After watching “Women Talk Tech” with Kristen Abell, Cindy Kane and Jennifer Keegin at the #NASPATech conference, I was struck by the number of references made to ‘bringing us to the table’. Given that this was a session on women in tech, the ‘us’ was almost always defined as women actively engaged in the use of technology and/or social media, within higher education or anywhere outside it. One concern seemed to be that there were far too few guests at this dinner party – too few women were at the table . While we could argue that the meal isn’t appetizing, or that the directions to the venue are difficult to follow, or even that the table and the utensils we set it with aren’t easily accessible, I am more interested in the guests themselves. Is it possible that our dinner guests, our colleagues, our friends, are already at the table? Why can’t we see them? Why aren’t they being heard?

I had the pleasure of viewing and externally processing this NASPAtech session with the brilliant Laura Pasquini. As I consider her someone who, I would argue, is very well versed and deeply immersed in the use of technology in student affairs, I was surprised to hear Laura say that she didn’t even know that there was a table. Through further discussion, we came to realize that perhaps the challenge isn’t that we aren’t at the table, or that there might not be a table at all, but rather that the table many of us are seated at is so big, not all of our voices are heard.

Making a metaphorical leap and likening this table to a community, I am reminded of many conversations I’ve had about the building and nurturing of community -groups of people who share common values, goals and interests. With the introduction and subsequent explosion of social media and the Internet, the ties that bind extend their reach even further, seemingly connecting far flung colleagues around a closer, more intimate dining room table. These same advances that bring us closer together, however, can just as easily keep us apart. Geographical distance aside, online communication removes many of the subtle cues and behaviours we often take for granted. In an increasingly large and multi-layered community, it often becomes easier, not more difficult, to get lost in the crowd.

The “Women Talk Tech” session also heavily referenced the #WLSalt community, a space for women to Support, Affirm, Lift and Transform. While ‘lurking and learning’ in and around this community, I have quietly watched and received support and inspiration from some amazing women. Lurking and learning, however, still only gives me a snapshot of the conversations that occur every day. I don’t often get around to meeting everyone at the table.

So while I still encourage you to send invitations to new friends for dinner, don’t forget to seek out, engage with and really listen to those over at the other end of the table. Will you pass the the #WLSalt?

Lisa Endersby is a Student Experience Advisor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) in Toronto, Canada.

If you’ve always thought about taking the Twitter plunge in the name of professional development, we’ve got some great things in store for you this week in conjunction with the NASPATech conference in Newport, RI.

In addition to our regular Thursday #sachat this week we will feature a “special edition” chat in conjunction with our “Behind the #sachat” presentation at the conference. Please join us for an open discussion from 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm CST and feel free to recruit some new participants who may want to test the waters a bit.  In addition, for those attending NASPATech we hope you will join us at our session! Bring your laptop or mobile device and participate in #sachat while we discuss the potential that social media has to enhance networking and (free!) professional development opportunities.

Hope you will join us!

Another great aspect of this conference was the exhibition hall. I have never seen a conference display like this one. 3D technology was everywhere, plus great food. Nearly every vendor had a drawing for an iPad. I didn’t win, but I think it says something about where we are headed as educators. It was great to learn about new technology and systems, but almost overwhelming for my mind. I spent most of the conference reflecting and mulling on the impact of technology, not only in my work but also in my life. EDUCAUSE has opened new doors and concepts to me and has shown me really what is necessary to truly impact learning.

I don’t know if I’ll get another chance to attend EDUCAUSE in the future, as it’s not the typical conference for student affairs professionals to attend, but I think everyone needs to attend a conference not directly related to their work. It allows you to be exposed to new thought processes and opens new ideas and possibilities. I surely got this and have new thoughts and methods on how to achieve my goals and aspirations.

NAME:
Booshaka

URL:
http://www.booshaka.com

WHAT IT DOES:
Attaches a point-scoring system to the activity of your Facebook Fans to help you discover your Top Fans through an engagement dashboard.

MY TAKE:
Long time readers will know that I’m a fan of the 90-9-1 rule when it comes to community engagement, so to have a tool that really brings this rule to life is a big deal and something I’ve been waiting for. It’s not perfect yet as it seems to only track month-to-month, but I’m sure in due time, they’ll have a full data dashboard.

The actionable outcomes of having a visualization of your Fan’s engagement will be huge. You’ll be able to identify your trending leaders. You’ll be able to reward the top engaged users every month. You’ll build a game layer ontop of engagement. You’ll be able to…what else? How do you see this being valuable to your work?

SCREEN SHOTS:

Facebook status update from my 18 year old cousin.

With the rapid growth of social media and accompanying surge in online activity, particularly among university and college students, student affairs staff are using the latest technologies to engage students and forge stronger ties to programs, services, and events. Increasingly, senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) are building their own communities and initiating important conversations through a variety of social media sites. This article provides an overview of social media and how it can help student affairs make and keep vital connections.

Facebook, with more than 500 million users, is the most-used social media site. Twitter, the 140-character microblogging site, has become an important communications tool within higher education. Other widely used social media sites and tools include: wikis, LinkedIn, Flickr, Delicious, and YouTube. This article focuses on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs, which currently hold the greatest value for SSAOs who are diving into the social media sphere. Successful navigation of social media can take time, patience, and an understanding that in most cases you must “use it” to “get it.”

Strategic Thinking
With limited time and resources, it is important for SSAOs to create a social media strategy. Incorporating social media into a comprehensive communication plan allows for outcomes-based assessment and an answer to the often-asked question: “Why are we doing this?” Social media strategies may take time to develop and evolve, but a clearly defined rationale for social media use can contribute to the overall sustainability of social media endeavors.

It is perfectly acceptable to have a team of student affairs social media content creators. However, delegating is not engaging. As a leader, the impact of your personal tweet, blog post, or Facebook update is important to consider.

Twitter
It may take up to a year of listening, lurking, and learning before an SSAO realizes that Twitter holds amazing potential. Twitter can be described as the social media Swiss Army knife. Like most communications tools, Twitter is multifaceted with its own strategies, protocols,and etiquette. Create a highly defined strategy that limits your initial uses of Twitter. Focus on doing one thing really well before trying everything that Twitter can do.

The most successful SSAOs on Twitter use a variety of methods to frequently update their tweetstreams. SSAOs may consider installing a Twitter application (app) on their smart- phones. It is much easier to create one or two updates per day while on the go if you can tweet from your phone. Apps like UberTwitter (Blackberry, iPhone) and TweetDeck (iPhone, Android, iPad, and desktop) are free to use and easily installed.

Refer to this small but powerful list of tweeting SSAOs. A free guide to understanding the basics of Twitter can be found at: http://business.twitter.com/.

Facebook
Facebook is a revolutionary site for making professional and personal connections. You can ask a colleague about a higher education issue in one instance and chat with a friend moments later. While a large number of SSAOs are already on Facebook for social networking, using Facebook as an element in a social media strategy may require sacrificing a certain amount of privacy. Unlike Twitter, which only has a public or private option, Facebook has multiple levels of privacy settings. Experimentation is required as students cannot connect with you on Facebook if you are “hidden” from them.

Blogs
Blogs have appeared on the Internet for some time. The primary difference between a regular website and a blog is the frequency of content updates and the ability to allow commentary. A blog can serve as the hub for a social media strategy. Blogs can be used to communicate on a variety of topics to students. Facebook widgets and embeddable Twitter feeds mean that all social media channels can be readily available in one place. By allowing students to engage with social media content in a variety of locations, you increase the likelihood that connections will be made and that information will be exchanged.

The website of Dean of Students Kenn Elmore at Boston University (BU) is a stellar example of an effective SSAO blog. Elmore’s enthusiastic embrace of social media is a terrific display of how an SSAO can use a variety of social media channels to engage with students. He frequently updates his blog and is one of the more active SSAOs on Twitter. His tweets are embedded on BU’s Dean of Students website so students can jump into the conversation through numerous entry points.

Leading Change
Being a leader IRL (in real life) requires courage, authenticity, wisdom, and the ability to listen. Social media tools create ample opportunities for SSAOs to model effective leadership through a variety of engagement styles. While Facebook and blogs have the potential to showcase these styles, Twitter is the quickest, most direct social media site for SSAOs to quickly connect with their communities.

The Engager
Dean Elmore, with thousands of followers on Twitter, has created a unique voice in the SSAO social media world. His tweets are peppered with questions, contests, and riddles that grab your attention. Seemingly in attendance at every BU event, Elmore tweets via his iPhone for on-the-go interaction.

Authenticity is an important aspect of Elmore’s social media voice. His tweets represent his personality: vibrant, inquisitive, and packed with leading-edge thinking. He engages with BU students by tweeting @t them. It is fascinating to watch as Elmore tweets a riddle in the form of a haiku about an upcoming “tweetup” for the BU community. Tweets that simultaneously develop inquiry and conversation are tremendously engaging.

The Broadcaster
Luoluo Hong, vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Hawaii, is a student affairs techie who has embraced the use of Twitter as a communication tool. Tweeting as @UH_Hilo_vCSA, Hong uses Twitter to broadcast a variety of messages. Twitter played an important role in the dissemination of information in February during the threat of a catastrophic tsunami in Hawaii. Twitter was one way that Hong was able to share critical information with the university community. Providing real-time information to those who need it most during emergencies is one of the true benefits of social media sites. Developing connections through followers adds an extra layer of value when you need to share critical information with the campus community.

The Connector
Levester Johnson, vice president for student affairs at Butler University, actively uses Twitter to forward a variety of interesting tweets. From posts that mention his family to Butler University sports to contest promotions, Johnson creates a holistic blend of engaging tweets. Johnson’s use of Twitter resonates because there is something for everyone. His tweets represent a terrific depiction of a day in the life of an SSAO. His social media presence is approachable, authentic, and engaging. Social media works best as a comfortable conversation.

Applying Strengths
It is important to note that what works for one SSAO will not necessarily work for another. It is essential to develop your own social media style. Individual strengths should be reflected in the social media engagement of student affairs professionals. Read an SSAO blog, peruse the tweetstream, or read through comments on a Facebook profile, and you will better define your own online strengths. Focus on what you do best IRL, and your social media presence will be more creative, deliberative, and engaging. Everyone has a story to tell. All stories can be told differently, and this variety should be celebrated.

Identifying and Understanding Trends
Social media is not a trend. It cannot be ignored. In today’s landscape of web-based communication technologies, social media is the primary mode of connection-making and information dissemination.

Social media tools and sites like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter are perfect vehicles for listening and learning. New and emerging technologies are often revealed through social media connections. These tools will continue to evolve as technology changes and new ways to communicate appear.

Social media represents a shift in how we think about learning. A question posted on Twitter or Facebook can generate insightful responses in a matter of minutes. A blog post on a particular student affairs topic can elicit commentary from professionals in multiple functional areas. A broad network can help you keep up with trends. If you don’t understand an application, the digital community can provide clarity and wisdom.

Social media can be a wonderful way to keep track of the “pulse” of a campus despite the hectic schedule of the SSAO. Listening and lurking can be powerful ways to identify trends and opportunities. Note that “lurking” is an acceptable social media practice. You can’t always be responding, engaging, and posting. Sit back and watch the stream. It just might surprise you.

Life Balance
Social media is a personal learning network. In addition to using social media to enhance your ability to stay abreast of trends, its most important personal and professional benefit is the network and community. Social media enables you to maintain professional connections with colleagues around the world on a year-round basis, building on the connections made at annual meetings and conferences. Support, guidance, and advice are readily available via Twitter and Facebook. The community of student affairs professionals in social media is robust, genuine, and nurturing.

#SAchat
The Twitter-based #SAchat peer-to-peer learning network is a favorite student affairs social media community. Student affairs professionals from all levels engage with each other in a weekly, moderated Twitter conversation. Undergraduate students who are interested in careers in the field, current graduate students, new professionals, mid-level practitioners, and SSAOs engage in learning opportunities via the #SAchat. The community frequently rallies support for members who need project assistance, research ideas, and mentoring. The success of the #SAchat demonstrates the power and versatility of social media. For more information about the #SAchat, visit: http://thesabloggers.org/sachat.

Tweet, Post, and Update
Social media success will not happen overnight. As all SSAOs know, connections must be nurtured and grown. Start tweeting, updating, and posting. Reach out to those staff members who are already engaging with social media. You will not have to look far to find on-campus social media superstars. Learn from them. Ask questions. Social media is an adventure: #TweetOn.

Originally published (and re-posted with permission) in the Spring 2011 edition of the NASPA Leadership Exchange.

Some leadership literature seems to lend itself better to higher education and student affairs than others. I found the key concepts in Progressmakers to be a good fit for a daylong, mid-year retreat I had been planning for the Student Life staff. My intent was for us to evaluate our programs and services based on their reach, impact, and connection to our mission. What was lacking or missing?

Our goal is always progress. We want to make changes that result in something better. In Progressmakers, Clampitt and DeKoch (2011) suggest that improvement requires two separate but equally important activities: “exploring” and “refining.” They define refining as tweaking to optimize what we already offer, and exploring as creating bigger, more revolutionary change. Exploring results in leaps, such as from newspapers to news on the Internet, or from the printed Sears catalog to amazon.com. (The authors contend that Sears could have preempted amazon if it had chosen to leap rather than tweak.)

According to Clampitt and DeKoch, “The most fundamental leadership judgment is determining when the organization needs to explore new opportunities and when it needs to improve (or refine) current practices” (p. 6). My experience in student affairs has been that we tend to favor refining rather than venturing into the risky unknown.

So how might these concepts relate to Student Life? A simple example: A few years ago we decided to temper our “bigger is better” approach to programming by planning some intentionally small, more intimate activities that we thought might be more appealing to some students. We then took the fairly unusual step of initiating a series of informal book discussions. We saw this activity as a tool for facilitating self-awareness, for increasing students’ comfort with conversing, and for promoting reading. For us, this was a leap—and it worked. Today our book discussions draw students, faculty, staff, and community members, and they remain capped at 12. We have since refined our book discussions by offering some via Skype (with the authors joining in!).

Another example: We are constantly fine-tuning our fall leadership conference, which typically draws highly engaged, on-campus students. We are now exploring ways to address the leadership needs and interests of our non-traditional students, who spend very little time, if any, on campus. What topics are relevant to their experiences? What methods and technologies would appeal to them? We want to leap. Ideas?

In what ways are you, your department, and/or your campus refining and exploring? Would you describe yourself as more of a refiner or as an explorer? Does your organization have both (and does it value both)?

Clampitt, P. G. & DeKoch, R. J. (2011). Transforming Leaders into Progressmakers: Leadership for the 21st Century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Sound great?

Hasn’t happened for me yet, either.

Sure, our students had some great presentations and excellent experiences but nearly always my student groups struggle to accurately communicate the true picture of what they experienced.  They struggle to not use too many “inside jokes” when describing their time at the conference and nearly always ended up engaged in a conversation about “why can’t we send more people next year?”  Given that our travel funds are not likely to increase anytime in the near future, we needed a new plan.

So, my insanely talented staff member (that’s you, Matt!) says, let’s try blogging.

Our office now requires any students traveling to conferences sponsored by our department to blog each day while they are there.  We create a blogging site for the group’s travels and make each of them the authors. I love the fact that those of us not attending the conference can keep track of their experiences and that we can comment and have dialogue while they are there. We also send the site around to our student affairs colleagues and division leadership so that they can get some insight into student experiences.

This has enabled us to document these travel experiences and now see, in writing, what we already knew about the impact of spending time with other students who are similarly committed to common goals.  As one of our student orientation coordinators posted, “I don’t think I ever got completely used to everyone actually understanding ‘Orientation Speak’ and being able to have in-depth conversations about different aspects of their programs.”

The use of blogs has enabled our students to do more active reflection on these conference experiences and has allowed us to use the sites to help other students understand what the experience might be like the next time around. We get pretty active commentary from participants about what they like and don’t like about the conferences and, when warranted, our structured reflection topics allow for some time for them to pause during a busy conference and make meaning of this experience that the university has offered to them.

For our department, we reported themes communicated in these blogs as part of our annual report in hope of illustrating the impact that off-campus professional travel has on our student leaders.  Themes of increased pride in our university, increased confidence in their own leadership efficacy, and enhanced sense of community with other student leaders certainly made this student affairs professional proud.

If you’d like to take a look at one of them, here’s a link to the blog from our delegates at the National Greek Leadership Association conference in Hartford, CT this year.

http://bscgreeksgotongla.blogspot.com/

And just for fun…check out the Wordle the blog for our Student Orientation Coordinators’ trip to the regional NODA Conference (at the top of this post) and the Wordle for our Program Committee’s travels to the NACA regional conference (2) pasted below.  Looks to me like they had a good experience…and had some fun along the way!

So, how do you facilitate reflection when your students travel? Any interested in blogging?  If you are, let’s correspond and if our students attend the same conferences we can cross-promote their sites!

Let me give you a quick back story. I have used FileMaker Pro to create and maintain databases since graduate school at Central Connecticut State University and continued to use it in my Campus Center administrative roles.  It does effective information management functions such as recording duty logs, space usage statistics, equipment inventory, lost and found records, and even an employee time clock just to name a few.  Up until today, this system was only accessible via the computer stations that my students were sitting at, as they logged on to the main database on a centralized University server.

Now, this information is completely mobile thanks to the magic of the iPad and the FileMaker Go app! Students can access the database via the Campus Center WiFi signal and input statics, logs and other information while doing their rounds!  This will enable the staff to have real time Campus Center information on the go and teach students how to professionally utilize the iPad.  When you couple this with Social Media brand monitoring of our Twitter and Facebook pages and our Blog and YouTube Channel, it is a complete win-win!

If you use FileMaker Pro and want a copy of our On-Duty database, click here and use the userame/password: “sachat/sachat” to access it!

Does your office/department plan on purchasing an iPad yet? If so, what will you be using it for?

August 2010

Dear “SA Grad”:

Greetings!  As many of you begin (or return) to your graduate experiences, I’ve been meaning to share something that I’ve talked about on Twitter before, but never really had a chance to flush out.  I figured, why not do it today?

As you embark on this new academic year, I believe that your graduate training in technology will be inadequate.  For most of us in Higher Ed, we’ve been playing catchup for years, and frankly, I don’t know how much longer we can do it. (Higher education, generally is the slowest to adapt to rapid change.)  We need to shift this paradigm and move in a new direction, and it starts with you, our graduate students.

You need to find time to build your skill bases in emerging educational technology and social media integration into your Student Affairs work.  It is imperative that our Student Affairs Graduate Programs begin to infuse this important pedagogy into its curriculum to keep you up to date and competitive with other job seekers out there.  How can we, in good conscience, send you out into the workforce without these skills?

If I were a Student Affairs graduate student today (or frankly any type of Student Affairs professional), here are two things I would do to build my technology knowledge base:

1.  Sign up for a Twitter account and attend the weekly #sachat each Thursday at 1pm or 7pm EST this fall.
If you still are not on Twitter, now is the time to sign up and use it.  Not only is it the best free professional development tool out there, but if used properly, it can help land you a job!  Read my “Teaching Twitter to Colleagues” post for a step-by-step guide on getting set up and using it for the first week.  Put the #sachat in your calendar as a recurring appointment and join us for our weekly online student affairs conversation!

2.  Blogs: Read Them and Start Your Own
There are so many great blogs out there, rich with information and perspective.  Besides this SA Blog, some of the best technology information I have gotten has been from the following:
- Eric Stoller – Professional/Personal Blog | Inside Higher Ed Blog: Eric is one of the best Student Affairs & Technology bloggers out there. He’s been doing this since the mid 2000′s and is simply a great resource. (@EricStoller on Twitter)
- Dr. Rey Junco: Rey is a college professor (Lock Haven University, PA) and researcher who studies how social media use affects college students. (@ReyJunco on Twitter)
- General Technology and Social Media Blogs: Read Write Web | Mashable | EDUguru Add these to your RSS Readers if you haven’t already! (@rww @mashable @eduguru on Twitter)
- BreakDrink by Jeff Jackson: Jeff does some great work centralizing all the most current news and trends in student affairs! (@breakdrink on Twitter) He also does some great podcasting work!
- Kristendom Talks Tech: Thanks to a recommendation from Brenda Bethman, I’m a fan of Kristen Abell’s stuff as well.
- My blog is OK too “On the Go With Ed Cabellon” (@EdCabellon on Twitter)

I also would recommend starting your own blog, not only as a tool to share, but as a great way to reflect on your experiences!  Once you create your blog, add it our growing directory of Student Affairs blogs!

I wish you all the best as you start the new academic year.  I hope you will join our online community and be active and engaged with us!  We are here to help in anyway we can.

Sincerely,

Ed Cabellon
Director, Rondileau Campus Center
Bridgwater State University (MA)

What advice would you give new and returning Student Affairs graduate students regarding their technology training? What sources of online information would you recommend? Any other tech blogs by women you would like to recommend?