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:

Okay, I made up that word, but before our etymologist readers split for the hills, hear me out as to what it means.

When it comes to social media, I’m a data person and every month I run an analytics report to measure what’s working, what’s not working, and the overall growth of a couple Facebook Pages I help manage.

One particular Page has over 20,000 “Likes” on Facebook. A poll or link generates a ton of responses on their Page. If I post that same link on another Page that is 1/10th the size, the response rate is extremely low.

Without “perspectivizing” the data, the smaller Page would probably feel unhappy about the online engagement in comparison to the larger Page. But if we calculate the average level of online engagement per Fan (ALE), we find a different story.

The 20k Fan Page generates a .096 ALE whereas the 2k Fan Page generates a .153 ALE.

Applying an ALE score helps both big and small players really see what’s going on with their accounts.

Here’s how to calculate the ALE of your account…

1. Log into your Facebook Page Insights.
2. Change the date to the date you want to calculate.
3. On the “Overview” page scroll down to “Post Feedback” and record that number.
4. Click on the “Users” page and scroll down to “New Likes.”
5. Toggle “New Likes” to “Total” and hover over the end of the time period and record that number.
6. Divide the “Post Feedback” number by the “Total New Likes” number to determine your Page’s ALE number.

Once you’ve calculated your ALE, please share it in the comments below so we can see a community norm.

This article was written in collaboration with Jimmy Howard, a colleague of mine from the University of Delaware. It was originally posted in the July 2010 Interchange newsletter, a publication from the ACPA Commission for Student Involvement.

Technology: Love it or hate it, it’s here to stay. It would be hard to conceptualize our work without the daily intersection of technology in our practices. Emails between peers, employees, students, and parents are common place. The world of technology is daunting and overwhelming. There is no way to keep up with the newest technologies, web tools, or strategies; it may sound absolute, but technology is always evolving.  As a pair we have prepared trainings, done presentations, and even consulted for few institutions; and we can’t manage to stay abreast of all the current technologies. That’s the nature of the world we live in and the only world our students know. Our students are multi-takers, constantly navigating change, and creating a culture of connectivity that most outside of their generation will never understand. However, despite the pace of technology, technology concepts are easier to grasp in the long term.

We believe that student affairs divisions are behind in their application of educational technology to enhance college students’ experiences. Educational technology refers to the use of technology for educational practices. The use of educational technology to enhance learning within-the-classroom, is common practice in K-12 schools. The students transitioning from this educational culture will be the next generation arriving on our campuses. Though some may doubt the impact of educational technology, many proven advantages exist. One advantage has been the increase of student success’ rates through the offering of dynamic strategies for differential learning styles (Carr-Chellman, 2005). Technology has also led to a richer diversity of thought between groups of learners and researchers, who are now able to share, develop, and collaborate on new ideas through the use of connective technologies (Lederman, New dawn or the perfect storm?, 2005). We also acknowledge that there are some disadvantages to technology.  Rates of gaming, gambling, and online  social site addictions are on the rise (Carr-Chellman, 2005; Farrell, 2005). New technologies require extensive time and resources from faculty and staff members, which could be directed towards our students. However, we believe that technology, if purposefully initiated and utilized, can enhance students’ experiences on campus.

As student affairs professionals, we need to have an understanding of national standards in educational technology, as well as a theoretical foundation for how to utilize technology. Each year, The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) publishes The Book of Professional Standards for Higher Education, which currently has sets of standards for 34 functional areas within higher education (such as Residence Life, Academic Advising, and Recreational Programs). Educational technology standards are currently in development; these set of standards will provide a framework for student affairs professionals to experiment and develop innovative approaches. We also recommend utilizing the constructivist theory of learning as the foundation of educational technology efforts for student affairs work. Lave (1988) suggests that for optimal learning to occur, individuals must feel that they are an integral part of the learning process. The constructivist view of learning espouses that knowledge is adapted by individuals as they construct it. Techniques such as role-plays, case studies, story telling, multimedia, simulations, and games are examples of powerful tools that cause this transformative learning.

We believe there are three spheres for the use of technology: administrative/daily tasks, connective, and educational. Technology has mostly been used in the administrative sphere as a way to deliver knowledge to students, rather than to enter into a partnership with students. Technology, whether it is used for records and registration, course management and delivery, or access and digitization of materials, offers enticing interfaces. However, the “mass digitization” of information poses a risk to colleges and universities, if it minimizes human interaction to a point where they see themselves as providers of information rather than knowledge (Lederman, 2005, ¶2). Often, this is the position of student affairs divisions. This “administrative” approach to technology, while effective, is not the most conducive way to engage our millennial students, and does not take into account effective learning mechanisms. The two spheres of technology that we feel that student affairs professionals should focus on in order to make a larger impact on learning are connective and educational.

Connective sphere of technology, refers to the social aspect that today’s technology provides. Social medias, such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, allow individuals to share and communicate their experiences instantaneously with others. This level of connectivity is not seen as a determent from our students’ perspective; they also don’t perceive a separation between their online and “real life” personas.  The space between the digital and real-world is enmeshed and not easily distinguished. It is important to understand how connective is used by your students on your campus if you plan to utilize it. Having a presence on Facebook is great,  but if you are simply posting information, you are underutilizing the potential of social networking. Post a contest for the most messiest room on campus, with pictures submitted on the Facebook page. Create events that ask students’ input on campus trends or a campus issue. Create an online student services domain that allows students to ask questions regarding health, wellness, or leadership opportunities. It is also important to utilize your institution’s or other free online learning management systems, such as Blackboard or Sakai to create forums and chat rooms to assist student leaders in developing new ideas or to help them transition into a new position. Management of this may be integrated into your daily operations, but should be done judiciously. Ultimately, decide as a department what your goal is, and understand how your students use technology. If Twitter is used by most of your students, explore the type of presence the department wants online and how it will be managed.

The third sphere, educational, is where we feel student affairs professionals may contribute the most. We already use experimental learning techniques in our programming, supervision, and training. Translating those techniques to an online forum and implementing them requires a few additional steps for implementation, but have a much longer impact. For example, you can create scenarios for RAs to experience real-life scenarios in Second Life, a virtual online world where RA avatars can walk through a residence hall and interact with the space in a safe and secure environment. Online training modules (such as fire safety, crisis management, and housing operations) are another example of creating impactful e-learning environments. Elements of interactivity, an online “expert”, and self-assessment tools may be developed to maximize students’ learning of the content. Implementing these technologies may require collaboration from your IT department or Center for Teaching and Learning centers on campus. If those offices don’t exist or if collaboration proves to be difficult, go online and look at what other institutions are doing. Review open-source software that can make your goals a reality. Again, you and your department need to reflect on your student culture and the goals you are trying to achieve. Developing online modules that are simply posted on your department’s website may not attract the type of attention you want. Get your student leaders involved and introduce modules at student leadership meetings. Just because the approach is online doesn’t mean we should sway away from engaging approaches in real-life. By putting technology in the forefront, students will respect and appreciate the value you as a department are making, regarding their educational experience.

We hope that we have presented a debate on how student affairs professionals should shy away from their focus on administrative technology practices to utilizing technology as a connective and educational component of their practice.  In doing so, student affairs divisions will achieve several outcomes, including transparent alignment with the learning enterprise of their institution. It is our hope that readers feel empowered to take this information and develop strategies to enhance their work with students and discover new ways to maximize learning outside the classroom.

References

Carr-Chellman, A. A. (Ed.). (2005). Global Perspectives on E-learning: Rhetoric and Reality. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Farrell, E. F. (2005a, September 2). Logging on, tuning out: When students lose themselves in online worlds, it can be hard to bring them back to reality. The Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A46.

Lederman, D. (2005, October 20). Beyond ‘toys, travel and food’. Retrieved from http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/10/20/technology.

Licinia “Lulu” Barrueco Kaliher, Ed.D., is a Ray Street Complex Director at the University of Delaware.

There are a plethora of discussion around student affairs and technology use. Some people struggle conceptualizing what this looks like. I want to highlight current and potential applications of technology for student affairs professionals to enhance learning. This list is not comprehensive, but hopefully by presenting examples and ideas this article will spark ideas that student affairs departments can develop.

Collaborative Applications

Collaborative applications focus on communicative knowledge building and idea exploration. These applications allow a group of individuals to develop knowledge by editing and evaluating material at their own pace. Examples of these applications are Wiki Spaces, Microsoft Groove (newly renamed Sharepoint), and Google Documents. A current student affairs application comes from Duke University staff members (http://www.studentaffairs.duke.edu/ra/programs-services/wiki-instructions), who are using wiki-spaces to archive document development, as well as collaborate on job searches with campus-wide committees within the student affairs division. Another example for collaborative application would be developing a wiki-space for student leaders to respond to a case study. Students can re-evaluate their solution by applying the knowledge gained in the training session and reviewing others’ perspectives on the case.

Online Forums

Online forums serve as an effective means of sharing thoughts and opinions on different topics and issues. Users post their questions, ideas, or opinions, communicating their thoughts in a coherent and understandable form, allowing for transparency of mega-cognitive processes. Examples of online forums are blogs, vlogs, Blackboard, Sakai, Word Press, and Twitter. A wonderful online forum that is providing excellent professional development for student affairs professionals is our own Student Affairs Collaborative (http://thesabloggers.org/). There are several components of this online forum:  WordPress allows contributors to post on various topics, such as staff training and development, political discussions on higher education, and conference reactions; additionally, using the medium of Twitter, a weekly #sachat occurs to provide student affairs professionals an opportunity to share their knowledge and contribute to the online community of learners. Another example for online forums to engage students would be developing an online forum after inviting an engaging speaker on-campus. Reflective questions could be posted about the event, and students could in turn post their thoughts about the event and/or ask each other questions, continuing the learning process after the event has ended.

Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites offer an online environment that feels less “academic” and more open to students freely expressing themselves. Within this environment, students may feel more comfortable asking questions, sharing experiences, and generating new ideas. Examples of social network sites are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Second Life. Penn State World Campus (http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu) and Texas Woman’s University (http://www.twu.edu) are utilizing different online forums to develop a sense of community and belonging to online students. Delivered either through Facebook or a website, both institutions provide online academic advising sessions, chat rooms, and resources for students to explore at their own pace. Another possible use of a social network site would be to create a Twitter account for a Student Affairs division to not only promote campus events and resources, but also post questions, polls, or recruit students for focus groups or other leadership opportunities.

Pod/Video Casting

Pod- and Video-casting allows the facilitator to record information (in video or audio form) that can be shared and accessed at any time. This allows the student to review the information at their own pace and provides an opportunity for audio/visual learners to more fully engage in the learning process. ITunes, ITunesU, RSS Feeds, Blogs, and YouTube are excellent examples of pod/video-casting. The Ohio State University recently promoted the opening of their new student union through videos posted on YouTube. Not only did they highlight the beautiful LEED construction of this facility, but a flash mob was organized to promote excitement and interest from OSU students and other constituencies.  A possible student affairs application would be developing an i-pod quiz or videos using Snagit or Jing to train student employees on a routine task. Tags, or notes, can be added to the video to enhance the content.

Final Thoughts

I have provided some examples of current student affairs application of free open-source software available on the web.  If you have examples to share, please contact me at lulu@udel.edu , or follow me at twitter.com/lbarrueco. There are many great innovative and creative methods of using technology today to enhance students’ college experiences. Let us not be restrained by our old practices, but rather re-invent them in a manner that transforms our student affairs profession.

I am thrilled to announce that I’m going to be blogging about Student Affairs and Technology for Inside Higher Ed (IHE). As an avid reader of IHE, I am very excited to join the IHE blogging team. I think that my posts on student affairs + technology will complement Joshua Kim’s blog on Technology and Learning.

Recently, I held a contest via Twitter to name my new blog. The incentive — a $100 Amazon gift card — courtesy of Inside Higher Ed. Several folks came up with interesting/creative blog names. I think the #SAChat Community provided the majority of ideas. Student Affairs folks are uber creative.

Here are my 3 favorite submissions:

• Jeff Jackson: The Stoller Strikes Back, Return of the Blogosphere, Student Affairs….I am Your Blogger
• Zack Ford: Challenge and Tech Support
• ACUHO-I (sent via DM): Binary Code of Conduct

Choosing a winner from these 3 has been extremely challenging. Star Wars references, Sanford, and an entire Association…how cool is that?!! After more than a week of deliberate (intentional ) deliberating I have decided that the winner of the gift card is:

Zack Ford’s submission made me laugh. It’s subtle….and I love subtlety. The obvious nod / homage to Nevitt Sanford warms the heart. Challenge and Support is one of my all-time favorite, and oft-used, student development theories.

It should be noted that Julie Larsen was correct…the official name of my new blog is going to be: Student Affairs and Technology. The name needed to be something that would be simple enough that any IHE reader would know exactly what it was about. The blog also needed to be search engine friendly…”Students Affairs + Technology” is simple and searchable.

Stay tuned for my first official post on Inside Higher Ed!

Honorable mention:

Julie P-Kirchmeier: Stoller: Resistance is Futile

Niki Rudolph: Epic Stoller

Justine Carpenter: Tech Tips for SAPs

Christopher Conzen: The Stoller Coaster

Thanks to everyone who participated in today’s #SAchat focusing on Managing Digital Identities. This week, our chats produced over 750 comments from over 50 student affairs professionals,  graduate students and undergraduates interested or working in the Student Affairs field!

In case you missed it, below is a quick recap. If you haven’t yet participated in an #sachat, learn more here.

Full Transcripts
(Feel free to add your own comments if you missed the entire chat, a few questions, or comments today!)

DAYTIME:  View as a Google Document

Today’s Top Contributors

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Here’s to another successful set of #sachats!  What are some other topics you would like to see us cover?  Please let us know your ideas and feedback to keep #sachat growing strong.

Until we next week, (if you haven’t already done so) please make sure to LIKE our growing Facebook Page, currently over 2,800 and adding new #studentaffairs friends every day!  Thanks for your continued support!

NACADA Tech in Advising Recommendations for Use of Online Social Communication in Academic Advising

The purpose of these recommendations is to provide guidance to Academic Advisors contemplating the inclusion of on-line social communication tools in their personal or programmatic advising design.

For the purposes of this discussion, Online Social Communications will be understood as externally hosted Web environments, sometimes referred to as Social Media Environments, in which information is aggregated, presented and shared. Further, where functionality exist, the environments allow you to document and filter connections between individuals, maintain profiles, support multimedia, and facilitate communication with a time shift supporting response at user-defined times. On-Line Social Communication environments include Facebook and other Online Social Networks, Twitter, YouTube, personal blogs and wiki pages. Since Facebook’s introduction in 2004, an ever-increasing number of advisors, student services specialists, academic units and universities have been leveraging the benefits of an on-line presence.

The expanding use of on-line social communication by advisors and advising offices, evidenced by numerous publications and presentations over the past five years, encouraged the NACADA Commission for Technology in Advising to proffer the following recommendations when considering inclusion of Social Communication tools in the delivery of advising information:

1. First and foremost, one should appreciate the importance of face-to-face communication in academic advising and view any forays into Social Media Environments as supplemental to advising in brick-and-mortar environments.
2. As is the case with all communication taking place at a distance, the recipient of the information cannot be verified when posting information in Social Media Environments. Advisors should be familiar with your institution’s FERPA compliance or other student records standards and technology use policies, and as is the case with email and telephone, refrain from discussing these topics in uncontrolled, on-line environments.
3. Advisors should remember that Social Media Environments do not represent the university to most students. This being the case, allowing your students the option of interacting with you in these spaces and regularly surveying your populations to ascertain their continuing level of comfort is recommended.
4. By accepting that Social Media Environments do not represent the university to our students and that we’re reaping great benefit from students’ willingness to engage us in these spaces, care should always be taken to not “clog the drain” with information. Note how likely students are to delete university-generated emails without reading them. Likewise, if one pushes too much information into Social Media Environments, students will stop paying attention and disengage.
5. Finally, Advisors should also bear in mind that these are public sites and as such care should be taken to ensure you are playing the role of the professional–even on personal profiles.

Thanks to Art Esposito, Berdie Eubank, Ned Donnelly, Jennifer Joslin, Sharon Loschiavo, Scott Roberts, and Terry Duncan for creating these recommendations.

About a week ago, I had the opportunity to co-present at the ACPA National Convention with Kenn Elmore, John Battaglino and Teri Bump. Fortunately for the four of us, we were able to secure a larger room as our session had about 60 people in attendance.

We didn’t give out handouts at our session. Our keynote slides had images on them and only a word or two. I’ve received emails from folks who attended, as well as from people who were following via the #ACPA10 Twitter backchannel, requesting a copy of our slides. While we were sans paper at our session, we were certainly not without a lot of bits of information.

Our session was titled “Wise and Connected – Demystifying Social Media for SSAOs and Directors.” We had 2 screens/lcd projectors running simultaneously during the session. On one screen was our keynote slideshow…we combined our slides like Voltron just moments before our session. On the other screen was a live stream (via wifi) of everything that was being said via Twitter using the #ACPA10 and #ACPASSAO hashtags. (Note that the ACPASSAO hashtag provided ample fodder for attendees). We even used clickers from Turning Technologies (these were the same clickers that were used at the opening of the convention). Overall, it was a very high tech, high touch session.

We live streamed all of the Twitter commentary using Twitterfall. Twitterfall has an amazing “presentation mode” that is perfect for the live streaming of tweets. The streaming screen provided probably the funniest moment (for me at least) of our session when @ACPAConvention tried to distract me! It should be noted that I did not look down, not even once. However, one of us did use a 4 letter word at one point during our session.

A lot of people wanted the link for the “Leadership Video.” I’ve dubbed said video as “Who wants to watch EDS dance on a hill?”. I wasn’t really the “lone nut” in this video, but I like to think that I could have been:

A terrific leader in Student Affairs who is utilizing social media is Kenn Elmore, Dean of Students at Boston University. If you have not yet visited the Dean of Students website at BU, please check it out. The site is a wonderful example of how social media can be integrated into a higher ed student affairs site. The folks at BU use Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Blogs.

Did you know that you can get a lot out of Twitter without ever posting? Twitter can be a great resource for news, events and general information.

Here’s a terrific primer on “Twitter 101″ from the makers of Twitter.

Once you become an avid Twitter user, you may find that the functionality at Twitter.com doesn’t give you enough options. For “power twittering,” I would recommend that you use TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a free application that will become a staple in your Twitter diet. They even make a version of TweetDeck for the iPhone. What’s that you say? Don’t have an iPhone? Never fear, if you are a Blackberry user, I would recommend trying UberTwitter. You can even use Twitter using standard text messages via any mobile phone.

When I started talking about RSS, I noticed that folks went into an acronym sleep. For more information on RSS, Social Media, Twitter and a host of other online things, please check out Common Craft. The Common Craft videos break down complicated concepts into easily digestible informational videos.

One of my favorite uses of social media that we did not have a chance to talk about is #SAChat:

We talked a little bit about Facebook too…we packed a lot of info, entertainment, and education in our hour and fifteen. I can’t wait to do it again.

Tags: acpa, aggregation, aggregator, boston university, facebook, Higher Education, John Battaglino, Kenn Elmore, RSS, social media, student affairs, student affairs technology, technology, Teri Bump, Turning Technologies, Tweetdeck, twitter, Ubertwitter

We’re excited to open the digital doors for our upcoming webinar on Leveraging Social Media for Increased Student Engagement. This webinar is an updated version of our last webinar in December on the same topic. The biggest update is the inclusion of a student panel to talk about how they want you to engage them online.

100% of the webinar proceeds go to the Student Blogging Scholarship.

We limit “seating” to allow everyone to engage in the Q&A, so check below for details and to reserve your spot.

Title: Leveraging Social Media for Student Engagement
Date: Wednesday, Mar 3rd 2010
Time: 3-4:15pm EST
RSVP: http://webinar03-03-10.eventbrite.com/

**Sign up before Saturday, Feb 27th and save 25% with code: Early-25 (works for both the webinar ticket and audio/slides)

Slightly hidden, due to a minuscule font size, within the recent ACPA eCommunity email update was an interesting question: “Are You Ready To Mingle?” Intrigued, I read the rest of the “mingle” text:

Are You Ready To Mingle?
Engage in real life social networking at the Boston 2010 Annual Convention. This new and innovative technology enables attendees to simply ‘click to connect’ at the event and then share their online profiles after the event.

With over 4,500 ACPA members expected to attend the Annual Convention in Boston, the MingleStick may provide an interesting means for folks to exchange contact information. Instead of business cards, attendees can use the MingleStick to exchange electronic profiles. This is slightly similar to the iPhone Bump app. I predict that there will be a lot of digital mingling at ACPA.

The MingleStick plugs in via USB to your computer, uploads its data to the MingleStick website and allows you to browse your recent connections. An individual’s profile information is dependent on what they have included in their public MingleStick profile.

I’m co-presenting a session titled “Wise and Connected – Demystifying Social Media for SSAOs and Directors.” I have a feeling that we will end up polling the room to see who is using a MingleStick and whether or not they are including their Facebook and Twitter accounts on their public MingleStick profiles.

What do you think? Will you engage in digital mingling at ACPA via a MingleStick?

Tags: acpa, Boston, facebook, Higher Education, MingleStick, sachat, social networking, student affairs, student affairs technology, technology, twitter