool for schools to use that improves education by increasing engagement, effectiveness, and relevancy. We are out to change education for the better and looking for someone, maybe you, to join our team. As Red Rover continually expands to more and more schools, we want to hire a part-time […]
Engagement & The Tale of Two Grateful Dead Shirts
As 1,200 students filed into the room for my talk, I planted myself by the front door with a few orientation leaders and we became the informal welcoming crew. We greeted the students with smiles and good morning wishes. I commented on cool or unique clothing I saw as a way to personalize the greeting and make […]
Red Rover Intro Video for Students
After we created our Red Rover intro video for staff/admin about 4 months ago, we knew we’d soon need an intro video for students. After a few rounds of adjustments and grammar corrections, here it is: VIDEO BROKEN** Red Rover Intro Video for Students** from Swift Kick on Vimeo. ** Link Broken as of June/2019
New Admin Stats Dashboard for Red Rover – Real Time Retention Reporting
As students use Red Rover more and more, our goal is to give as much of the user data back to the Admins in a usable format in real-time so they can take action. Here’s an example of the new stats dashboard: FILE NO LONGER AVAILABLE http://www.redteamconsulting.com/031812/data/Same Day Payday Loans Reviews Stay tuned as we […]
Cutting the Fat
My fiancee and I (Tom) recently sold our car and signed up for the non-profit car sharing service iGo Cars**. Our reasons for breaking free from the car chains were partly environmental, economical, and practical as we live in downtown Chicago. But three months into the program, I discovered another unexpected reason and it interestingly […]
Say Hello to the First Official Red Rover Newsletter
We’ve joked about making the tag line for Red Rover be, “Students Actually Use It!” The proof of course is in the pudding which we’ve already talked about**. We see the students as our “customer” first and the admin/staff as our “customer” second. Most higher ed software solutions seem to think the opposite. Just look […]
Marketing Red Rover with a Facebook Note
The list of schools signing up to use Red Rover is growing daily, with UCLA being the newest. A great byproduct of so many active users navigating the system is seeing the new creative ways in which admins and group leaders are marketing Red Rover. Nick Chapa, a group leader at UCLA, wrote this note […]
On The Avoidance of Naked Lawsuits
On CNN.com today, there’s a front page article announcing that the “Naked Cowboy” has been given the green light to pursue a lawsuit against Mars candy, the makers of M & Ms, for trademark infringement. Funny enough, a CNN analyst thinks he has a case and could win a tidy sum. At Swift Kick, we […]
First Year Disorientation: Retention and Community in Higher Education, Part 1
I grew up in Minnesota and went to college at the University of Oregon. In high school, I had an incredible group of friends. I was never the cool guy per se, but I felt appreciated, influential, and comfortable. My first year in Oregon was a social mess. I was lonely and often depressed. In […]
Web 2.0 to Take Down Blackboard
In the Chronicle this afternoon there was a choice quote: Weller says new Web tools (such as wikis and video-capture technology) put power in the hands of students, but traditional learning-management systems (such as Moodle and Blackboard) emphasize central control by the learning institutions, so he predicts that “monolithic LMSs will be deserted, digital tumbleweed […]