HOT TOPICS in technology

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HOT TOPICS in technology

• Bowling Green
• State University
• Daniel Miller
• Jeannie Sabaroff
• Jes Takla

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HOT TOPICS

• Institutional Spam
• Blogs
• Web Portals
• Social Networking Sites
• Podcast

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Institutional Spam

• Institutional Spam is the use of mass emailing to
  simply and efficiently communicate with a large
  student body
• The name is derived from Internet Spam or
  Spamming, which is the use of electronic
  messaging systems to send unsolicited commercial
  advertisements and messages that are often
  undesired
• Overuse can cause students to ignore these
  emails, therefore it becomes self-defeating

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Benefits of Institutional Spam

• Efficiently send general advertisements and
  announcements to students, faculty, and staff
• When used ethically, it targets many individuals
  at a cheap cost (Sipior, Ward, Bonner, 2004)
• Saves paper and other fiscal resources
• These savings can be used for other needs of the
  institution
• Ensures that each individual has a direct chance
  of obtaining the information
• Flyers or other modes of indirect communication
  can easily be overlooked

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Drawbacks of Institutional Spam

• The term spam has a negative connotation due to
  commercial internet spam
• Email fatigue can occur easily, causing students
  to block or delete messages without reading them
• Colleges are vulnerable to commercial internet
  spam
• Commercial electronic messaging systems can
  infiltrate or hack into institutional list proc
  servers (Olsen, 2002b)
• Institutional spam can be confused with
  commercial spam
• Over-spamming may discourage use of institutional
  email account (Olsen, 2002b)

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Implications for use of Institutional Spam

• Embedding photos increases visual appeal and
  likelihood of being read (A Picture is Worth
  Even More Spam, 2006)
• When used in combination with other resources,
  such as Web portals
• Can be customized and tailored for individual
  relevance
• Can reduce need for institutional spam by use of
  online calendars and announcements pages (Olsen,
  2002b)
• Internet Accessibility
• On-campus computer labs make email more
  accessible than paper mail, phone messages, and
  public bulletin boards
• Off-campus students may not have access to
  computer/internet, which can limit the
  effectiveness of this type of communication

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Institutional Spam and Students

• May not appeal to all learning/personality types
  (Kolb, 1984 Myers 1980 both as cited in Evans,
  Forney, Guido-DiBrito,1998)
• Should be used to supplement other forms of
  information dissemination
• Targets Millennial students who expect direct
  contact
• Less apt to actively search out announcements
  online
• They expect prompt notification of major events
• Most are accustomed to using technology
• Must address the needs of those who are not
  technologically savvy (Wilson, 2004)

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Blogs

• A blog is a user-generated website where entries
  are made in journal style and is intended for
  general public viewing
• A person who keeps a blog is known as a blogger
• The activity of updating a blog is blogging

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Different Uses of Blogs

• In the classroom as a weekly assignment
• Personal ideas and thoughts (www.livejournal.com)
• Outlet for professors to vent about their
  students ( www.rateyourstudents.blogspot.com)
• Living journal for people to record their
  thoughts of an event (http//www2.tulane.edu/katri
  na)

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Benefits of Blogs

• Students can use their blog as a healthy outlet
  to discuss issues that are relevant to their
  lives
• Academics can blog their ideas and receive
  comments without strict scrutiny
• Another form of technology in the classroom
• Great way to learn about careers through other
  peoples experiences (e.g. http//www.dujardin.blo
  gspot.com)
• Professors and administrators can use blogs to
  keep in touch with former students and colleagues
• Can be used as a recruitment tool

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Issues Surrounding Blogs

• Blogs can be used attack college administrators
• An anonymous blogger verbally attacked the
  president of the State University of New York
  College of Technology at Alfred. An example from
  the blog, Guptas efforts would be laughable if
  they werent so sad. The president later
  resigned (Read, 2006)
• Blogs can be used against people when they are
  applying for jobs, internships, etc.
• Blogs on sites such as IR Rumor Mill
  (www.irrumormill.blogspot.com) can harm searches
  for new employees
• Some academe regard blogs as containing
  illegitimate content. Blogs are not
  peer-reviewed or published

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Blogs as a Recruitment Tool

• One success story is Ball State University
• Twelve Ball State students have been given all
  the equipment they need to chronicle their school
  year through journal entries, photos, audio
  podcasts and video
• Two unique features blogs will be uncensored and
  the feedback mechanism will always be turned on
• Administrators say these aspects are important so
  prospective students get a real look at what
  college life is like, and can ask questions they
  may not feel comfortable asking administrators
• (http//www.bsu.edu/reallife/)
• Companies dedicated to marketing for institutions
  of higher education are now offering free web
  sessions on how to create a successful admissions
  blogs (http//www.omniupdate.com/webcast/onlineeve
  nts.jsp - Lets Get Blogging!)

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Student Development and Blogs

• Chickering and Reissers Seven Vectors of
  Development (1993)
• Managing Emotions
• Blogging can be a form of helping students to
  learn how to manage their emotions. Having a
  steady place to write and reflect on their
  experiences will help them deal with both good
  and toxic emotions
• Blogs are the new journal. As many students
  turn to technology to take notes, communicate,
  etc, they can use blogs as a way to develop their
  emotions and reflect on them

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Student Development cont

• Perrys Theory of Intellectual and Emotional
  Development (1968)
• Using blogs in the classroom can help students
  reflect on their thinking and how it relates to
  that of their classmates
• If a student is a multiplistic thinker, they
  assume that every opinion/thought could be the
  right answer (i.e. anything goes for an answer)
• As students begin to read their peers blogs,
  they may realize that some of their
  opinions/thoughts could possibly not be correct.
  The student who is a multiplistic thinker will
  begin to realize that opinions need to be
  supported with facts. Thus, students will begin
  to develop themselves as intellectual and ethical
  thinkers.

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Suggestions for the Future

• Colleges and universities will begin using blogs
  as an interactive way for future students to see
  what life at their institution is
• Blogs can be used in the classroom as a
  journaling activity
• Students can watch certain blogs of other people
  that interest them professionally (e.g.
  http//www.studentaffairs.com/blogs/)

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Web Portals

• A figurative gateway to other institutional links
  relevant to the individual user
• Often includes an option for course management
  software (Blackboard, Sakai, WebCT)
• Links to the Library for online resources
• Based on search engine sites like Google and
  Yahoo
• Customizable allows one to have own space on any
  computer, creates psychological niche, increases
  use (Kalyanaraman Sundar, 2006)
• Goal is to be daily home page for students,
  faculty, and staff at a university

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Benefits of Web Portals

• University websites can be confusing and
  intricate mazes of information
• A customizable search engine for the
  institutional website
• Routes users to pages directly relevant to them
• Templates for users to create personal Web pages
• Unites physical communities in the virtual world
  (Meyer, 2000)
• Allows students to easily keep in touch with
  peers, faculty, staff, and alumni (Fliegler,
  2006)
• Used for student groups, clubs, learning
  communities, and classes
• Option to include commercial advertisement to
  generate revenue for institution

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Student Services and Web Portals

• Multiple student services available online
  increases students accessibility to and use of
  these resources (Olsen, 2002a)
• One stop shopping, instead of visiting multiple
  offices to take care of personal business
• Updated daily so information is always current
• Student services include
• Web based student advising, online registration,
  online bookstore, chat rooms, online bill pay and
  statements, financial aid, student loans, grades,
  transcripts, parking permits, email, calendar of
  events, and online course management (Olsen,
  2002a)

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Online Course Management Systems

• Providers include
• Blackboard, Sakai, eCollege, Angel, Desire2Learn,
  and Intralearn (Carnevale, 2005)
• Used for online courses and hybrid courses
• Student benefits
• Submit homework digitally, discussion threads and
  class email, prompt one on one feedback from
  professors, monitor grades and progress, never
  loose syllabi or course documents, increased
  access to calendar and assignments, and
  announcements of upcoming events
• Faculty benefits
• Access to grade books online, contact students,
  produce Web pages, academic descriptions of
  enrolled students, reserve equipment and library
  books, automatic grading of online quizzes and
  tests (Profile University of Washington's
  MyUWClass Web Portal, 2002 Keel, 2000)

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Drawbacks of Web Portals

• A system crash can greatly impact campus events
  and classes, and temporarily paralyze institution
• Can be expensive to implement and maintain
• However, open source or community source software
  like uPortal or Sakai are decreasing cost and
  increasing availability (Powell, 2005 Portal to
  Higher Learning, 2003)
• May not appeal to all students, personalities,
  and learning types
• Not all students, faculty, and staff are
  technologically savvy
• Must incorporate training sessions

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Implications for the Future

• Online courses are inevitable and a necessary
  step to increase access (Moskal, Dziuban,
  Upchurch, Hartman, Truman, 2006)
• Technology suits students lifestyles, appeals to
  Millennial students, and increases access to
  institutional resources
• Can help create a strong alumni connection and
  virtual community of scholars
• Requires constant innovation to keep up with the
  latest technology
• Technical support staff on campus to avoid system
  crashes (Powell, 2005).

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Implications for Student Development

• Increase of online courses and electronic
  communication may hinder development along
  certain developmental vectors (Chickering
  Reisser, 1993)
• Development of Mature Interpersonal Relationships
• Interpersonal Competence Skills
• Increasing interactions conducted online removes
  the human element from the classroom
• Students have trouble developing assertiveness,
  emotions management, personal confrontation
  skills, and capacity for teamwork
• Increased access to online information and
  research can potentially augment cognitive
  development (Perry, 1968, as cited in Evans, et
  al., 1998)

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Social Networking Sites

• Social Networking Sites are categories of
  Internet applications to help connect friends,
  business partners, or other individuals together
  using a variety of tools

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Facebook

• Facebook was founded in 2004 by four Harvard
  students
• It is a social networking website that was began
  to specifically target college and university
  students
• The name is based on the paper facebooks that
  many colleges give to incoming students, faculty,
  and staff depicting members of the campus
  community
• As of December 2005-Largest number of registered
  users among college sites (6 million)
• Culture personal profile, exchange public,
  private messages, pictures, groups of friends

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MySpace

• MySpace is a free service that uses the Internet
  for online communication through an interactive
  network
• MySpace is a very active site, and additions and
  new features are being added constantly
• Culture photos, blogs, user profiles, pictures,
  e-mail, messaging, groups, web forums

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Benefits of Social Networking Sites

• Professors and administrators can use these sites
  as a form of communication
• Student organizations can use the sites as a
  means to advertise events and publicize their
  groups
• Professors and administrators can have pages to
  show to students what an acceptable personal
  profile looks like
• Professors and administrators can look at
  students before meeting with them
• Great way to stay in contact with people

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Issues of Social Networking Sites

• Students use these sites to pre-judge roommates
  and peers
• Students post inappropriate photos and
  information about themselves
• Employers can use these profile pages against
  interviewees for jobs
• Internet safety
• A student at the University of Kansas learned the
  consequences of revealing too much information on
  Facebook when she was stalked by a man who
  encountered her class schedule
• Virginia Commonwealth University student Taylor
  Behl was murdered her freshman year by someone
  she met at MySpace.com
• Violation of judicial policies

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Student Development and Social Networking Sites

• Chickering and Reissers Theory of Identity
  Development (1969)
• Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationships
• Using social networking sites takes away the
  physical socializing. This may cause students to
  lack in developing mature interpersonal
  relationships if their communication and
  interactions can be done on the internet.
• Developing Integrity
• Students may be humanizing and personalizing
  their personal values but they may not be
  congruent with what they post as their internet
  profile
• Being able to post everything on the internet may
  not give students the chance to reflect on what
  their actions are really saying about their values

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Suggestions for the future

• Institutions should develop and provide
  information on internet safety to give to
  students
• Facebook and MySpace should be addressed at
  orientations to address what is appropriate by
  that institutions standards
• Student group advisors should communicate what
  these sites are to be used for by the group and
  its members

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Podcasting/Coursecasting

• A podcast enables users to quickly and easily
  download multimedia files, including audio and
  video, for playback on mobile devices including
  iPods and other MP3 players (Bausch Han, 2006,
  p. 1)
• Professors wear a small microphone during the
  lecture that records simultaneously
• A technology firm, or a group of motivated
  students, digitize the recording and make it
  available on the Internet for download

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Benefits of the Podcastin Academia

• Increased reach to Millennial students
• Make-up for lectures missed
• Review for exam
• Students can review information on their time,
  whether it is waiting for the bus or doing
  laundry
• Classes can be more focused on student
  interaction and participation, thus gaining
  attention of different learning styles
• Podcast Lectures appeal to Assimilators, because
  it incorporates abstract conceptualization and
  reflective observation (Kolb, 1983)
• Interactive discussions during class time will
  appeal to Divergers, who prefer discussion
• Allows professor to self-critique
• Non-traditional students have the ability to
  listen to course content on their time

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Benefits of the Podcastin Student Affairs

• Training
• Allows time and place to become less relevant for
  staff development and training
• Serves as reinforcement for instruction and
  application of knowledge throughout the year
• Students are podcasting
• Another way to break into the student culture and
  provide learning and resources where they will
  use it most
• Quick learning curve
• The download and upload might seem tricky at
  first, but once learned is relatively easy
• Institutions will provide training on best
  practices for podcasting

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Drawbacks of Podcasts

• Students no longer need to be in the classroom to
  access learning
• The information is on the Internet, and many
  times not password protected, thus raising a
  privacy issue
• Intellectual property does the podcast and the
  information within belong to the professor or the
  institution?

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Drawbacks for Student Affairs

• Will the staff of generations past buy into the
  new technology?
• Quality Control
• Podcast producers also need to be aware of
  background interference as well as the quality
  of speakers voices, speech patterns,
  intonations, and other sound effects that may
  not be the same as those of a professional
  broadcast (7 Things, 2006, p. 2).
• Proper equipment and training
• Money will always be an issue in student affairs.
  Is funding resources to the development of
  podcasting worth it?

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Student Development and Podcasting

• Chickering and Reissers Seven Vectors of
  Development (1993)
• Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationships
  Development of interpersonal tolerance and
  appreciation of difference and the capacity for
  healthy partners and close friends
• With the advent of podcasting, students will have
  less interaction with their professors and peers,
  thus not allowing for maturation through this
  vector
• Students will have less confrontation with
  diversity, thus inhibiting a major task in
  college development

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Apple iTunes U

• Apple has a free podcast hosting service for
  colleges and universities designed to provide
  access to educational content, including lectures
  and interviews, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Users can download content to their Macs or PCs
  regardless of their location. They can then
  listen to and view content on their Mac or PC or
  transfer that content to their iPod for listening
  or viewing on the go
• iTunes U complements on-line portals, including
  Blackboard, WebCT, and Sakai. Students can access
  iTunes U content from within these systems with
  one click

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Institutions That Make it Work

• Purdue BoilerCast - service available to all
  credit courses held on the West Lafayette campus
  and is capable of recording lectures from over 70
  classrooms on campus with no lead time
• Duke University iPods to all incoming students
• Drexel University hand out iPods to education
  majors
• Stanford University lectures by professors,
  music by students, and play-by-play descriptions
  of football games

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Suggestions for the Future

• Make students listen to podcast before class, and
  then discuss issues during class time
• Transition from lecture to discuss-format
• Lock coursecasts behind a firewall, or in other
  words, protect it from the public so only
  students can listen

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Web References

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpace
• http//www.facebookprofile.com/category/facebook-s
  creenshots/
• http//www.studentaffairs.com/blogs/
• http//www.omniupdate.com/webcast/onlineevents.jsp
  - Lets Get Blogging!.
• http//www.bsu.edu/reallife/
• www.irrumormill.blogspot.com
• www.livejournal.com
• www.rateyourstudents.blogspot.com
• http//www.dujardin.blogspot.com
• http//www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Summer_2006
  /StudentAffairsandPodcasting.html
• http/www.itap.purdue.edu/tlt/BoilerCast/

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References

• Carnevale, D. (2005, October 21). Blackboard
  plans to acquire course-management rival WebCT
  Electronic version. Chronicle of Higher
  Education, A44.
• Chickering, A. W., Reisser, L. (1993).
  Education and Identity. San Francisco
  Jossey-Bass.
• Dutton, Chelsea.Kansan Newspaper, Users abuse
  Facebook, February 10, 2005
• Evans, N. J., Forney, D. S., Guido-DiBrito, F.
  (1998). Student development in college Theory,
  research, and practice. San Francisco
  Jossey-Bass.
• Farrell, E. (2006, September 1). Judging
  roommates by their facebook cover. Chronicle of
  Higher Education, A63.
• Fliegler, C. M. (2006, December). Engaging alumni
  online Electronic version. University Business,
  64-68.
• Goetz, R. (2005, November 18). Do not fear the
  blog. Chronicle of Higher Education, C1.
• Kalyanaraman, S., Sundar, S. S. (2006). The
  psychological appeal of personalized content in
  Web portals Does customization affect attitudes
  and behavior Electronic version? Journal of
  Communication, 56(1), 110-132.
• Keel, K. (2000). Can portals make a difference in
  the work of educators Electronic version? T H E
  Journal, 28(1), 44-46.
• Lang, J. (2007, January 12). Putting the blog on
  hold. Chronicle of Higher Education, C2.
• Lipka, S. (2006, January 27). A blog gives
  professors space to vent about their students.
  Chronicle of Higher Education, A37.
• Mangan, K. (2006, February 3). A blog gives
  students and employees of Tulane U. a place to
  discuss Katrina. Chronicle of Higher Education,
  A33.
• Mesloh, C. (2006, January) Campus Safety
  Magazine. Virtual Fun with Consequences.
• Meyer, R. (2000). It takes a cyber village
  Electronic version. Library Journal, 125(14),
  20-25.
• Moskal, P., Dziuban, C., Upchurch, R., Hartman,
  J., Truman, B. (2006). Assessing online
  learning What one university learned about
  student success, persistence, and satisfaction
  Electronic version. Peer Review, 8(4), 26-29.

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References (continued)

• Olsen, F. (2002a, August 9). The power of portals
  Electronic version. Chronicle of Higher
  Education, A32.
• Olsen, F. (2002b, September, 27). Fed up with
  spam Electronic version. Chronicle of Higher
  Education, A47.
• Perry, W. G. (1968). Intellectual and ethical
  development in the college years A scheme.
  Chicago Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
• A picture is worth even more spam Electronic
  version. (2006, October). Communications of the
  ACM, 49, 10.
• Portal to Higher Learning Electronic version.
  (2003, November 10). InfoWorld, 25, 48.
• Powell, C. (2005, June 24). Course-management
  systems It's a new world Electronic version.
  Chronicle of Higher Education, B40.
• Profile University of Washington's MyUWClass Web
  Portal Electronic version. (2002, September). T
  H E Journal, 30, 34-34.
• Read, B. (2005, 28 October). Lectures on the go.
  Chronicle of Higher Education, A39.
• Read, B. (2006a, January 20). Think before you
  share. Chronicle of Higher Education, A38.
• Read, B. (2006b, September 15). Attack of the
  blog. Chronicle of Higher Education, A35.
• Read, B. (2007, January 26). How to podcast
  campus lectues. Chronicle of Higher Education,
  A32.
• Read, B. Young, J. (2006, August 4). Facebook
  and other social networking sites raises
  questions for administrators. Chronicle of Higher
  Education, A29.
• Tribble, I. (2005, July 8). Bloggers need not
  apply. Chronicle of Higher Education, C3.
• Sipior, J. C., Ward, B. T., Bonner, P. G.
  (2004, June). Should spam be on the menu
  Electronic version? Communications of the ACM,
  47, 59-63.
• Wilson, M. E. (2004). Teaching, learning, and
  millennial students. In M. C. Coomes R. DeBard
  (Eds.), Serving the millennial generation (New
  Directions for Student Services, No. 106, pp.
  59-71). San Francisco Jossey-Bass.
• Wilson, R. (2006, September 22). Whos hot? Whos
  not?. Chronicle of Higher Education, A8.