The NACADA Technology Seminar at the NACADA Region 8 Conference resulted in a lot of Twitter activity. As the lead faculty at the technology seminar I was very pleased with the level of professional engagement that occurred on Twitter. Participants used Twitter hashtags (#NACADATech or #NACADAR8) to create a back channel of connectivity. It was inspiring to see so many of the technology seminar participants using their Twitter skills during the conference. Hundreds of NACADA-related tweets were generated!

Here are the top contributors:

#NACADATECH:
@ericstoller (24)
@oakvich (23)
@UOAdvDir (15)
@sally_garner (14)
@laurapasquini (13)
@mavet (7)
@yojpoj (5)
@OSUMary (4)
@tbump (4)
@dmmoos (3)
@OSU_UESP (3)
@stephaniehambli (3)

#NACADAR8:
@ericstoller (25)
@kurtxyst (23)
@cschwenn (15)
@oakvich (15)
@sally_garner (13)
@UOAdvDir (7)
@ReaAdvising (5)
@laurapasquini (3)
@OSU_UESP (3)
@AdvisorLoftis (2)
@BilOregon (2)
@carmenincalgary (2)
@OGPY (2)

PS: Thanks to Julie Meloni for providing me with the NACADA hashtag stats.

Tags: academic advising, hashtag, Higher Education, nacada, NACADA Tech, sachat, seattle, social media, social networking, student affairs, student affairs technology, technology, twitter

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

Like many institutions, my university participates in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to measure programs and activities that enhance student learning and personal development. The purpose of NSSE is to help identify areas to improve the undergraduate experience in and out of the classroom.

The scholarship program that I coordinate hosts a first-year seminar course each fall for the 100 recipients of the award. The course is loosely based on the University 101 model framed by John Gardner when he was at the University of South Carolina. It follows an orientation and transition format and includes community-building activities for our program. We have a large group lecture for one hour each week and students meet in recitation groups of a dozen students for a second hour weekly.

In the NSSE spirit of enhancing the course experience and engaging our students, we try to integrate fun and a bit of technology for student projects. Our latest adventure was digital storytelling. Staff and peer mentors selected random movie genres, and a student from each recitation section drew from the genre options. We shared examples of digital storytelling and creating storyboards. We suggested task assignments such as videographer, actor, writer, and film editing to help the project go more smoothly. We made certain to review campus computer labs for the appropriate editing software in advance and provided this information to students. Finally, we stocked up on sale priced Flip Camcorders and gave this assignment to students:

• Create a media project that embodies the transition to college and your first semester experience.
• Final Project: No longer than 5 minutes and must include a flash mob.

The final productions were screened during our class “Film Festival” complete with popcorn and soda. Students were encouraged to vote for “Best Picture” and create award categories to fit the projects. Winning productions were featured on our student-run cable news channel.

There were a few bumpy roads throughout the ten-week project, but overall the response and student evaluations of the project assured us that students were engaged and most importantly, community was achieved. On an unexpected side note, our first semester grade point average rose to the highest level in five years, with no change in entering student academic profile. Of course we already look forward to repeating the project with our next student cohort.

Check out the final productions and let me know what you think.

Mystery/Thriller

Blair Witch

Western

Romantic Comedy

Action/Adventure

Musical

Crime/Gangster Part I and Part II

Zombie

I got some great feedback on my last blog post on Teaching Twitter to Colleagues.  So I decided to do a quick video follow up!  Assuming that you’ve now got all your colleagues and friends on Twitter, now what?!?  How do you manage all the Tweets and filter out the noise?  Here is a quick five minute video that shows you how I use Twitter everyday to stay connected:

How do you use/manage Twitter to make it work for you?

A common theme I read in last night’s #SAchat was that the resistance that some college staff, administrators, and faculty have in using Twitter.  While those on the chat tonight wouldn’t need a “Higher Tweducation“, I thought I would share some thoughts on to how to get those “curious” to give it a try.  My hope is that you will share this with people who are on the fence about using Twitter to push them to give it a try!

Overall, Twitter can feel like a strange new landscape when you first jump in.  It is not always clear what its professional uses are, or what to post in 140 characters or less. But when you start to think of Twitter as a micro-blog (and not just a forum for the personal minutiae of people’s daily lives), you will find that Twitter is the most powerful professional development tool out there (and it’s free!)

Twitter Basics / Definitions: (You will see examples of these in the sample tweets that follow)

@username: creates a link to that user in your post.
RT: Retweet, to copy someone else’s post in a new update.  It is like “forwarding an email” to someone else.  Give them credit by adding their @username.
#: hashtag, helps to organize your tweets into categories for easier searching.
DM: Direct message, send someone in Twitter a private message instead of Tweet that all can read.

Initial Steps:
1.  Create your Twitter account and fill in all the information, including uploading a picture of yourself, a referencing website (like a department webpage or maybe your Facebook page) and a quick bio about what you do and why you’re on Twitter!  Without this, it is hard to trust whether you are a real person or just a Twitter robot!
2.  Click on the Find People link and begin following people whom you know in real life or want to add to your Twitter stream (celebrities like @Alyssa_Milano and brands like @DunkinDonuts and @SouthwestAir are some great examples).  Remember, when you read your Twitter stream, you’re only seeing Tweets from the people you follow.
3.  In the search bar, type words or phrases that are interesting to you and see who is “tweeting” about those very things, follow them, and introduce yourself!

What Should I Tweet About?
This is all about personality.  You might be a “reader” for a the first few weeks as you glance over Tweets and follow interesting links, or you might decide you want to contribute to the online conversation.  Here are 15 quick ideas on what you could tweet about (think beyond the Facebook “Status Update!”)

1) Ask for recommended books, program/event ideas, or management tools.
Example tweet:  Can anyone share a successful Emerging Leaders schedule of events?  or Does anyone have a Student Employee evaluation that they could share?

2) Thanking the people who respond to you (include their @username)
Example tweet:  Thanks @tomkrieglstein @the_sa_blog @DebraSanborn for another great #sachat
(For new Twitter users, the above tweet is read “Thanks Tom, The SA Blog, and Debra for another great SAChat!”)

3) Ask for help or advice about a professional question.
Example tweet:  Which professional association should I join?

4) Tweet about a useful web resource, a particular blog post, video, website, book, product or service that you find useful
Example tweet:  If you are interested in the most inspirational and educational talks online, visit www.ted.com!

5) Share new studies of interest
Example tweet:  ReyJunco: We still need to run some more analyses; however Twitter use = increased student engagement and higher GPA’s. Are you surprised? #sachat

6) Tweet about your school’s website, blog and/or podcast.
Example tweet:  Check out our new blog focused on Commuter Students http://ow.ly/WHba

7) Invite people to an event (online or offline). Events can include open-house programs,  extracurricular activities, meetings, book clubs, webchat… really anything!
Example tweet:  Join us for #SAChat tonight 6-7p CST!

8 ) Link to photos of projects, places, etc. of things you want to share.
Example tweet:  Photos from last night’s Graduate Commencement are found on our Flickr stream!

9) On Fridays, recommend other tweeters that your followers should check out.
Example tweet:  I recommend following @CindyKane for all your leadership and Student Activities goodness! #FollowFriday

10) Answer someone else’s general question, and reply to those who ask you a direct question.
Example tweet: ATECadvise: @slhealy @edcabellon our Engineering school shares their twitter & FB account amongst advisors. #sachat

11) Schedule to meet fellow Higher Ed folks at a conference, or organize a professional tweet-up in your area.
Example tweet: Anyone interested in a #sachat #tweetup at #acpa in Boston?

12) Ask others for favorites / recommendations… for anything.
Example tweet: What are your favorite IPhone or BB Twitter app?

13) Post requests for people to come and speak at your events.
Example tweet:  Searching for an Ethics Speaker for our Emerging Leaders Conference.  Recommendations?

14) Post and/or search employment postings. If you see someone else looking for a job, retweet their request.
Example tweet:  Any students looking for summer work? Visit the bridgew.edu/studentemployment

15) Ask for something free. If you serve on the planning committee for any type of conference or event and need donations or gifts-in-kind, ask Twitter!
Example tweet:  Looking for sponsors for our ACUI Region 1 Fall Conference.  @ me if you are interested!

These are just some of many ideas to get you started.  What would you tell Higher Education staff, faculty, and administrators who are not giving Twitter a try?

(This is a cross post with the Student Affairs Blog)

On Friday, I went to do a google search for Swift Kick (creators of Red Rover & other items) and came across this Swift-Kick which is Kent State University’s Stark Campus online student portal. I think it hits the nail on the head in terms of creating an online portal that is useful for students but also talks their language. I’ve noticed that Higher Ed as a whole is not good at speaking students’ language and so did they:

SWIFT KICK began life as the first-year and new student outreach program for Kent State University’s Stark Campus, but it has become so much more. This is the cyber-world home of the Student Services team. It is a place that we’ve built because we’ve found that the traditional, preachy sort of communication that is typical of universities and schools just doesn’t resonate with the students. We came to this brilliant conclusion when we stopped looking at the world through the eyes of a Student Services office and started looking at it through the eyes of an actual person.

As luck would have it, most of us are actual people, so it was relatively easy. We reasoned: If we don’t like to listen to the dull, monotonous sounds of a 40-something teacher-type talking about going to class and studying the material, why would anyone else? Therefore we will be using this site and program to talk to you the way we talk to each other – like real people living in a real world filled with all the real world things that can both cause distractions and light a fire under each of us. Have a problem, question or suggestions? You can use this site to contact us as well as eachother. Swift Kick is open 24 / 7!

We hope you realize that each of us have been there and done that. We have all been to school in the modern higher education system. We have all rolled into class late or slept through a lecture. We know what it’s like. The difference is we know how to avoid these things. We have graduated. We can help you graduate, too.

Great job folks. I hope it’s okay if I take some ideas

As millions of college students return to their respective campuses, they come armed with a backpack of technological tools, ready to learn and interact with us. For them, they have their cell phone or smart phone; laptop; Ipod, and their Facebook accounts in their backpack. As Student Affairs professionals, who work and live with these students, what's in our "Techno Backpack?" SA folks need to stay ahead of the technological curve if they want to balance work and personal lives, build their respective SA communities, and connect with their student populations. Here are the top 4 pieces of "technology" I recommend that all of my colleagues in Higher Education get acquainted with, and put in their backpacks:

1. Online Group Meeting Manager
We all know that scheduling "group meetings" take up valuable time and energy, so how can you make this process more efficient? Use an Online Group Meeting Manager like Schedule Once! This is a Google product that allows you to send your available times out to as many people as you want, track their responses and even gives you the best time and day for your meeting!

Similar Sites: WhenIsGood, Meet-O-Matic, Doodle, TimeBridge, and Congregar.

2. Event Invitations
While I still like using Faceook Events to advertise, Anyvite is a relatively new online  tool, that simply rocks. The interface is easy to use and not a bad addition to whatever your office or organization uses right now to send out event or program invitations. Plus, if you use Twitter, it integrates very well with it. Try it with a few of your Fall programs, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Similar sites: Invite43, Pingg, Crush3R and PhoneVite (I think PhoneVite is very cool and would be interested trying it out also, unless someone you know has already used it?)

3. Google Voice
This, by far, is one of my favorite new things in the Technology world. It is a internet phone service that allows you to pick ONE phone number that you can choose to ring your mobile, and/or work, and/or home phones all at the same time! This way, you're not giving out multiple phone numbers, just one! If you are already a Gmail user (which I also recommend for email!), you can import all your contacts into it from Outlook or any other "address book", set up "call" groups, individualized voice mail prompts, etc. For example, if you gave your Google Voice number to your colleagues at work, you can set it up to ring your mobile and work phone so you don't miss their calls. You could also set up a family group so that when any of them called you, it would ring your home and mobile phone. It was released this past June and you need to "sign up" to get an invite at the Google Voice website. Check out this video for more information:

4. Miscellaneous Tech:

Internet Browsers: Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome

If you still happen to use any version of Internet Explorer, please stop using them right now, and download one or both of the above browsers and see what you have been missing! Don't use IE unless you absolutely have to!

Anti-Virus / Malware Program: AVG Anti-Virus (free version, but it worked so well, I bought the full version!)

While I believe that software programs like Norton, Microsoft Forefront, and McAfee are good, the best all around software I've come across is AVG Anti-Virus and AVG Internet Security. Give the free version a try at home and see how it works for you.

PC Optimization Software: PC Pitstop (free version, but it worked so well, I bought the full version!)

Why wait for your IT Support folks to come by to "speed" up your computer? This software will do it for you for free and it works great. The full version gives you a complete tune up, while the free version just does some of the basics.

What do you use that isn't on this list? I'm always interested in finding new pieces of fun technology so please share here! Best wishes to all for a great opening to the Fall Semester!