Computer & Internet

Archive for March, 2010

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

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If you cannot view this poll click here.

And here are the results from the last poll.

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I read a blog post a month ago that I still find myself thinking about almost every day at work.  It’s this post by Peter Weddle, author of Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System.  I haven’t read his book, but may consider picking it up based on the blog.

I’ve strung together a few of Peter’s sentences to create a summary of his article to convince you to click through to the original post:

“Millions of Americans are still convinced that the best way to protect themselves in this stuttering economy is with long hours and never-ending devotion to their job…You have to change both your focus and your priority. You have to shift your focus from your job to your career. And you have to shift your priority from what you do for your employer to what you do for yourself. Here’s what I mean.…Focus on your career. Concentrate on building up the capability, flexibility, utility and visibility of your talent — your DNA of excellence.”

When I read this on February 26, I emailed it to many of my colleagues.  My supervisor immediately responded with, “That is a great article. I also wonder if you feel connected to what the author wrote due to the fact that this philosophy is one that you are already putting into practice?” Have I mentioned how much I love my supervisor lately?

So, read the article.  Let it marinate awhile.  I’ll be back in a few days with a thoughtful post about putting this philosophy into practice.  Could this be the next step to the elusive “work/life balance?”  Contact me if you’ve got something to contribute as well.

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When Lake Superior State University in Michigan announced earlier this year that the phrase “teachable moments” should be banned, it felt like an affront to the student affairs community. It’s a phrase we’ve embraced and made our own to describe the often difficult conversations that we have with students. Anyone can have a moment of educating someone else about facts, or as one submitter to LSSU wrote, “potty-training to politics.” What truly makes a moment teachable is the opportunity not only to educate, but also to be real in the eyes of our students. I think those who suggested the phrase be banned missed the benefit of the human side of teachable moments.

In an amazing feat of acrobatics, two of my student staff members managed to go simultaneously above my head and behind my back last week. When I found out what was going on via a conversation with my supervisor, I was disappointed in the decisions that they made. They violated our staff expectations; they were not honest with me about how they were feeling in regard to a mistake that I made, and in earlier conversation with them, had taken ownership of. I spent much of that morning with my office door shut debating how I wanted to proceed. Playing out a variety of scenarios in my head, I knew that I would not be doing any of us a favor to pretend like the situation had not happened. Later that afternoon when I found both of the staff members in the Community Building, I invited them to talk with me in my office.

As they sat across my desk from me, I asked them about their decision-making processes and to reflect on why they chose the path they did instead of the one that was established for handling these situations. Initially, they backpedaled until I stopped them and presented the information I knew. They admitted their mistake and recognized where they had made poor decisions in their handling the situation. Realistically the conversation could have stopped there, but I took it a step farther.

I candidly admitted to both of them that they had hurt my feelings through their actions. I even used feeling words, which is a huge feat for someone who is more comfortable thinking and processing. I told them how it felt to be on the receiving end of the information, how it felt to disappoint them, how it felt to not be trusted by them to repair the situation. When I finished, they sat quietly looking at me, not reacting.

Before they left my office, I assured them that we would move forward together from here, that this a small bump on a long road — as students, as staff members, as people who are supervised, and –most importantly — as people. In the days that followed, I saw a difference in how these staff members treated me in and out of the office. Instead of just telling me to have a good weekend, they asked if I had weekend plans. When I delivered food for their program on Friday night, they helped carry it in and then thanked me for going to pick it up. I can’t say it’s all traceable to my moment of being human, but that moment certainly didn’t hurt.

Teachable moments are about much more than facts and corrective action; they’re about the opportunity to build a connection and learn together with our students. The phrase may be banned by LSSU, but it’s alive and well in my daily discourse.

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So last night, I logged on to Twitter to return some @ mentions, DM’s and generally see what was going on and apparently, an impromptu #sachat had been going on.  I read a few of the tweets and could tell that there had been some spirited debate centered around the #sachat hashtag and how folks had been using it.  This was very intriguing, so I asked some questions about when folks thought the conversation had started, and all roads lead to this tweet from Eric Stoller on Friday night:

All the subsequent tweets debated the pros and cons of using #sachat for just professional development content only.  Others raised the point that part of that professional development was found in the personal side of the tweets. It even raised questions from some of the newer #sachat folks.  Julie Kirchmeier’s tweet was great in further developing the question:

I support Eric’s thought process in the context of the bigger picture of #sachat.  When you think about how groups build community, they first try to find common ground.  While we all started with Professional Development topics, it has certainly evolved to include all our personal interests and passions.  These conversations have contributed to building our online relationships and added fun to our online conversations.  But, has it helped build our overall #sachat brand of “professional development for Student Affairs professionals”?  If new Twitter users, especially Senior Student Affairs Officers, joined the #sachat conversation and do a search on Twitter for #sachat, what would they see right now?  On Thursday’s, it would be rich with professional conversation around a Student Affairs topic.  Other days, it may include many of the things that we personally talk about.

So, #sachat folks, what are your thoughts on all this?  Is it time to have a hashtag revolution and reframe the way we use #sachat?  Are we simply evolving #sachat’s scope to include it all in the conversation?  Maybe we are simply going through the “Storming” phase of Tuckman’s Group Development Model. How do you define proper hashtag etiquette in Twitter?

Please read the #SAchat Transcript (taken from Friday Night through Saturday Night) to get more insights to the online conversation.  I realize that I wasn’t involved in the entire conversation, so I hope this captured what everyone talked about, and if I missed anything, please comment on it below!

The great thing about all of this is that it can be whatever we want it to be.  I’m curious to hear your thoughts!

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Thanks to everyone who participated in today’s #SAchat focusing on Transitioning Experience Between Student Affairs Functional Areas. Each week, we continue to grow our numbers and today’s chats produced produced record numbers, coming off the ACPA 2010 Convention in Boston, with over 1,500 comments from over 200 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
DAYTIME:
View as webpage
Download as PDF

EVENING:
View as webpage
Download as PDF

Today’s Top Contributors

@The_SA_Blog
@jpkirch
@JeannetteMarie
@JennaMagnuski
@jmayojr
@JGinese23
@reyjunco
@edcabellon
@m1hamilton
@BeccaFick

What an amazing day of #sachats!  For those of who were new and either participated and/or lurked today, what were your overall thoughts?  What about our veteran #sachat-ers, what was the overall feel today like?  To give you some perspective, the afternoon #sachat produced around 1,100 of the 1,500 tweets. It looks like our afternoon chat has really taken off!

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 join our growing Facebook Page, currently over 2,800 and adding new #studentaffairs friends every day!  Thanks for your continued support!

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Things have changed, and there is no going back.

I’ve been going to Student Affairs conferences since 1997, both at the regional and national level.  After not being able to attend any national conferences last year, I found myself at two this past month: the Association of College Unions International’s (ACUI) 90th Annual Conference in New York City and College Student Educators International (ACPA) here in Boston.  Both were fantastic experiences that enabled me to present educational sessions, reconnect with old friends and colleagues, and meet many new ones!

But, this year felt different.   Twitter (among many other technology tools) had broken onto the Student Affairs conference scene.  Each of the conferences I had attended, integrated some form of social media from planning and marketing to announcements and education.  But it was Twitter’s splash that got my attention.  I was excited that these Higher Education Student Affairs conferences were using it “officially” and it made me realize that things had certainly shifted.  Both conferences made attempts to connect with the established (and forming) Twitter communities and did a good job overall.

For any Student Affairs association leaders who are planning future conferences, I have some advice and takeaways:

Advice:

1.  Have a Plan, With Proper Buy-In

Before you make decisions on Social Media usage for your conference (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, FourSquare, Ustream, etc.), decide what and why you want to use it for and that you have buy-in from your executive leadership.  You and your team will need a proper understanding of these tools and how they would accentuate the conference experience for you and your delegates.  Whomever will be sharing the responsibility for managing these tools will have to be proficient in the technology.

You will also need proper buy-in!  In their public addresses, ACUI’s Executive Director, Marsha Herman-Betzen and ACPA’s President, Tom Jackson both mentioned the importance of using social media tools in our Student Affairs work.  Tom took it to the next level by encouraging ACPA delegates to use Twitter throughout the conference by using hashtags #ACPA10 and #SAchat and even praised Eric Stoller for his work in raising Twitter awareness in ACPA.

2.  Tap into your existing Twitter Community

Identify who the “Power Users” are within your association.  These folks will be the ones who will be most active in  supporting your Social Media implementation.  Ask them for feedback and recommendations and include them on your planning teams.  The great thing about these folks is that they don’t necessarily need to be at your conference or planning meetings to help since they can promote your content and provide advice from wherever they are!

3.  Use #Hashtags / Backchannels to Enhance the Educational Experience

If you decide to use Twitter as part of your Social Media plan, make sure to have a proper conference hashtag that all participants can use.  On top of that, encourage your presenters to have their own hashtags as well.  This will create educational backchannels where all those interested in person and online can contribute to the conversations.  This also encourages live participation from conference delegates and creates an online transcript of what folks took away from the educational experience.

4.  Organize a Gathering

Whether it be in an educational round table and/or in a networking social, bring these folks together to meet in person.  At ACPA and ACUI, this was a major highlight for me and added value to my conference experience.  For the most part, I had been Tweeting with these folks for months, so the opportunity to meet was something I didn’t want to miss.  Having “Tweetups” gives these online communities the chance to continue the conversations in person.  Everyone I met at both conferences were fantastic, and “as advertised” (#ACPA10 Photos | #ACUI2010 Photos)

Takeaways:

1.  Student Affairs Professionals Are Behind The Social Media Curve

Consistently at ACUI and ACPA, there was only between an 8% and 10% overall conference participation rate in using Twitter.  While I am not surprised, it has become more evident to me that the Student Affairs profession needs to seriously adopt an educational technology benchmark or standard.  Too many folks are either turning away from emerging technology, don’t use already adopted technology to it’s fullest potential, and/or delegate it all to students, graduate students or new professionals to manage.  It is time for us to look at ways to increase Educational Technology proficiency in our graduate programs, perhaps adding requirements to ensure that our “NextGen” of professionals are ahead of this curve.  We simply cannot continue at this lackluster pace of understanding or the next adaptation of technology will set folks back even further.

2.  Mobile Access and Video Delivery/Production Are Necessary Components

Something that ACUI did very well at their conference was provide an excellent mobile site for their conference attendees.  Based on Seth Hagler’s Social Media Engagement Report for the ACUI 2010 Conference, there were some very cool statistics:

· The entire site had 1,964 total page views between February 21 and March 9, 2010.
· Of these, there were1,415 unique views of all pages.
· The most popular page of the site was the home page, with 593 total views. More telling, however, was 387 unique views of the site.
· The most popular feature of the site was the conference schedule, with a total number of 472 views, 346 of which were unique. Also, this page had an average view time 3:07, high for a mobile site.
· The least popular feature of the site was the delegate list, with only 29 total views.
· The most popular operating system used to access the site was the iPhone, with 391 site visits.
· The Bounce Rate, as addressed in the Conference Blog section, for the mobile site was significantly lower, with a figure of 35.86%, indicating a larger percentage of users visiting more than one page per site visit.

If there is anything we can learn is that mobile technology is growing at a rapid pace, and with more of our attendees on smartphones like Blackberrys and IPhones, this is a value added service that needs to part of your technology landscape.

Also, consider live streaming some of your larger keynotes and featured speakers.  I realize that there will be some “contractual” issues with certain speakers, but it doesn’t hurt to ask if this is an option as you begin to secure these folks.  With travel budgets where they are or falling, providing this “pay per view” alternative would be a very attractive and sought after service.  The first Association to do this will certainly make a huge splash.  Other “video” ideas include: creating a YouTube Channel for each Association, Video Blogs from Association Leadership, and Short Video Clips of people sharing their conference experiences.

@SethHagler Talk about ACUI | @WillisTJ Talks ACUI | @MrsKeegin Talks ACUI

3.  Make sure your Conference Site has Complementary (and Reliable) Wireless Access

This was my one point of frustration, that I don’t fault the respective Conference Planning Teams for.  I’m still trying to wrap my brain around why, in 2010, there wasn’t consistent, reliable, and FREE wireless access at the Conference Hotels.  As a delegate, presenter, and consumer, you want to give me and the hundreds of others using your venue the opportunity to tweet about how wonderful it is to have that type of access.  I understand it is an economics issue, but I hope that by this time next year, it is the norm to have this access.  I encourage the Conference Planning Teams to negotiate something so it’s delegates can enjoy some level of consistent WiFi access, even if I have to pay a little to get it.

What about you? If you attended any of these conferences as well as NASPA, what were your thoughts overall? How can we leverage the success of #SAchat to help shape the future direction of learning at our association conferences?

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Today was a good day.

It started simply enough. I had a scheduled call with a potential new client, and it went well. She was happy with our consultation and at the end booked her initial sessions (4 of them), and indicated a possibility that she might be looking for longer-term coaching.

Getting this new client topped off what was a pretty good week for me in general. During the ACPA conference, which I could not attend, I remained engaged and involved in the many conversations people were having, via Twitter. I found great ideas shared in people’s tweets. I joined some ongoing side banter about a #fakeacpa conference with all sorts of people from all over, many of which are also members of the weekly #sachat community sponsored by the Student Affairs Collaborative Blog.It was fun to stay engaged and be a part of all these conversations.

During my weekly small group coaching session on Sunday, one client at ACPA called in to say he was offered a campus interview at a school he is really interested in. I’d helped him prep for his phone interview before the conference, and it was nice to see him making the kind of progress he’s been working for and envisioning in our talks. I was able to connect with and encourage several candidates who I’ve connected with via Twitter as well.

When I left my secure job at Penn State last November, I took a great leap of faith into the unknown territory of starting my own business. I did it for a lot of different reasons and in my heart I have never felt like it was a mistake. But it was nice to see that after several months of hard work, and of putting myself out there, that the universe was finally coming around to meet me halfway, and maybe in some way, telling me to stay the course.

After lunch, I got the e-mails about my new client’s payment for her sessions, and another one I couldn’t have expected. Her sister was having a job interview today and wanted to get some coaching to be ready. She asked if I could meet via phone with her at 2 pm today. I called her but got her voicemail, so I sent her an encouraging e-mail, in hopes that she would at get it before her interview and at least know I had tried to reach her. She called back shortly thereafter, and we talked for about half an hour before her interview. She later wrote me an e-mail thanking me for the talk and idicating she would like to schedule another meeting about possibly working with me long-term.

All these varied events reaffirmed for me the value in taking leaps of faith, and trusting that when you follow your heart, trust yourself and work hard, that good things will happen. Reading over the e-mail I sent her, I thought how applicable it is in relation to my own situation, as well as those of the many student affairs job seekers who are smack in the middle of their own searches right now, and trying to evaluate possibilities and choose the right next steps in their lives and careers.

I’ve adapted the e-mail below, and hope it will provide some needed encouragement and inspiration to anyone contemplating not only life and career changes, but the leaps of faith required to bring them to life.

Dear Job Seeker:

It looks like you have great experience. If we don’t get a chance to talk 1-on-1, here are some quick thoughts for you….Faith in yourself and your abilities brought you this far in your job search. Whether you are graduating and looking for that first job, or looking to make a step up, down or sideways on the career ladder, in your heart you know there is a reason, and you know it is good. Your work is good and the fact you have so many great examples to show is a testament to that fact. You don’t need to convince yourself you are successful enough to get your next job. You clearly are.

With most employers, experience is not as important as motivation, talent, and fit. You have the first two for sure. You worked hard to get through grad school, or to succeed in your current or last job. When you committed to this search, you had faith in yourself and felt some possibilities would emerge if you trusted yourself enough.

So you made it this far in some processes, and it wasn’t an accident. You took the leap, and so did they. Something must be working, because they invited you to interview. This doesn’t happen usually out of a sense of charity. If you aren’t good, or your style and temperament aren’t a good match, you don’t get invited to the next step.

Well, you got invited. Go in with faith enough to be yourself and if it is meant to be, fate will open the next door. It may be in the way of offering you the job you really want, or it could be in their faith at giving you a shot, even if they go with someone else. Inviting someone to interview for a position is an act of faith. Taking an interview is another one. If your mutual faith is well-founded, it will survive past the interview, and the next door will open when it is time.

Until then, believe in yourself, be yourself, and go kick that interview’s a** three ways from Sunday. Good luck with your search!

Related posts:

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I have another blog post coming up tomorrow, but I just wanted to quickly share with the #SAchat community that we have made a huge splash at ACPA (and NASPA and ACUI actually) this month!  Based on statistics and information from http://wthashtag.com/acpa10:

From March 17^th to March 24^th, using Twitter and the (#ACPA10) hashtag, there were:

* 2,726 tweets
* 305 unique contributors* 389.4 tweets per day (average)
* 36.2% come from “The Top 10″ (listed below)
* 21.9% are retweets (or forwarded / reshared tweets)
* 47.1% are mentions (have other people mentioned in the Tweets)
* 27.5% have multiple hashtags (for example #reslife, #c3, etc.)

The top ten Twitter participants were:

1. @ACPAConvention
2. @ericstoller
3. @JeannetteMarie
4. @EdCabellon
5. @MikeSevery
6. @BeccaFick
7. @JennaMagnuski
8. @LeahWescott
9. @jchan027
10. @clconzen

To read a transcript of all the tweets from the opening session to the closing session, click here.  If you want information, or need source info, visit: http://wthashtag.com/acpa10

Kudos need to be given to Tom Jackson (@ACPAprez, now @tomjackjr) and Eric Stoller (@ericstoller) for their work on pushing the envelope to get social media (Twitter in particular) on the forefront of the Student Affairs radar.  Their efforts has helped changed the way we interact at ACPA!

While most folks were NOT on Twitter during the conference, there were 305 people who were on it, which is a step in the right direction.  Let’s keep the momentum going and encourage all your colleagues to join Twitter and participate in an upcoming #SAchat!

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If you cannot view this poll click here.

And here are the results from the last poll.

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