The SA Blog - Archive - Online Tools

Over the Hedge?

As the father of a 3 ½ year old, I have found myself increasingly taking life lessons from children's movies. The 300 or so times I have watched Cars have taught me that if you go fast and turn right hard enough, you'll start going left, and that it's better not to be a “one man show.” Up reminded me to value my family and to never give up on my dreams. Then there's Over the Hedge…

“Spring has arrived and an array of creatures sleeping in a large tree trunk has awakened from their winter hibernation. This group of unusual creatures, porcupines, possums, a squirrel, a skunk, has formed a family with Verne, a tortoise (voice of Garry Shandling), as the head. They discover that a tall hedge has cut their forest in half and their nut and berry trees are gone. Where are they going to get their food for next winter?”-Plot synopsis by the Movie Guy on IMDB.com

This movie offers some simple lessons that can be enjoyed by viewers of any age. But, reading between the lines, it offers a hidden lesson. What can you learn about others, about yourselves, and about how the world works, by taking a peek over the proverbial hedge and seeing how others live, think and interact?

Student Affairs professionals are sometimes rightfully criticized for living inside their bubbles, and understanding a lot about campus life and not enough about “the real world.” We can easily fall into this, if we only seek wisdom from like-minded people who spend their time thinking about the same things we think about, and may approach them from similar perspectives. I try to expand my worldview as much as possible by learning what people in other fields are talking about. Here are a few articles and sites that have offered me new perspectives.

Unsung Innovative Leaders, by Rich Karlgaard on Forbes.com.

“That ability to spot insights and lessons from fields far outside your own is one hallmark of an innovative leader. Of course, leaders have to do more than see the parallels–they have to adapt them to fit their own needs and then convince their teams to put them into practice, time and time again.”

The POST Method: A systematic approach to social strategy, by Josh Bernoff at Forrester.com

“Is your company doing its social strategy backwards? If you started by saying "we should do a blog" or "we should create a page on a social network" or "we should create a community" the answer is probably yes….In any other business endeavor we start by figuring out what we want to accomplish. Social technologies are not magic. They accomplish things, too. It's time to stop doing social because it's cool. It's time to start doing it because it's effective.”

How to Decide in a Time of Confusion by Kim Girard at BNet.com

“Even in the most uncertain times, you don’t have to just wing it,” says Hugh Courtney, associate dean of executive programs at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. “There are systematic ways to deal with even the most uncertain environment.”

Leadership: The Bathtub Model, At the Whiteboard Video on Bnet.com

This video is part of the "At the Whiteboard" video series on Bnet. Direct link not available. Go to Bnet.com and then to the Videos section to find this video, as well as ones on "Dodging Landmines: and other workplace communication and team dynamics issues.

Lifehacker.com: Tips and Downloads for Getting Things Done

The best part of this site is the clever uses section, where you can get tips on using everyday objects for simplifying your life. Some xamples include unique uses for binder clips, how to save desk space using magnets, and amplifying your speakerphone with a cereal bowl.

Take a look at these sites and enjoy. If you have a favorite non-Student Affairs site you visit frequently for new perspectives, please consider sharing the URL by posting a comment.

A case for introspection

June 8th, 2009 | Posted by Gary Alan Miller in Online Tools - (0 Comments)

"You should withdraw inwardly and search for the ground upon which you stand, thereby you will find out what truth is." Yun-men Wen-yen

Like many in the career advice field, over the past year I've been researching and incorporating the concepts of personal branding and the use of social media in the job search. Those two concepts have been joined at the hip by many, since often the focus of personal branding is on the communication of that brand, especially through the use of new media.

As I have probed, explored, and, in fact, become a voice for proactive use of them, I have simultaneously felt the need to make the case that personal branding still begins with thorough and on-going exploration of the self. Digital natives and even the somewhat-technologically-challenged are drawn to the relative ease with which one can begin reaping benefits from the use of social media. It's easy to just roll up your sleeves, create some accounts and begin projecting oneself out into the world.

What seems to be undervalued, or at least under-discussed, in this wave of personal branding coverage is the process of introspection that should be the genesis of any person's "brand." That isn't to say that there is no value to be had simply by, for example, setting up a Twitter account and having conversations with people of interest. Indeed, those conversations can be a valuable part of the exploration process. But, I think it's important that we, as student affairs professionals, make sure we're helping students to learn and utilize the tools of the day without skipping over the processes of contemplation that should drive so much of their decision making about majors, careers and life.

What tools are you using to help students be both introspective and extrospective?

Gary Alan Miller

“Standing at the Crossroads, and Sinking Down?”

Legend
says that famed bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at a
crossroads in Mississipi, so that he could acquire the mastery of guitar that
made him famous. Afterward, he enjoyed success as a traveling blues musician,
before dying mysteriously at the age of 27, near yet another crossroad in
Mississipi. His music and legend live on to this day, and he has been widely covered
by aspiring and successful musicians, including Cream’s famous take on his signature song.

While
there is a certain allure to the legend, it’s not lost on me that Johnson’s
choice ultimately led to his ruination and untimely death. A friend recently posted an interesting article
on her blog, exploring the broader dilemma that higher education faces in
responding to this era of new technology and non-linear thinking, communication
and learning.

It
got me thinking about how our field can respond to the challenges of what isn’t
merely a change in technology, but a huge paradigm shift, not unlike that seen
after the invention of the printing press. Woody Allen once said “More than any
other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair
and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the
wisdom to choose correctly.”

My
friend’s post, and others it references, examine the failure of the newspaper
industry to understand the new paradigm, and posits that higher education is at
a similarly critical juncture. She is an instructional designer, so her
thoughts are very much centered on how to use technology to remain relevant,
but I encourage you to read what she posted, and some of the links she refers
to, and to post your comments on how Student Affairs professionals can choose
the right path at the crossroads, rather than “sinking down.”

Facebook Page or Facebook Group?

December 10th, 2008 | Posted by Tom Krieglstein in Myspace/Facebook Best Practices | Online Tools | Technology and Programming - (0 Comments)

What’s the best way to represent your student club/organization or school department on Facebook?

Due to the number of questions received about this topic, I was about to write up my own analysis, but figured I should check with my blogging pals first. Sure enough Leigh Householder of Advergirl put together a nice post for businesses that is easily translated to Student Affairs. Here is a full repost:

There are a lot of choices – groups, pages, causes, fans, friends. And, none of the which and the why seems terribly clear.

To make it simple: There is one main choice. And, then a few other important options.

First pick: Page or group or both

Page
Who can create it: An official representative of the real public figure, artist, brand or organization that the page is for

Why page?

    First up, pages are indexed on Google. A nice little add to your integrated social SEO strategy

    Allows you to connect with an unlimited number of fans (personal profiles & groups support up to 5000 friends)

    You can send messages to all your fans

    You can use rich media and leverage Facebook apps (super customizable)

Why not page?

    Little of the new content or activity you post is actually fed to your profile new feeds (the most visible? New fans. New photos or video uploaded by fans)

    Messages to fans don’t go into their inbox; rather, they’re delivered as an “update,” which fewer people see.

    Unlike being an administrator of some non-FB communities (like blogs or wikis),there’s no automated way to moderate activity. You have to manually check for new links, videos, etc.

Group:
Who can create it: Anyone (on any topic)

Why groups?

    Most importantly, you can message all members and the notice shows up right in their inbox for maximum attention

    All activities are picked up in the feed – posts, discussion, photos, etc., which provides a lot more visibility

    Tend to be more informal, which can, in itself, feel more social

    Lots of control over who to involve. There are three different types of groups: Open (anyone can join); Closed (the group owner/admins have to approve all members); Secret (only the members and invitees know the group even exists).

Why not groups:

    There’s a 5000 fan limit for messaging. More people can choose to be fans of your group, but you won’t be able to directly contact them

    You can’t add apps directly to a group

    Customization is limited

    Unlike being an administrator of some non-FB communities (like blogs or wikis),there’s no automated way to moderate activity. You have to manually check for new links, videos, etc.

    Word is, these groups are also very tricky to delete (Editor Comment – Only way to delete a group is to ask everyone to leave the group, then it just closes. There is no delete button)

Then add:

    Fan: both these pages allow administrators to turn on a fan function. Allowing fans lets your organization rack up contacts (just like a personal profile allows you to add friends)

    Cause: Want to raise money, enable supporters to raise money, win volunteers, etc? Facebook’s new action-based app is Causes. It’s a good add for a group or page strategy. But, because it requires users to add an application, it’s definitely not a standalone.

Quick update in response to an offline discussion:

Q: What’s the difference between a profile and a page?
A: Short answer: a profile is for people; a page is for non-people (or super people, i.e. celebs). Profiles are the basic building blocks of FB. They represent its millions of members. In a longer answer, I’d also tell you that pages allow a lot more customization and flexibility … but, I think this whole person vs. nonperson thing gives you the talking point most people need.

How to Successfully Create a Digital Web Ambassador for Your College

October 29th, 2008 | Posted by Tom Krieglstein in Marketing | Myspace/Facebook Best Practices | Online Tools - (0 Comments)

As discussed many times on this blog and countless other blogs around the web, colleges need to be more active on social networking sites to engage new, current and former students. Not just the college as a whole, but individual departments within the college can benefit by having a web presence.

Often times the first question is whether to operate an account with a personal name so it looks more real, or use a school/department name so it looks more official?

Experimenting is happening both ways with various results. Here are two examples I’ve followed that might help your school/department develop a web presence.

The Personal Account:

Art Esposito is an academic advisor at VCU and has a personal Facebook account that he uses to engage his advisees. A quick browse through his profile and you can see him mixing personal and business contexts in an effective way.

He does state upfront his intentions with using Facebook for advising. It may not be needed down the road as advising on Facebook becomes the norm, but for now it’s good so students feel more comfortable engaging you with some predefined intentions that can dispel any worries they have in befriending you.

Remember to mix in personal information from time to time so it is not just business all the time. Otherwise it makes you seem stale and robotic. Use your best judgement as to what personal information to share. A rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t share it in the classroom with close students, don’t share it online.

Art currently has 855 followers on Facebook and through his use of posting videos, blogs, and links among many other tools he is effectively utilizing his personal account to be a better advisor.

The challenge with a personal account is what if Art leaves his job, switches positions, or gets a spot on Oprah’s show and becomes world famous as Art the Advisor? What happens to everything he’s built up on his account?

The School/Department Account:

Schools are not so good at creating a digital web presence that feels natural to both the school and the student, but it can be done. To find a good example, I had to turn to the corporate world.

The Chicago Tribune created a digital web presence called ColonelTribune. The first reaction of many, myself included, was that this was going to be lame. But CT fought back and through an amazing mix of persona building and valuable content, CT has become an effective PR tool.

I follow CT on twitter and am impressed at the Tribs ability to give a voice and personality to their fictitious character. Most of CT’s updates are links to articles on the Trib’s website, but ask CT a question and he’ll respond, challenge his thinking and he’ll respond. All of it builds up to a persona that is real enough to not dismiss as fake and valuable enough to want to follow.

The challenge with a fake persona is…well…it’s still fake. Though I enjoy CT, I don’t feel as connected to him as I do Art and relationships go a long way in education.

If you aren’t already doing so, I think every school/department should experiment, like Art and CT, with using social media to engage new, current and former students.

What other examples are there of schools/departments effectively using a digital web ambassador?

Should I have a Facebook Account for my Class?

September 30th, 2008 | Posted by The SA Team in Campus Issues | Myspace/Facebook Best Practices | Online Tools - (0 Comments)

Once upon a time, Facebook used to be a student only playground as it was a closed system. But ever since Facebook opened up to allow anyone and their cat to have an account, well maybe not their cat as it’s hard to be a fake person with a fake name on Facebook, many academic professionals have been signing up and experimenting with using Facebook as an academic tool.

Recently I read an article about how a teacher from the University of Maryland uses Facebook to get in touch with her students. She explained that with everyone on Facebook it was much easier to remember names and faces. Since Facebook is not a school controlled site it kind of sets an atmosphere of neutral grounds, allowing the students to experience a more casual interaction with teachers, enabling them to be more open with their communication. Due to the fluidity of personal information shared back and forth on Facebook, a certain level of familiarity is developed quicker than could be during precious classroom time.

Not everyone is in agreement. There are many teachers that do not see a benefit in using Facebook for their class, some say there’s no classroom value in it and that it might even be an avenue for accessing inappropriate material, others suggest that it only adds to the many distractions in class. Many school districts agree and block these sites from school computers. Some unfortunate byproducts occur from this however; faculty computers are also blocked, students discover proxy sites, IT hires more personnel to block proxy sites, students access the sites from their cell phones.

The article concludes with saying, Facebook can be an excellent virtual medium for building and maintaining real world social connections within a class, but only when it’s used informally and everyone understands its purpose and limits.

Where do you stand on the issue? Do you use Facebook in your job formally or informally? Are you worried about TMI with your students? Do you separate your personal and professional online profiles?

Social Network Identity 101: Lesson Plan

Updating a presentation on social networks for my first-year seminar is my focus this week. In past years, Facebook has been the primary topic and I have posted about it here. This year I will add a top-10 list of online identity considerations from technology/online media guru Chris Pirillo.

1. It goes on your permanent record. Forever.
2. Be mindful of your privacy.
3. Don’t trust implicitly.
4. Own what you do.
5. Engage. Leave comments.
6. Be respectful, be respectable, and be respected.
7. Be yourself.
8. Watch out for flame wars and name calling.
9. Learn how to communicate.
10. Remember that your future employer, spouse, and neighbors are all watching.

Do you discuss Social Network Identity with your students?

ChaCha.com and the New Age of Digital Cheating in the Classroom

September 14th, 2008 | Posted by The SA Team in Campus Issues | Online Tools - (0 Comments)

Classroom cheating has taken a new digital turn. An article about a free cellphone service called ChaCha caught my eye last week. Text any question to 242242 and ChaCha promises to provide the answer to virtually any question within minutes, be it math, science, politics and even directions to the nearest café, they have the answer. Go ahead try it now!

ChaCha has a hired network of 25,000 “friends” to help anyone with any question. Imagine the possibilities, imagine the benefits…imagine the repercussions. A lot of academics are a bit alarmed that some students might use this new service for cheating in the classroom. ChaCha claims that when they created the service cheating was the last thing on their mind.

It doesn’t really matter what the service is for, I’m pretty sure they only had good intentions, the thing is it can be used for cheating, “digital cheating” that is. So what can be done? Banning cellphones seems to be out of the question. Most schools have no restriction regarding cellphone use so it’s up to the professors to lay down the law. A professor at Rowan thinks it’s no big deal, if a student wants to cheat, ChaCha is not the only way, there are what you call conventional cheating methods i.e. cheat sheets, copying from neighbors and the like. But does that mean we’ll let these students use the ChaCha service in class? Ed Burns a professor from Delaware says otherwise, if the student’s cellphone goes off inside the classroom the student is asked to leave and marked absent for the day.

Digital cheating or conventional cheating? Can you believe this? Students now have a choice! I agree with the idea that we should not focus on the source of cheating materials, or trying to put a stop in the advancement of technology, but instead make our students learn about classroom integrity, the value of NOT CHEATING. It will be much easier to teach your students not to cheat rather than to employ ways and means of protecting them from cheating temptations. We should not be alarmed that the number of students who admitted cheating digitally increased some 15%, we should be alarmed that these students had the gall to admit that they cheated.

Digital cheating is not so cool anyway, testing the ChaCha service showed that out of 6 questions it only got 3 correct answers, that’s a 50% accuracy rate. If I were you and you have racked your brain but still can’t remember the answer, take a guess, guessing it will probably give you a 50% chance that you’ll get the answer right. What’s cool is you didn’t cheat

Statistical Data on the Growth of the ‘Class of 2012′ Facebook Groups

March 25th, 2008 | Posted by Tom Krieglstein in Myspace/Facebook Best Practices | Online Tools | Orientation | Technology and Programming - (0 Comments)

The idea that new students are orienting themselves on Facebook without institutional guidance is a reality as discussed previously on the Student Affairs blog. Search Facebook for "Class of 2012" and you can see with your own eyes the trend. But we are lacking the hard data such as what percentage of new students join these groups or how influential are these groups. It’s an opportunity for interested academic researchers to investigate as I suspect this is not a short term trend.

Through a very simple study, Brad J. Ward from SquaredPeg has been tracking the activity of the Butler Class of 2012 Facebook Group. His three metrics are the # of Members, Wall Posts, and Discussion Posts.

This is only the current screen shot of Brad’s data, but you can follow his latest by visiting his Google Spread Sheet.

I would love to see a series of data points like this one for a big enough sampling of 2012 groups so academia can get a better idea of when new students start engaging in these groups.

Can someone start this now or are we too late and needed to start back in January? I suspect the window of opportunity to track the activity is almost closed for this upcoming school year.

It would also be interesting to see when these groups were created. The group page doesn’t say the creation date, but one way to get a rough idea of the creation date is to look at when the first comment was made. The first comment on the Butler group was Jan 4th 2008.

List of Education Blogs – Alltop.com

March 24th, 2008 | Posted by Tom Krieglstein in Online Tools - (0 Comments)

Education bloggers are sprinkled like fairy dust throughout the web and often times are not easy to find without clicking on several links leading you through a series of digital twists and turns. Two great resources I use to find the latest education news and to network are Education Alltop and Support Blogging Wikispace. Each site includes blogs written by teachers, staff, students, and administration among others, so I am sure you’ll find what you’re looking for. Enjoy!